After having a pretty good time yesterday afternoon with a couple of decent sized fish being caught, I was going to call it the last outing for October. Well, I sat by the screen and slaved away, while peeking out the window once awhile this afternoon. Seeing how sunny and calm it was, the temptation was hard to be fought off. I skipped out at 3:30pm to Garry Point Park, knowing the chance of hooking into some more today was very big.
The shallow bay that was productive yesterday did not produce today. That is one wonderful thing about fishing tidal influenced waters. Water rises and falls daily, the fish are constantly on the move so I need to be on the move too. The tidal difference was also smaller today and spots that were calm yesterday were quite turbulent today. A quick move to a calmer bay yielded the first fish immediately, which was a spotty cutthroat trout. This was my third one of the season and second one from Garry Point Park.
Second fish was the highlight of the day. I moved to the bay where it yielded many pikeminnow during an outing back in August. First retrieve presented a quick flash right before the spinner reached shoreline. I stood stone still, but was jumping up and down inside because the flash was quite big. Second retrieve produced no take, but I could see a fish following right behind it! Third retrieve produced two light tugs right before the spinner reached shoreline again. I failed to strike and saw the flash again. The fish must be wondering if this was a treat or trick, because the little flashy spinning thingy kept moving by! I then moved several feet to my right. Several casts later, again the fish followed right in. This time, it bit the spinner lightly again. I just lifted up the spinning rod and surprised it because it didn't get away this time.
Never have I seen a fish so blatant on a sunny day in the Tidal Fraser River. After some good pulls, I netted the healthy bull trout. It most likely was the same fish during all four attempts because I spent another 30 minutes in the same area with no success.
The day ended with another small bull trout to hand. I finished at 5:30pm. Three hook-ups in just under two hours is not a bad outing after all, considering how close the commute was from my house.
Commercial boats were getting ready around Steveston for tomorrow's 12-hour chum salmon opening (6:00am - 6:00pm), I think that I shall retire the spinning rod for awhile until things settle down after all the netting.
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Topic: Tidal Fraser River, October 28th 2008: Trick or treat? (Read 1751 times)