There were thousands of fish entering the river at Sandheads this afternoon. They were making their way towards Steveston. I'm not sure if some or most of them turned back, but the fish were very concentrated at the mouth. The commercial trollers were doing well, but the sporties were not getting too many. Most of us were near the "hooter". The schools were so thick that they were banging the down rigger cables. I would hold one cable in my hand just to feel how weird it was. They were shallower at about 40 -70 feet as I think they were getting ready to go upstream. The surface was alive with finners and jumpers. We caught mostly large 7 - 8 lb fish, mostly males and mostly bright. They were suffering from lockjaw for the most part as normally trolling through schools like that I would be getting double, triple, or quad hookups. We only had 2 double headers. It took almost 3 hours to get our 8 fish (much longer than normal). Perhaps the morning is better, but they can taste the fresh water from the Fraser and are ready to go. I won't be able to get out again before the closure on Sept. 19
. It was a sockeye season to remember. Once in a lifetime!
Author
Topic: Fraser River mouth, Sept. 16, 2010 (Read 1103 times)