OUTLOOK
The big focus for all BC residents, fisherman and non-fisherman alike, has been the wildfire and smoke situation. We took a hard look at the weather this week and though the outlook is a little better for both the fire situation and the smoke situation things are still not ideal. We will see a little rain on Saturday but the weather service is not expecting it to be the “deep soaking” rain needed to put out fires. The wind directions will also not solve the smoke problem. It looks as though things will be less smoky in many areas but it will not be gone.
One positive is that it looks like one of the heaviest pockets of rain will hit the Skagit Valley and should at least take the edge off the fire. We will also see some cooler temps across the province that will help the fire fighters keep things from spreading.
On the fishing front things have been way more optimistic. The Fraser is full of sockeye and though commercial fishing has caused dead spots in the river there have been lots of anglers harvesting their limits with relative ease.
Saltwater fishing continues to be good to great. There have been a few tides where anglers have had to work for sockeye but at least when fishing in the morning, things have been awesome. Check out Jason’s report for all the details. Also don’t forget about the chinook. We hosted our annual Vancouver Chinook Classic derby last weekend and though the weather was a little rough the fishing was solid with lots of big fish being weighed in during this catch and release tournament.
Sean braved the smoke up on the Thompson last weekend and had some great trout fishing. He has details in our Thompson report. As for the Skagit it still remains closed but at least when looking at the fire maps it doesn’t appear to have spread too much and as we said the rain might hit this area and dampen the blaze.
We are waiting for the rest of the salmon (coho, chum, chinook) to arrive to start fishing the Fraser tributaries, but we have heard the odd report of early coho and chinook. We have a quick overview this week on when to start looking at the Chilliwack, Harrison, Stave as well as the Squamish for those that are already thinking of fall fishing.
Last, but definitely not least, we have the pleasure to announce that we have a new staff member. Zach Copland has joined the team and we are pumped to bring his knowledge and experience to the sales floor. Zach has worked in the industry for some time and he brings along with him an exciting spread of angling skills. He is an avid saltwater angler and a very experienced fly fisherman and fly tier. You may have seen his posts on Instagram and his videos on YouTube. Zach will be bringing us a number of tying tutorials over the next few months and this week he is starting it off with a great coho pattern for the upcoming season. Check out the Coho Stick bugger in this week’s feature section.
On to the report! http://www.pacificangler.ca/pacific-angler-friday-fishing-report-august-24-2018/
Author
Topic: Pacific Angler Friday Fishing Report: August 24, 2018 (Read 2600 times)