A good friend of mine, Nikolai, hasn't done much fishing in the past but is interested to try. I've taken him out twice. The first time he caught a large crab while perch fishing, he was excited. The second time, we went out on Buntzen Lake and he managed to land a rainbow trout on a spinner that I made. A few days ago, he phoned me up and said, "I want to try something bigger!"
This morning he came over around 10:00am. We headed over to Berry's Bait and Tackle, to get him a one-day tidal licence and salmon stamp. At the same time, I picked up a 7 feet fast action Shimano spinning rod that he could use. The rod that I am currently using is a slow action Fenwick spinning rod, great for coho and pink salmon in waters where current is absent. It has a great bend when fighting the fish, but pretty useless in faster current rivers. This fast action rod would allow me to spincast in rivers such as the Vedder and Squamish, as well as fish with jigs if necessary.
We arrived at our spot at 11:00am. No one was in sight and no fish were rising. I was not discouraged, there had to be fish.
We started fishing, pretty quiet during the first twenty minutes. The odd pink salmon finned and rolled right in front of us. I missed a couple of taps.
Just when gman arrived to see how we were doing, I started feeling taps during one retrieve. A lot of taps! This fish was lightly biting on my spoon as it approached shoreline. I said to Nikolai, "Here comes a fish... coming... coming... NOW!" I slowed the retrieve some more and the fish finally commited to the lure. The fight was on! Since Nikolai had never seen a salmon on a fishing line before, he was excited! A few rolls the fish came off, it was a teaser to get things going.
During the brief chat with gman, FishOn, TtotheE and his dad arrived, followed by LukeYVR and his friend. I then proceeded to hook four more fish, which all came off.
The bites were very similar to the first fish, aggressive taps during the entire retrieve. I would even stop reeling at some point so the fish would grab the lure hard!
Fishersak and his dad joined us not long after, followed by Chrome Mykiss and his dad.
Finally Nikolai was into a fish! He gently picked the rod up as he thought something was different. The line started to peel off the reel. He was both excited and lost as he didn't know what to do. Fishersak came over to grab the net while I started snapping photos of the fight. I told him to keep the rod high and only reel down when the fish was not pulling.
The excitement ended soon after as the hook popped out. Not to worry, now he's addicted.
I hooked one more fish not long after and landed it, surprisingly. A bright female pink that I decided to keep.
Nikolai was into his second fish while I went up to my car. He said that fish was already at netting distance before it popped off. Too bad...
TtotheE's dad got into a huge male pink at around 1:30pm, so did fishersak's dad.
Barman then showed up to buy some spoons, the last time I saw him was.... two years ago during the last pink salmon season.
He got into two fish right away but both popped off immediately.
The action died off at around 2:30pm when the tide started to go out. We decided to take a break at Tim Horton's. When we returned, TtotheE's dad got into a fish immediately but lost it near shore. That was the last fish we saw today. It was fairly dead until 6:00pm. Perch and his dad, Lucky and his girlfriend showed up as well but I don't think they managed to get into a fish. <edit: Perch informed me that he landed one while his dad lost one
>
Oh ya, Chrome Mykiss killed another male pink today.
Hooked seven today, lost five pinks, landed one pink, and got a friend hooked on fishing now.
Few things to remember
- You need a tidal sportfishing licence when fishing in the tidal Fraser River.
- You need to purchase a salmon conservation stamp if you intend to keep your pink salmon.
- Daily quota for pink salmon is four fish in tidal Fraser River.
- Daily quota for chinook salmon is four fish in tidal Fraser River, but only one maybe over 50cm.
- You may only keep four salmon (mixed species) in total per day.
- Only a single barbless hook is allowed on the lure.
- Bait ban is in effect between September 6th and October 7th
- You must release any sockeye and wild coho carefully.
- Pink salmon have large oval spots on their back and tail. Sockeye salmon do not have spots. Chinook salmon have tiny black spots on its back and tail.
- Complete tidal Fraser River salmon regulations can be found on this page.
- Report all fishing violations to DFO Steveston 604-664-9250.
- Make sure you have a good fillet knife to clean your catch and a cooler with ice to keep your it fresh.
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Topic: Lower Fraser, Richmond September 11th (Read 5256 times)