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[Duffs]

Spent yesterday skiing so I thought some dolly/bull fishing on the Squamish would be a good chance to stretch my very stiff legs.  Sadly, there is almost a foot of nasty rain-soaked snow on the road past the powerhouse.  It dumped all day on us adding another 6-8 cm on the existing layer.  I was hoping to get up around 28 km or further where I had some good success for big dollies and even nice rainbows just three weeks ago.  I figure 26 km was our turn-around point.  There are tire wells through the thick snow but if you don't have a high clearance vehicle, don't bother.  I have a lifted Tacoma and the stuff was scratching away and building underneath my vehicle.  Even in 4wd I had to strap on the chains to turn around.  Some brutal pot holes building up too... took out my left-rear all-terrain tire!

Anyone know if the road gets plowed past the powerhouse when conditions get like this?  I back-country ski a lot and its been a while since I've seen the Squamish mainline that socked in.

[dereke]

  Duffs, a far as I know they dont plow it at all during winter. You from Whistler? The hill was retarded yesterday! So much good snow. Im pretty sore as well after alot of hiking. Im going to have to get down to the Squamish at some point in the next week. I have some new toys I need to try out.

[Sandhead]

  Duffs, a far as I know they dont plow it at all during winter. You from Whistler? The hill was retarded yesterday! So much good snow. Im pretty sore as well after alot of hiking. Im going to have to get down to the Squamish at some point in the next week. I have some new toys I need to try out.

Would that have been Sunday night? that was the craziest (traffic wise) i've ever seen the highway

[coryandtrevor]

Thanks for the road update. The Jetta wouldn't be making it down that road. Large dollies eh ? How large ? What about the bows how big ?

I luvz the Squamish.

I think the plowing depends on what kind of work ( or logging ) they are doing up the road. It looked like last time we were there they had to do some slide cleanup as there were a few slides that took out parts of the road.Road was plowed right up to 29 or 30 mile.


CandT

[coryandtrevor]

 

[hotrod]

A couple of weeks back over the Xmas holidays I was into a few fish that were 12-15 lbs. respectfully. They all got a little more pepper this time of year.Didn't get a pic of them though. I should have but got a few nice ones in the 6-8 lbs range!


    Hotrod

[dereke]

  Hey hotrod, how have you found the fishing in January. Last year it was pretty tough fishing in January for me then picked up again in February.

[Pat AV]

Great report and thread guys, I am learning alot about a fishery that interests me greatly. Keep the good info coming please 

[hotrod]

  Hey hotrod, how have you found the fishing in January. Last year it was pretty tough fishing in January for me then picked up again in February.

The fishing has been very good so far, but haven't hooked any steel yet. I know it's early but you know always hopeful for those early ones. I'm quite surprised at the days I've been having seeing that salmon season fish counts were way down.One day me and my cousin found a honey of fish and were into twenty each. I went back a few days later and wasn't nearly into as many.It seems the fish are on the move out and in search of food! Believe it or not but egg patterns were doing nothing but when a flesh pattern was thrown instead they went nuts. I couldn't keep them off.



      Hotrod

[armytruck]

Were you guys fly fishing a flesh pattern? Or were you drift fishing ? Or both 

[Duffs]

Sorry for the late reply to my own thread!

Uh, let's see here... ok, first of all, I'm coming from North Van not Whistler.  It's back country skiing that I do and we had been out on the Coquihalla the day before.  Conditions are quite a bit different out there versus the Howe Sound corridors.  Significant packed snow doesn't even start until several hundred feet above sea level out on the Coq.  That probably explains how surprised I was when I ran into that wall of snow at the Powerhouse Channel the next day.  Anyway, I'm thinking of testing CandT's point about them plowing the road for a slide.  Anyone know how to make one of those? 

Armytruck, on the successful day I mentioned, I was fly fishing the whole time.  Just swinging flesh patterns and Christmas Trees through seams in the deeper trough trenches that you can find along the sides of the river.  Everybody liked the xmas trees, but only the dollies/bulls seemed to go for the flesh patterns.  (I was actually looking for those late coho that showed up in early December.)  Depth was the key.  I had to get it right down to the bottom and do the 3-inch strip through the seam.  The bows were all feisty 16-inchers... lots of leaping and running all over the place.  The dollies/bulls were ranging from 4 - 9 lbs I figure and were a lot of fun as well.  There was actually ice out that day too.  It built out well into the seams' slower waters.  At one particularly good spot there must have been a 10' x 20' shelf almost an inch thick.  Once hooked, the fish all seemed to try and hide under it which I found really interesting.  It basically meant grounding themselves in shallow water that they would otherwise never go near.  After the third fish turned himself into a shim between the ice and gravel, I decided to smash it all and send it downstream.

Last point I should add is that the road past the Powerhouse Channel seems to have some plow history to it.  That is, you can see the banks of plowed snow from previous dumps built up underneath the fresh stuff.  I'm taking this as a hopeful sign that they will plow again soon.  The last couple of days have laid down another 10cm on that road!

[coryandtrevor]

Nice work !

Sounds like a awesome day on the Squish. I have had a few good ones like that with dollies but haven't had too much success with rainbows.

thanks again for the report

 

[hotrod]

Were you guys fly fishing a flesh pattern? Or were you drift fishing ? Or both 

Under a float for me! I found that they took nothing from me unless it was ticking off the bottom. If it was 12-18" off the bottom they were not interested at all. Switched to dragging the bottom and it was "game on"!


   Hotrod

[Coastal]

Hey Hotrod, we don't really need to know those numbers do we?  I know this system isn't a secret but for god's sake man, this is the internet!!  No need to start a gold rush. The Squish is not a secret, but it is also still not the Vedder.

Fishermen, myself included, are far too often guilty of the glory game.  Just too bad that the net lets us broadcast our gloating to thousands.

This is not an intentional flame at all, just a point, if oft repeated, that I felt I had to make.

Now...I'm ducking for cover.

C

[hotrod]

I hear you!
 I normally don't report anything on the net in terms of numbers for this system just for that reason. I've just hadn't had a day like that in a long time and my mouth got away on me!
I suspect those fish will be clearing out pretty quick with the low salmon carcasses this year and will go the way of the eagles.
Thanks for flagging this topic even more. Please next time PM me!



    Hotrod