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[dennyman]

If you don't have time to pick up some waders, bring along some rubber boots.  Sure beats having cold and wet feet as Fall is quickly approaching. 

[minsyoo]

i'm actually trying to buy some but can't find any store that's open that carries them. stupid canadian tire closes too early.

[redtide]

for boots try Army and Navy in langley , downtown or new westminster and also marks workwear house. get waders as they are way better.If you plan on fishing for salmon and steelhead in winter than its best to get the neoprenes waders if you can afford them.

[Rodney]

If you are bringing some extra clothes, make sure you don't leave them visible in your car, or in fact leave anything valuable visible. Unfortunately break-ins happen too often on our favorite fishing river in the Lower Mainland.

[minsyoo]

a neoprene wader has been purchased. 

it feels pretty tight. didn't see any bigger size though. i guess it's time i lose a bit of my beer belly. 


now, one last question before my super exciting and anticipated trip... when i use spinners, do i wanna cast it upstream and retrieve "with" the water? or do i want to cast it down stream and retrieve it up? not sure what's more effective... cuz i figured if i cast it upstream, it'd go down anyways..?

[Fish Assassin]

There is no one correct way to cast spinners. Experiment. What works one day may not the next.

[Rodney]

Like FA has mentioned, it depends on the situation and a lot has to do with personal preference once again.

Personally, I prefer to use spinners for deep slow water where I can run my spinner through the water slowly. If I am fishing a run that has moderate flow, I enjoy casting a spoon across the run and retrieve as it flutters and drifts downstream. This swinging pathway may trigger a coho or chum that is sitting in the tailout to rise and attack the spoon.

[Eagleye]

casting upstream will help to get your lure down deeper but it will also make you more susceptible to snags.  It all depends on the run you are fishing, more specifically the speed of the current and amount of weight you are using (if any).

[minsyoo]

as so many people have been nice enough to answer all my questions, especially under this topic, i feel like i owe this one here.

I have caught my first salmon. 

Man, oh, man it was a wonderful experience.

I woke up at 4:20am this morning to head to Vedder, and be there before sunrise this morning. I got to the end of Lickman Rd. just as it was starting to get lighter (still no sun). i changed into my new neoprene wader, and off I went. I took my younger sister with me, too. I started trying to float fish, but as many people were saying, it was hard to get good control on it with my spin rod, and when I had pulled it in closer to me and looked it under water, it had me going, "If I were a salmon, I would not bite this" lol. So it was time for a new strategy. I felt hurried and rushed because I was literally seeing salmon swimming by my feet. (I wish I could just use a large net, it would get me my daily quota in 10 seconds, lol)

Anyways, I took a scan around to what other people were doing, I saw a lot of fly fishing going on. Then I spotted a guy with what appeared to be a spin rod and he was simply casting spoons. So that's what I did. I used a little gold with orange spoon, and started casting it. I tried casting it upstream, but the current was fast and the water was fairly shallow, so I was getting snagged quite a bit. So I decided I'm just going to cast it right in front of me, and retrieve it a bit faster... BAM. I thought I had gotten snagged on a rock, again, except this time, the bent rod was twitching, like it was getting pulled.

This 57cm Humpie gave such a good fight. May be I just didn't have the technique to bring it in faster, but it was a good fight for me, anyway. I stuck with him, and pulled him back into the net my sister was holding, and this was my first salmon ever caught.

I hooked a few more, but all were foul hooks  I let one go, but most of them, got a way from me, while my spoon came out of the fish and FLEW backwards.

I saw many people catching their quota, and just releasing them, but for me, this was the best fishing experience by far. It'll only get better. 

[colin6101]

I was down fishing the canal today and did quite well too. Caught a bunch of pinks, a wild coho (which was released of course) and a jack spring. I use a spin rod right now for float fishing and don't find it all that hard to control. Just cast out fairly straight across from you and follow the drift with your rod tip. However, I find this does only work if you have a longer rod and cannot be easily accomplished at all with shorter rods (under 9 feet). But don't be discouraged just because a lot of people use baitcasters, us spinning guys can catch fish too. Congrats on the first salmon by the way!

[Brian]

Good to hear.  Now you're hooked and will fish whenever you can.

Salmon are good fishing.  Pinks are okay, but you'll find that coho, springs and chum are more fun to fight.

[koko]

Good to hear.  Now you're hooked and will fish whenever you can.

Salmon are good fishing.  Pinks are okay, but you'll find that coho, springs and chum are more fun to fight.

If you use a 6wt fly rod or a light spinning rod, some of the crome pink fight better than coho, especial the Hatchery Vedder.

[minsyoo]

I definitely WILL fish again and again. haha.

It's good to hear from a fellow spin rod user.

I wonder what category I fall in as I have a 8'6" rod.. hmm.

I will try float fishing again though. Hopefully less snags than spoons and spinners.

[colin6101]

You should be able to manage with that length of rod, just use shorter drifts. It's not necessary to have really long drifts, the idea is just to make it look natural to the fish when it passes over. Although today we seemed to have the best luck on the tail end of a drift when it started to arc towards shore. None of them caught like this were snagged either,  which is what I would expect.

[minsyoo]

thanks colin6101,

i will try float fishing next time i'm out there.

I've heard of people using yarn, roe or spinners, any thoughts on what's effective?