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Author Topic: Tidal Fraser River, Sepember 4th 2011  (Read 3308 times)

Rodney

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Tidal Fraser River, Sepember 4th 2011
« on: September 04, 2011, 03:59:47 PM »

After nailing a couple of nice fish yesterday, Nina decided to return with me this morning with the hope of catching some more, both on our lines and film. We arrived at the same spot at 8:30am but there were already quite a few people along the shoreline. The spots where we wanted to fish were already taken, so we had to settle with a couple of spots that I thought were not too ideal because fish were travelling a bit further away from our casting range. Not to worry, as it is the long weekend after all so this was to be expected. A few fish were caught here and there, but there were not as many fish travelling by today. Lots of families were out and judging by the sounds of cheering and screaming, some were into their first ever salmon. It was a very positive atmosphere as expected in this fishery.

After not yielding much result in two hours, Nina was getting bored. ::) We decided to drop her off back home so I could try for a couple more hours. When I returned, it seemed like all the anglers who were there before had already left and a second shift of anglers had showed up. It's almost like work. ;D I looked down on the rocks, and saw four or five familiar faces right away, all fishing together, including Fish Assassin. ;D We all chatted and fished for awhile. FA managed to bring a male in, with some superb netting job being performed. ;) Other than that, it was pretty quiet until the tide peaked.

One great thing about the pink salmon fishery is definitely the social aspect of it.

Actually what I'm pretty trying to say is, fishing really sucked this morning. Hopefully it'll be different in two hours from now. ;D

ja

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Re: Tidal Fraser River, Sepember 4th 2011
« Reply #1 on: September 04, 2011, 04:20:48 PM »

Also was out around Gilbert Rd. in Richmond at 8:30am.  And, like Rod said, lots of people out already.  Saw only a few risers and they were just at the limit of casting range.  Nothing for about an hour, then again saw a few, not many, risers closer in.  I shifted spots a bit closer to the risers and 10 minutes later, bang, fish on, again actually hooked quite close to shore.   Interesting, another male....no females yet.  This one already had a bit of hump which I found a bit surprising given that it was just coming up the fraser.  Another 40 minutes later, basically no fish seen and no other bites.  I called it a day.  Got this one on a #3 blue fox spinner, no weight...definitely has been producing.  Saw one other caught in the time I was there.
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scouterjames

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Re: Tidal Fraser River, Sepember 4th 2011
« Reply #2 on: September 04, 2011, 06:39:44 PM »

Was out in the Two Bit Bar area today - slept in, got there around 9:30.  One guy fishing in the area, said someone had just gone home with 3.  After a half hour, finally hit the first of the year - small male.  A few mins later, something took my buzz bomb and bent my little trout rod in half... before i could do much, it had spooled off my little reel - managed to tighten the drag up just beforfe it hit the end and the hook came out - guessing a spring????  While reeling in from that attack, another small male decided to accept my diiner invitation. Aanother hour of fishing produced a half dozen fights and one more to the beach.  Not a lot of risers, just a couple each wave of freshies to let us know they were there.  Left by 11:30ish.  All in all a pretty enjoyable morning!
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Fish Assassin

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Re: Tidal Fraser River, Sepember 4th 2011
« Reply #3 on: September 04, 2011, 08:28:27 PM »

Excellent netting job Rod. Thanks again
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Dr. Backlash

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Re: Tidal Fraser River, Sepember 4th 2011
« Reply #4 on: September 04, 2011, 08:46:31 PM »

Thanks for the report Rod.

My wife got her first 2 of the year this afternoon (hooked another 3 on top of that but lost them close to shore), both males, using a pink and yellow 1/4oz lil cleo spoon, and I caught 2 more (1 female and 1 male) both on 1/4oz pink lil cleo's, at high slack tide and shortly thereafter (I also hooked and lost another one on my 3rd cast of the day - tough way to start the day)...what a great day though - can't wait to give it a go again tomorrow.  I love it when the pinks run!
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Steely

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Re: Tidal Fraser River, Sepember 4th 2011
« Reply #5 on: September 04, 2011, 09:05:14 PM »

Fished from 5pm to 8 tonight. I limited out in two hours and my dad added one more to the pile. Hooked to many fish to count, lost way to many, but we do this for the thrill of the fight right ;) Lots of males, two females which will join us for dinner ;D Water was good, about 1-2 feet of vis. Schools were constant, best day I have had so far this season. Good luck ;)
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Rodney

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Re: Tidal Fraser River, Sepember 4th 2011
« Reply #6 on: September 04, 2011, 09:51:54 PM »

Nina and I returned to the river at 5:00pm to catch the evening incoming tide until sunset. The shoreline remained pretty busy, with anxious anglers who just wanted to get into some fish. We could see risers left and right as soon as we got out of the car. It was pretty exciting. The other regulars joined us. For the next 1.5 hours, we sent our lures out repeatedly while they continued finning in front of us. By 6:30pm, more and more fish showed up but nobody was hooking up. It was both exciting and frustrating at the same time.

Eventually, the risers started to come closer to shore. Before we knew it, massive schools of fish could be seen with several feet out from our feet. Suddenly, Nina was into one, but it quickly got off her line. As that was happening, I also hooked and lost one. Meanwhile, the angler beside Nina also connected with one but his line quickly went loose. A few seconds later it tightened up again. Either the fish came off and a second fish bit, or it simply swam toward shore when it was hooked. That fish was landed after a few minutes. Not long after, our friend Vince was into one fish, which he lost quickly. A few casts later, he hooked and lost another one. The bite was definitely on, but the landing ratio was poor. I finally hooked one solidly after all these losses. It was a male that I chose to release tonight.

After 20 minutes of excitement, the bites suddenly stopped as if someone had turned off the switch, while plenty of fish were still moving by in front of us. One has to wonder what factors trigger these bites. We fished until sunset. I managed to miss a couple more bites while Vince landed a very fresh female to end the day. :)

fishseeker

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Re: Tidal Fraser River, Sepember 4th 2011
« Reply #7 on: September 04, 2011, 09:57:41 PM »

Was out a Gary Point today at 10:30 figuring it was about two hours before peak tide.

As the Max tide approached I saw more and more fish jumping which was pretty much the same pattern I observed around New West yesterday.   It was a bit frustrating to see all these fish and yet be getting no bites, same for the two guys next to me.   Eventually they left and told me to stick around for the slack tide because that is when they start getting active.

I have always believed that slack tide is about the worst time to fish so I didn't really believe them but I figured I would stick it out to see if they were proved right.  Sure enough, right on cue I started getting hits as soon as the tide slacked but I had to work hard.  It seemed they were completely ignoring spoons and would only respond to my home made spinners spinners and spin-n-glows  (red, purple, even blue..pink was a dud) .    I had some very impressive fights but they all managed to get off.   One got so panicked that it charged me and beached itself.   I was so surprised that I didn't think to react before it flopped back into the water again and spat out my hook..

...Oh well..that's fishing..lose some win some..it was a blast.  Forgot that pinks could be such hard fighters - they deserved to beat me today :) (..but I will be at em again tomorrow).  I also learned that fish can be caught at slack tide.
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Dennis.t

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Re: Tidal Fraser River, Sepember 4th 2011
« Reply #8 on: September 04, 2011, 10:21:26 PM »

For what its worth...back in the day when the hoes ran as thick as the pinks...it was always on a slack tide when the bite came on.
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gheart008

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Re: Tidal Fraser River, Sepember 4th 2011
« Reply #9 on: September 04, 2011, 11:53:54 PM »

Nina and I returned to the river at 5:00pm to catch the evening incoming tide until sunset. The shoreline remained pretty busy, with anxious anglers who just wanted to get into some fish. We could see risers left and right as soon as we got out of the car. It was pretty exciting. The other regulars joined us. For the next 1.5 hours, we sent our lures out repeatedly while they continued finning in front of us. By 6:30pm, more and more fish showed up but nobody was hooking up. It was both exciting and frustrating at the same time.

Eventually, the risers started to come closer to shore. Before we knew it, massive schools of fish could be seen with several feet out from our feet. Suddenly, Nina was into one, but it quickly got off her line. As that was happening, I also hooked and lost one. Meanwhile, the angler beside Nina also connected with one but his line quickly went loose. A few seconds later it tightened up again. Either the fish came off and a second fish bit, or it simply swam toward shore when it was hooked. That fish was landed after a few minutes. Not long after, our friend Vince was into one fish, which he lost quickly. A few casts later, he hooked and lost another one. The bite was definitely on, but the landing ratio was poor. I finally hooked one solidly after all these losses. It was a male that I chose to release tonight.

After 20 minutes of excitement, the bites suddenly stopped as if someone had turned off the switch, while plenty of fish were still moving by in front of us. One has to wonder what factors trigger these bites. We fished until sunset. I managed to miss a couple more bites while Vince landed a very fresh female to end the day. :)


Ya pretty much the same story over here.  Went in the morning at 7am and saw risers all over the place.  Hooked into one that put up a really crazy fight, so I don't even think it was a pink.  Will never know since it popped off after about a minute of fighting.  No action after that even though they were rising everywhere.  No one else was catching anything either.

Went back in the evening starting around 6pm and saw risers left right and center with many rright close to shore, but all were tight lipped and refused to take anything.  Even with the entire shoreline packed with anglers, only a couple a fish were caught in the 2.5 hours we were there.

Trying to get my dad into his first pink, and it was kinda exciting when he finally hooked into one near the end when it was getting dark, even though it came loose seconds later as he was fumbling with the rod and kept lowering the rod allowing the line to be slack... I don't even think he realized he had a fish on until I started screaming at him "YOU HAVE A FISH ON!! KEEP YOUR ROD TIP UP!!!"  Of course it didn't mean much since I don't think he understood at the time what I was trying to tell him lol.

Oh well, at least it got us fired up to head back out early tomorrow morning even after two days of skunkage!

BTW, water visability looked worse than yesterday for some reason...
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blaydRnr

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Re: Tidal Fraser River, Sepember 4th 2011
« Reply #10 on: September 05, 2011, 12:46:32 AM »


After 20 minutes of excitement, the bites suddenly stopped as if someone had turned off the switch, while plenty of fish were still moving by in front of us. One has to wonder what factors trigger these bites. We fished until sunset. I managed to miss a couple more bites while Vince landed a very fresh female to end the day. :)

as usual i came late, but i managed to hook into 5 and land 2....these pinks almost have shark like tendencies where 1 fish will strike then some how the rest will follow suit and before you know it they get into a feeding frenzy...i find the bucks to be very aggressive so maybe they are the catalyst to what triggers the school to bite.
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fishseeker

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Re: Tidal Fraser River, Sepember 4th 2011
« Reply #11 on: September 05, 2011, 07:49:26 AM »

What is it with these pinks this year?  They are just being so darned picky.   I have fished every day since Friday and seen whole rows of people get nothing even when they are clearly there.

So far, I have only been able to get hookups by throwing everything I have out there.   I can't really know if I have done a little better because I have been using different presentations to everyone else or if I have merely been lucky to get anything at all (..so far I have landed one and lost about six).
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Easywater

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Re: Tidal Fraser River, Sepember 4th 2011
« Reply #12 on: September 05, 2011, 11:23:29 AM »

Had a interesting day yesterday.
Put the boat in the lower river near the Alex Fraser bridge and took a newbie friend out with me.

Had a fish hit my lure right beside the boat on my 2nd cast.
I could see my weight so the rig was about 3 feet under when it hit.
I thought "today is going to be insane with a fish on my 2nd cast" but...

Nothing for a couple of hours so we enjoyed the sunshine taking breaks often.
I landed another fish - a nice clean female with lice on it.

My buddy was getting frustrated watching me catch fish (had a few hookups in between).
He finally hooked a fish but tried to force it and lost it beside the boat.
Hooked up another one 2 casts later and he finally lands his first salmon.

I showed him how to clean the fish and I previously showed him how to filet.
He is all set as he is going to have some family over today and it is going to be bbq city.


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Damien

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Re: Tidal Fraser River, Sepember 4th 2011
« Reply #13 on: September 05, 2011, 12:03:47 PM »

Fished Steveston last night for a couple hours.  Caught just one on a pink 1/4oz blue fox.  Long stretches with no bites.  Threw many different lures at them, including soft soft pastics as I was getting desperate.

Close to sunset I saw a fish boil about 20 feet out from me, I led the cast right in line with him, gave the handle one crank and bang, fish on.  Pretty fun.

Fish seem to be fighting hard this year.... ???
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66TWH

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Re: Tidal Fraser River, Sepember 4th 2011
« Reply #14 on: September 06, 2011, 12:59:11 PM »

Out in the boat just east of Golden Ears bridge following the shoreline Sept. 5th.  Noon till 6. Fished both sides of high tide.
This section was like a freeway for 6 hrs. Constantly running thru or milling about in this area. I threw the tackle box at them but found nothing of consistency as others and myself have maybe experienced in previous years. Water clarity was "ok" .....12" or so, but given the amount of fish you expect to maybe have a bit more action. Did manage 3 fish but worked hard for that time frame. Changed lures often but all liked the blue fox.
Great day to be out on the water non the less but as others have experienced this year, its seems to be a bit tougher to trigger them even when they are thick.
Also had my heart jump a beat when pulling onto beach beside Barnston Ferry landing. Twenty feet in front of me close to shore a 8-9' sturgeon pretty much came totally out of the water.  Too bad my daughter was facing the other way! You dont forget things like that.               
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