IMO, most people are focusing too much on looking for surface activities, worrying about commercial fishery impacts. Instead more emphasis should be placed on what you are using, how you are using it, and why it is not working at the time and location you've chosen.
I don't get to fish during the pink salmon season as often as I would like anymore, but the few times we got out, we have gotten fish pretty much every time except one. This includes the times when no one else was getting anything and no fish could be spotted on the surface. Ten or fifteen years ago I was able to fish everyday in September during odd years, sometimes working through every tide. I feel because of that, I have been able to figure out when and where fish should be travelling through, and go with full confidence that we'll get fish. Even though the run has been downgraded from 15 million to 6 million fish, with 2 million fish still to come from the ocean, that is still a lot of fish to target! More often than not fish are still moving through when they are not showing themselves on the surface. In fact, I've probably caught more fish when they are not showing than when they are.
This morning was a good example of why paying attention is so important. We arrived late at Mastqui Trail Regional Park, at when the tide was almost peaking. The beach directly in front of the parking lot was packed. While the odd fish were caught, it was pretty quiet overall. Just about everyone waded out to their waist, which is probably worst thing you can do when targeting pink salmon since they are shallow travellers. I can understand why fly fishers need to, for more back casting space, but there really is no need to go that far out if you are chucking spoon with a long rod.
We decided to walk further down the river to where there were only one or two more people below us. The odd fish could be seen showing their back around 40 feet from shore, roughly the same distance where most were standing further up. As the fish travelled up, they suddenly had to change path and moved much further out. Most were probably too busy moving and avoiding human obstacles than paying attention to the lures and flies.
We stood on the beach most of the time when we fished. My dad managed to hook four during the two hours and missed quite a few others due to the light takes, they were all caught in that travelling lane. Fish were still showing up and moving out as they went upstream when we had to leave.
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Topic: 2015 Lower Fraser River Pink Salmon Fishery Information & Updates (Read 101697 times)