Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[RalphH]

I checked out some of my long time Fraser River backwaters earlier this weekend and managed to catch a few including one that was perhaps 20 inches or a bit longer. Water was low and a bit murky but it was easy to see my wading boots in water just past my knees. The water was also still cold for the time of year. I took a measurement at about 230pm. It was 44F (6.7C) which should be about the max for the day. A variety of bugs were hatching; a few midges, a fair number of "February reds" the little stick stoneflies and the March brown mayfly. I saw no rises. All the fish were taken on a #6 3xl black flashbugger. You find the dressing here: https://www.fishingwithrod.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=43655.0

A few photos:



the long seams, front and back of the net are 18 inches apart & the tail extends past the back seam. This think but bright fish looks to be a mending kelt. It's good news that it spawned this winter. I caught a similar sized fish at the same spot 2 years ago.



A nice little maiden fish. Also caught a chubby 15 inch silver hen. the hook came loose in the net and she wanted to swim out. I pushed her back hoping to get a photo but I let her go on the third try.

I caught all 3 fish in this run. Challenging wading and I fished both sides as the run is 100 feet + across. I walked about 4 miles that day and covered a lot of water in about 6 hours. I checked on line and my Simms wading boots weigh 2lbs each not including the water. No wonder I feel so tired after stumbling across all those cobblestones, not to mention climbing up and down the riprap.

[Darko]

great post Ralph, thank you for sharing. Once again your fly expertise is shining 

[coastangler]

Thanks for sharing Ralph! great post and good to see those cutties looking so healthy

[clarki]

I don't normally fish the Fraser, but I did last week and caught this unexpected fish. Unexpected because it was a rainbow, and a big one, to boot.


Good numbers of fry scattering as we walked the edges.

[RalphH]

that's a nice rainbow.

this is a big one:



5 weight rod 32 inches - fishing for cutts with a Maria Sculpin, late March  within a couple of miles of the Agassiz Bridge.

[Rodney]

Amazing. What's even more amazing is how ridiculously clear the Fraser is right now.

A few days ago I was wandering around the Fraser estuary (Steveston) and a massive school of juvenile salmon swam right by. There must have been a few thousand fish.

[Paulo]

I'm pretty sure that rainbow is a steelhead. 32", no colour, no discernable spotting and chrome bright. I vote steelhead.

[RalphH]

I'm pretty sure that rainbow is a steelhead. 32", no colour, no discernable spotting and chrome bright. I vote steelhead.

Yes it is but they are the same species; Oncorhynchus mykiss. At least on the Pacific Coast, a steelhead is an anadromous rainbow trout that includes in it's life history a period of feeding in the ocean. In BC any rainbow of 50cm or longer taken from a water that is known to have a population of anadromous rainbow trout is a steelhead by regulation. You can find this on page 80 of the Fishing Regulations synopsis.

Even though the photo doesn't show the fish well, Clarki's fish, if it is 50cm or longer would be a steelhead.

[clarki]

Yes it is but they are the same species; Oncorhynchus mykiss. At least on the Pacific Coast, a steelhead is an anadromous rainbow trout that includes in it's life history a period of feeding in the ocean. In BC any rainbow of 50cm or longer taken from a water that is known to have a population of anadromous rainbow trout is a steelhead by regulation. You can find this on page 80 of the Fishing Regulations synopsis.

Even though the photo doesn't show the fish well, Clarki's fish, if it is 50cm or longer would be a steelhead.

clarki didn’t measure the fish. It was hooked deep, the hook was tricky to remove, and I was anxious to revive him and get him on his way. Estimate him to be 40 cm, plus or minus, but def plus! 😀

Very different looking fish than yours: heavily spotted, red cheeks and lateral line.

[RalphH]

Rainbow vs Steelhead, my point was the difference is statutory. There are rivers on the Pacific coast that have or had significant runs of sera run rainbows that commonly were 3lbs or less. Steelhead 'jacks' weren't unknown - I have seen them on the Squamish system.

In close to 60 years of fishing for trout on the Fraser, I have never caught a rainbow other than a few steelhead. Same story for the Harrison. I can think of 2 from that river, one was about 11 inches and had no adipose fin - clearly a residualized  hatchery fish (common on the V/C). The other was this monstrosity:



which I thought was an escapee from an illegal private pond. When I sent him a picture the regional biologist thought it came out of Eroch Lake. Some other anglers who have been around the same waters as long as me claim to catch 'rainbows' frequently. But are they rainbows? Cutthroat and rainbows can be very hard to differentiate. Or do I sometimes make a similar mistake in reverse? In spawning colors male cutthroat can take  a good rainbow blush on their gill plates and flanks.

My guess is that your fish is more like 18 inches or more. Pretty close to steelhead size.