Well, the 2005 Fraser River pink salmon season has begun.
This afternoon Mark (fishersak) showed up at my house without notifying me because he has been so eager to go fishing.
We headed down to one of the spots along Dyke Road in Richmond.
The south easterly wind made casting slightly more difficult, but not impossible. Upon our arrival, we found both sockeye and pink salmon leaping and finning in the water. We were excited! I didn't have high expectation today, left the cooler at home, didn't plan to retain any fish. The cooler should have been brought.
After about 30 minutes of casting, I was into one fish, but it quickly popped off. Rusty skill after two years of no pink action I guess.
The second fish came soon after that. My friend Vince arrived just when this fish was hooked up, and he quickly grabbed my net and was ready to scoop for me. Several minutes later, a nice looking male was netted. A quick photo shot and the fish went back swimming again.
Both schools of sockeye and pink salmon came in waves today. There were times when nothing was happening, but few minutes later the water would be boiling. One thing that surprised us was the number of tiny nibbles that we had. I suspected that they were actually sockeye bites. Most of these bites were detected but too fast for a hook set.
The next three fish I hooked, I managed to lose them all.
Time for a hook change.
I then managed to bring in a
chrome doe, which was quickly released as well.
By now I had hooked 6, landed 2, the landing ratio was disgusting.
After losing one more fish, I was able to land three more. By the end, I managed to land 5 out of 10, raised the % slightly but still embarrassing.
I'll let Vince and Mark to tell you how many they landed.
Just before I was leaving, Vince managed to hook one fish that almost took the rod out of his hand. I stood behind and watched while Mark stood by with the net. Once the fish got closer, Mark put the rod down and said, "sockeye!". It was indeed a sockeye, a nice one too. It bit the spoon hard, the hook was clearly inside the mouth.
That was probably the highlight of the day. Mark unhooked the fish and released it immediately.
Few things to remember
- You need a tidal sportfishing licence when fishing in the tidal Fraser River.
- You need to purchase a salmon conservation stamp if you intend to keep your pink salmon.
- Daily quota for pink salmon is four fish in tidal Fraser River.
- Daily quota for chinook salmon is four fish in tidal Fraser River, but only one maybe over 50cm.
- You may only keep four salmon (mixed species) in total per day.
- Only a single barbless hook is allowed on the lure.
- You must release any sockeye carefully.
- Pink salmon have large oval spots on their back and tail. Sockeye salmon do not have spots. Chinook salmon have tiny black spots on its back and tail.
- Complete tidal Fraser River salmon regulations can be found on this page.
- Report all fishing violations to DFO Steveston 604-664-9250.
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Topic: Pinking richmond August 27th (Read 3898 times)