British Columbia Fishing Blog

January is almost over and fishing has not been too productive for me in 2011. I blame it mostly on a lack of trying. Vancouver has been rainy through this month and being a fair-weather fisherman, the dampness has kept me indoor more than usual.

Yesterday, we took advantage of the mild, overcast weather by visiting a stream in the Lower Mainland to ease the cabin fever. This particular system has a steelhead return, but our goal was to see some winter bull trout because the chance of encountering a steelhead is pretty small compared to the Chilliwack River.

Not only did I catch my first fish of 2011, it turned out to be a fantastic outing. The surroundings elevated the quality of this fishing experience. We could see bald eagles at almost every spot we stopped by and there were even spawning coho salmon still swimming around.

Enjoy the video! You can expect more of these to come in 2011.

As coho salmon season winds down, steelhead begin to show up in most of the Lower Mainland rivers. To catch a steelhead in December is typically an infrequent occurrence. However, this year has provided the best early season steelheading that I have encountered. Lots of people have been taking their time off work or school through the holidays to go in search of early season chrome, and many are being rewarded with fish. One only needs to look to the Fishing Reports section or the FISH PORN threads to see the success being had.

On top of being a good early season, there also seems to be a decent number of hatchery fish being caught. I have found that most early season pushes of fish tend to be wild; that has not been the case this year. Many fishermen are retaining their hatchery fish and heading home early.



The earliest I had caught a winter run steelhead until this year was January 3rd in 2008. Already, I have been blessed with 3 fish to hand. Each of those fish has come in very different situations. The first fish was landed soon after first light on my first cast. The 9lb wild doe had not seen any offerings before mine.



My second fish came in the middle of the day in a run that likely hadn’t been fished. The water was gin clear and low, but that didn’t stop him from hammering my bait in only a few feet of water. It was a small hatchery buck that was retained. While gutting the fish I noticed its stomach was loaded with salmon eggs that had drifted down river.



My third fish came from a popular run that had been pounded all day. I arrived shortly after Noon and was last in line as me and three friends fished through the run. I decided to fish in tight to shore in the shallow water as I had noticed my friends had been fishing further out. I was rewarded with a clean 6lb wild doe.



The key to early season steelheading is to cover water. However with many or few fish there are in the river, you will always increase your odds by covering water. Steelhead are aggressive fish, so if they are there they will typically bite on the first few casts you put in front of them. Secondly, don’t be afraid to fish shallow and close to shore, especially if the water has colour to it.

Normally I tell people not to burn themselves out early season by trying for the odd steelhead that is in the river, but this year is an exception. Get out there while the fishin’ is hot!

As summer winds to an end, the camping supplies and trout rods get packed away until next spring, and the drift gear gets dusted off from being stored away since last steelhead season. Salmon season is almost here and it is time to get ready.

Often I start the season off overly eager to get into one of my favourite game fish, coho. This means getting to the river well before sunrise, at a time of year when there aren’t many fish in the river yet. Still, when you start a day with this it is hard to complain about not catching fish.



During September my days on the river are mainly trips to scout out the river to see how it has changed since last season. However, getting the chance to hook a couple springs helps get me back into the swing of things. Sometimes it takes a few take-downs to get your “hook-set reflex” back, and it’s better to miss a few Springs than a few coho.



October is one of my favourite months of the year. The air gets a little cooler and the day is a little shorter,



The trees change colour,



and on top of all that, the Coho start to show up in decent numbers.



October is the time to put the hours in stalking coho,



because they are there,



and often willing to bite.



The nice thing about coho fishing is that a great day isn’t just one or two fish; it’s much more than that.







If you’re lucky enough to get a hatchery marked fish you can likely retain it, depending on the regulations.



These aren’t the only reasons I love coho fishing; the fact that they will attack nearly anything when “the bite” is on is another factor. This can include spoons,



and flies.



The other reason that I love coho fishing, is the opportunity to catch other species, like bull trout,



which can often be plentiful when you find them.



There are also cutthroat trout.



If you are lucky, resident rainbow trout are also around.



Of course, there is likely to be a few chum salmon mixed in with the coho.



When November rolls around the weather gets even colder, as the snowline creeps down the mountains.



Most of the leaves have fallen from the trees,



but this doesn’t mean that coho season is over. There are still plenty to be caught.



Although some might begin to get a little coloured,



there are still clean fish around.



As we near the end of November I have started to gear down my efforts for coho. They are beginning to spawn and it is best to leave them to it.



It’s time to turn my focus onto steelhead….

With coho salmon season slowly coming to an end, it is time to switch gear and target species. Fishing in Vancouver does not end when the weather gets cold, it happens throughout the year.

Most salmon either have spawned or ready to spawn in their natal streams. This brings out another group of fish – Trout and char. They congregate behind spawners and wait for opportunities to feed on their eggs when deposited. The death of spawners also bring out scavenging animals and birds.





Yesterday, Nina and I decided to spend the day chasing these egg feeders. Most of these fish are between 1 and 4lb, so a baitcasting setup would seem like an overkill. The alternative is to fly fish for them, but we decided to try something different. We used a long light spinning rod to float fish for them. Normally spinning outfits can be a pain to use for float fishing in rivers because you constantly need to feed line to the current. Our fishing location was tiny side channels with minimal flow, so this was not an issue for us.

The terminal setup is fairly simple. A small float is fixed to the main line and around 5 to 7 grams of weight is added to balance it. The leader is of course not too long, to avoid accidentally foul hooking any spawning salmon that we may come across. Just above the hook, a trout bead is threaded on. This simple presentation aims to imitate single eggs that drift down from redds.





It did not take very long for us to connect with fish once they were located in a channel. The float dipped repeatedly with many misses, but we managed to bring in a few bull trout.





If you have packed up your salmon gear and are wondering what you can fish for now, definitely give this style of fishing a try. Even though this is primarily a catch and release fishery, it gives you a chance to appreciate the late fall beauty of our coastal salmon streams.

Last night, I had to attend the Upper Fraser Valley Sport Fishing Advisory Committee fall meeting in Chilliwack, so it only made sense to make a half-day fishing trip out of it. The Sport Fishing Advisory Committee is made up of representatives from the industry and community groups. Each year, two meetings are hosted with DFO to review the past salmon season such as issues and improvements. As a website owner, I feel that there is a need for me to be at these meetings so I have participated in this since 2005.

This year’s coho salmon fishing in the Lower Mainland has been spectacular. Although I have had my fair share of catches, none of the fish have been retainable because they were all wild. I must say that I envy those who have been lucky enough to catch their limits of hatchery-marked coho salmon and I am not embarrassed to admit it. Feeling the urgency of keeping a fish or two for eating, I kept returning for more failures. Last Thursday, I managed to hook seven beautiful coho salmon but only landed three of them, which were all wild.

From what others have reported, it seems like the fishing is winding down on the Vedder. Because the river rose a couple of feet late last week, it was likely most of the fresher fish had moved to the upper sections of the river. I decided to focus my effort in mid river yesterday.

Starting my outing around Noon, I met up with a couple others who had already been on the flow since first light. My friend Shane reported very little success in the lower river but some improvements at a spot in mid river. I arrived to find him with a coho jack on the river bank.

Because they had been fishing the spot for quite awhile, I suggested that we walk to a spot slightly further upstream where I have caught fish in the past. We walked up and found a prime piece of water unoccupied. It looked extremely fishy so I wasted no time to float a piece of roe through it.

There were a couple of misses first, which I thought were snags. I shortened the float depth slightly, put on a fresh piece of roe. With one cast, the float dove just after it started drifting. A coho salmon exploded on the surface once I set the hook. I guided it into the shallow bay but struggled to beach it for awhile once I saw the absence of the adipose fin. The 10lb or so doe was eventually slid onto the bank and I finally have a hatchery marked coho salmon in the bag.



The fishing only got better. Once I bled my catch and resumed fishing, I proceeded to hook another one on the next cast. It was another big coho salmon, but the hook popped out this time within seconds. The others also connected with their shares of adult coho salmon, but they all came off the hook.There were also chum salmon in the pool and a few also liked our roe. These were of course carefully released after each brief battle.







We spent about two hours at the first spot until the fishing gradually died off. With a couple more jacks landed by Itosh, there were no other coho salmon caught so it was time to make a move.

Our second and last spot of the day was flowing slightly faster, so it was difficult to say if we would encounter any fish. We fished along the shallows, hoping to connect with coho salmon that might move through.There were indeed coho. It did not take long for me to hook one, but it was the wrong colour. It is not unusual to come across fish that are much coloured in November.



The action did not end there. I had the float depth set at 2ft and the bites kept on coming. The next fish was much better, a silver wild coho that was around 4 or 5lb.



With a few more adult coho and jacks landed, we walked back to our cars with full satisfaction in darkness at 5:00pm. This is a peaceful time to be fishing on the Vedder, with the odd nice fish mixed in between. This was the most enjoyable trip for me so far this season.