British Columbia Fishing Blog

I skipped out of the house after 3:00pm to catch the last hour of the incoming tide. Second cast into the day brought this bull trout to shore. This fish tried to grab the spinner really hard at first. I missed the hookset but it greedily came back from the second grab before I ran out of water to retrieve.

A new angler is definitely needed, or I should start catching bigger fish.

Perhaps this…

After releasing this fish, I thought today was going to be jolly dolly day with multiple hook-ups. That obviously didn’t happen for the rest of the afternoon. The most exciting part of the day came around dusk. At one point I was reeling in my spoon really quickly to recast. When the spoon was approaching me near the surface, I saw a big brown shadow behind it. It sped up and went over the spoon from one side, then again from the other side, and repeated two more times before I ran out of water to retrieve. It was obviously an attempt to attack, but I never felt a tap on the rod while it happened. Judging by the size of the head, which expanded when it extended its jaw near the spoon, I would say it was a bull trout that weighs 5lb or more.

Although the Tidal Fraser River looks like a wide canal filled with brown water, there are actually many exciting findings if one chooses to look at it more closely when fishing. When spinning, I like to keep the lure in the water until it absolutely has to come out in the last second. Too often there would be a follower behind the lure. Spincasting is as easy as cast and retrieve, but I’ve found that a sudden change of retrieving speed would trigger a take. If the tension suddenly drops when retrieving a spinner, it indicates that the blade has stopped turning. This happens when it hits bottom, but I find that most of the time it is because the following fish has bumped into the hook or lure. A sudden quick jerk on the lure that takes place once every few seconds would generate the attention of nearby fish. The Tidal Fraser River is a dark environment, it can only be advantageous to use any available movement that a lure can produce.

Bull trout and northern pikeminnow are typically ambushers, which suspend, swim around slowly and attack when a food item swims by. Quite often I observe fish, particular larger ones, emerging near the lure and attack it from the side. This observation can never get old, it feels like the heart always skips a beat or two when it happens. This method of attack also explains why some of the fish are often hooked under the lower jaw or outside the jawline.

No salmon were harmed today.

October 18th

Saturday afternoon’s splendid weather drew me out of the house after completing some work. With only a couple of hours to spare, I decided to head down to Garry Point Park and see if I could tempt a trout or two. The tide was at its lowest, so there wasn’t much expectation for sightings of salmon. My success of salmon fishing at Garry Point Park has been limited over the year. Beside a few coho and chinook jacks and pink salmon, I’ve only seen chum salmon rolling at times. The mouth of the Fraser River is simply too wide so returning fish tend to spread out.

Water clarity had degraded slightly due to rain from earlier in the week, but it was still very favorable for spincasting. In the couple of hours that I had, I managed to miss a solid hit and witnessed two followers to shore. It was rather uneventful but relaxing since expectation was low in the first place.

I managed to take some photographs as usual.

This young swan fed around me most of the time. It was probably one of the swanlings that we encountered back in the summer.

This mink swam across a bay to me and was quite interested in the fishing gear.

Half-submerged logs are perfect hangouts for trout, char and pikeminnows around Garry Point Park.

October 19th

Sunday’s sunshine could not be wasted so I headed back to my usual salmon hunting spot in late morning. The strong flood tide was around 2:00pm so the timing could not be better. I arrived and found Harry, an old timer, fishing with roe. We had a long chat about how the fishing has been since the Tidal Fraser reopened.

I met Harry on a rainy day at the same location in October 1997 while driving around and looking for new fishing spots. I asked what he was fishing for on that day, but he was quite guarded with information, which was very understandable. While chatting, he hooked into a good sized fish that made us running around the bar for awhile. With no one else around to help, I volunteered to net the good sized chinook salmon for him. The day after that, I returned with my spinning rod and lures. He watched with skepticism. It took me no time to connect with a coho or two right away on a 1/4oz Gibbs Croc. The rest of October in 1997 was fantastic, I would race back from UBC in the afternoon to catch the last few bites before dark. During two particular outings, I managed to hook over ten adult and jack coho salmon while roe produced only a few for others. The fishing has been good at times after 1997, but it has never been that good again. These days Harry seems excited when I show up to fish beside his roe rod. Having a spincasting angler beside his bait is a good way to determine if there are fish around. If there are, either one of us would find them. If both techniques do not produce, then it is safe to conclude no fish are coming in.

Unfortunately, no fish indeed came in on this day. Beside one chubby bull trout that I sluggishly shook off my spoon, none of us had a single bite from 10:00am to 3:00pm.

October 22nd

After leaving the spot alone for two days, I was ready for more punishment. The magic coho salmon period has passed, yet none of us have hooked any beside a few jack coho salmon. This afternoon I poked the water with my spinners and spoons right before flood tide. Chum salmon could be seen rolling from time to time, which was really not that unusual considering the in-season Lower Fraser run estimate is now up to 2.1 million fish.

Flood tide went by and no action could be found beside one solid hit that I missed. Once outgoing tide started picking up, some bites appeared. I hooked this bull trout that looked rather underfed. It is rather snake-like. Its partially torn jaw suggested that it had been hooked previously. This type of injury is particularly common on catch and release species.

Just before sunset, I felt a good tug during one retrieve. I missed it and continued reeling. Another tug came shortly, which I also missed. On the third and strongest tug, I set the hook and the fish went for a rather strong run, peeling a good amount of line off the reel. This was no bull trout I thought. Excited, I said, “Coho! Coho!” It continued dashing from side to side, resembling how a coho salmon would behave. The runs ended pretty quickly and it surfaced right away as if it gave up the fight. I took a closer look.

Catch of the day

With ten outings banked, one cutthroat trout, two northern pikeminnow and over a dozen bull trout but no coho landed, I can almost assume that my Tidal Fraser River fall salmon season will end with a big zippo for coho. I say almost only because this weekend’s outings may still bring unpredictable result. After all, it is fishing.

Since some heavy rainfalls are expected in the next several days, I decided that a trip to the Vedder was needed today before the river colours up once again. It is after all, prime time for coho salmon, so I better take full advantage of it before time runs out. This was my second outing to the Vedder this month. Normally I am able to do several outings by mid October, but other priorities have prevented that.

Perhaps I was eager, I actually arrived at our meeting place five minutes earlier than Chris. We made our way through the trails in the dark and reached the wading spot. The water looked awfully swift but Chris assured me that it was wadeable. Being significantly lighter in weight, I am always concerned about wading. There have been times when I found myself lifted off the river bed and floating downstream after following Chris’ wading steps. There were no such problems this morning. We buddy-waded and the depth was only up to our knees. We were ready to fish with many spare minutes before light.

Fishing started out slowly. The float only dipped once every couple dozens of casts, for Chris anyway. I struggled to find a bite for the first hour. Chris broke the ice by landing a good sized jack coho salmon, while making fun of my comical performance yesterday with my jack. This year’s high abundance of jack coho is a positive indication of next year’s coho salmon return.

When my float finally dove, I was ready for the hookset. A good looking chum salmon showed herself on the surface right away. Female chum salmon are much easier to handle. This one was brought in no time. Upon close inspection, it was quite fresh but I decided that it would be released.

Beside a couple more chum salmon hooked by Chris, that was it for the morning in the lower river!

Chris ended his trip at 9:30am as he had other daily duties. I decided to fish for the entire day to benefit the most out of my high fuel expense from Steveston. I ventured to mid river in late morning. Perhaps the brief rise of the river level earlier this week has pushed all the coho salmon up. Water clarity degraded slightly during the day but improved as the afternoon went by. The first couple of spots that I thought would produce were not delivering at all.

I finally reached one of my favorite spots by mid afternoon. It is a long stretch with medium sized boulders, which create a moderately turbulent flow. In the past I have seen fish moving into this run during the day, holding and biting, so I was hopeful. I arrived and found one other angler, who reported slow fishing in the morning but improvement just before my arrival. I could see schools of chum salmon making their way into the run. Within a few casts the float was buried repeatedly. Several hookups produced a big male chum salmon and a rather big silvery fish, possibly coho salmon, which quickly got off after one leap.

The rest of the day was no different to what we experienced in the morning. There were periods of sporadic bites, but also longer unproductive periods. The white spring roe from two weeks ago worked magically when the bite was on. Unlike the lower river, most of the chum salmon that I encountered in mid river were somewhat coloured and undesirable for keeping in my opinion. Almost every drift would resulted in a float burial. By late afternoon, I decided to keep a doe that was even nicer than the one I caught in the morning.

The entire day was dry, which was a pleasant surprise because the weatherman forecasted the opposite.

The highlight of the day was actually not the catch on the end of the line, but the capture on the lenses. I was lucky enough to creep in closely to this young eagle, which was busy feeding on a dead chum salmon. I sat just 10 feet from it for around ten minutes and managed to take plenty of photos and video clips while it dined.

The other bird encounter today was the usual American dipper, which was always around me feeding on leftover roe pieces.

I decided to give it another go this evening for a few hours as the incoming tide was strong due to the full moon. I started at 3:30pm with the usual salmon spinning setup. Chum salmon could be seen rolling at times, but none were interested in the spoon. We were after coho salmon after all. An hour into this absence of bites, Rob showed up for a chat. He then watched me creating the mother of all birdnests on the spinning reel. After untangling, I decided that it was time for the light spinning outfit to come out. The 6lb rating would make bull trout fishing fun, but also sufficient enough for a small coho salmon. After a few casts with the 1/8oz green bladed spinner, I felt a solid take and found a good sized jack coho salmon at the end of the line. Even with the light spinning outfit, it came in with ease after a couple of leaps and runs. I brought it up in the net, wacked the head after seeing the absence of the adipose fin. Rob offered to take a photo for me, I gladly accepted it.

Then the fun began…

Noticing that the fish’s head was covered with blood, I wanted to rinse it and have the photo retaken. I brought the fish to the water and washed the blood off. Suddenly it wiggled and slipped away from my hand. Sensing freedom, it gave itself a good kick to several feet from shore! Panic broke out on shore. I picked up my landing net while the fish swam slowly in circle on the surface. After a few attempts, I managed to push the fish back to shore with the landing net. I then grabbed the fish and it slipped from my hand again! It, again, gave itself another quick dart away from shore! This time, even further away, unreachable with the net. I grabbed the spinning rod and began casting over it, hoping to use the spinner to… ahem, push it back. At this point, Marco came over to see what the heck was hapening. He then grabbed my other spinning rod so both of us were now trying to hook this little fish on the surface while Robj held the landing net, preparing to net in case it swam back to shore. After a few minutes, the unthinkable happened. The fish sank!

“It’ll resurface…”

Yeah right!

The rest of the evening, which was only about 30 minutes long, I managed to hook and release two bull trout.

I had chicken for dinner.

After seeing more bull trout than salmon in the last two outings, it was time to rig up the ultralight spinning rod once again. Rated 1 to 4lb test, it is used frequently between April and August, but packed away in September when salmon arrive. Today’s incoming tide brought out more fishers. I counted five bar rods. None of the rods produced except a couple of bull trout. Salmon were just not coming through in numbers. Perhaps the spot that we have chosen is not ideal, since Albion test fishery has indicated great chum salmon return numbers since a week ago.

At flood tide change, the ultralight rod came out. The first couple of retrieves had a follower close to shore but it never committed. By sunset, I managed to bring two bull trout to shore, so did Mark. Nothing big enough to brag about, but with 4lb test line, they put up a great fight.