British Columbia Fishing Blog

Because we are now entering a critical period of the troubling Interior/Thompson coho salmon return, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has implemented no salmon fishing in various sections of the Fraser River and its tributaries to coincide with their run-time. The Thompson River’s chinook salmon fishery will come to an end on Tuesday (September 16th, see fishery notice), so I decided to make a short trip to the river with my dad, who is visiting for a week. We joined Chris, who was on his way back from BC Senior Summer Games. The outing was brief and the fishing was fast. Within a couple of hours, we were able to land our quota of chinook salmon. As usual, once we caught our limit, we decided to stop fishing as we choose not to unnecessarily/accidentally kill more fish by catching and releasing.

Since encountering the mother load last Saturday, water clarity in the tidal portion of the Fraser River has degraded rapidly because of all the rain that we have had. I made some casts briefly on Monday and Wednesday, with no responses on the other end.

This afternoon I gave myself a head start to the long weekend. Water clarity was worse than earlier in the week. I gave it a go anyway and ended up tangling with this one. It must have very good eye sight.

After a few months of playing with mykiss and clarki, it was time to try something completely different. Armed with my ultralight spinning rod, today I took advantage of the last bit of sunshine that we were getting by taking a brief scouting trip to Garry Point Park in Steveston. Normally this time of the year, the tidal portion of the Fraser River is clear enough for spincasting. The high abundance of northern pikeminnow makes fishing pretty fast at times and there is also a chance of connecting with salmon and trout.

The initial plan was to give it a try before flood tide in the morning, but after gluing to Olympics on TV another night, this was not going to happen. I headed down just after 1:00pm. Tide was already on its way out but there was certainly enough depth for spincasting.

It was discouraging to see that the water clarity has degraded after last week’s heavy rainfall. At just over a foot of visibility, I had to wonder if fish would be able to detect my spinner. That skepticism was quickly erased as a pikeminnow grabbed the spinner hard. It took me by surprise as I was still trying to find a stable rock to stand on. The noodly spinning rod bent wonderfully to take away the tension on the 4lb test line. Fish number one was soon in my hand for a quick photo.

The second and third fish came in the same area where I was casting, but they were smaller. I then switched spot to another bay after I felt the first spot was well fished. At the second location, I quickly hooked up to a fish that did not behave like a pikeminnow. The silvery flash on the surface revealed that it was a healthy coastal cutthroat trout, roughly around 14 inches long. Trout and char are rare during the summer months in the Tidal Fraser River, but they become more abundant in fall when salmon arrive in masses.

After the pleasant by-catch, I moved to another spot where it has been very productive in the past. Upon arrival, I could see a couple of big boils by the rocks, which was very promising. After several casts, I connected with the first fish, which took some robust runs.

Second fish came a couple of casts later. The third one soon followed. After two more, it was apparent that I had hit the mother load of northern pikeminnow. One hour later, I managed to bring 11 fish to shore.

All of the fish landed were between 14 and 20 inches. One cannot complain about 14 northern pikeminnow and 1 coastal cutthroat trout in a few hours of spincasting.

Our third and last day started at 4:00am once again. As soon as we left camp in the dark, we saw lightning bolts striking repeatedly in the direction where we were heading. Knowing how fast interior storms can arrive and leave, we continued and were quite confident that it would not disrupt the fishing plan. We arrived at our spot, only to find the small lightning storm directly above where we wanted to fish. Thankfully the wind blew it away in no time and we were on our way down to the rocks.

The rain made the trek a bit more interesting. It became quite dangerous to climb down what was already a pretty challenging landscape. The rocks were greasy. One wrong step may end the trip early.

The bite was on immediately once again. Within a few casts I was able to connect with several jack chinook salmon as well as a couple of sneaky rainbow trout. One noticeable difference on the bites between these jack salmon and trout is that the jacks seem to take the bait very lightly while trout commit with no hesitation. At times, the float would dip down slowly, which almost seemed like a underwater current or snag, but was in fact a fish. Most of the time I simply lifted the rod up and found a fish at the end of my line. These fish put up an excellent fight on our coho salmon gear. I used a Stryker baitcasting rod that is rated for 8 to 12lb, while Mark used a Sage 2106 coupled with an Islander Steelheader centerpin reel. The only problem that may need to be checked regularly is the cuts on the leader made by their sharp teeth.

Freshly caught jack chinook salmon

By 7:30am, I had caught and cleaned my limit of four fish. Chris arrived as I carried them back to the car so they could stay fresh in the cooler. Once everything was organized, the video camera was pulled out again while I waited the other two to catch their fish. Somehow they decided to play long-lined catch and release again. It was pretty exciting to watch but the audience was getting tired after watching it for an hour. Eventually both were able to land some fish and we were ready to head back to the coast.

Along the way, we stopped by to watch a native fisherman dipnetting for sockeye salmon. His companions informed us that he had caught one so far. He held the net motionlessly in the deep slot where salmon would travel through, which seems like a method that requires even more persistence and patience than angling with a rod and reel.

Tens of thousands of pacific salmon will be making their way through here in the next several weeks

The highway meanders with the Thompson River, making it a very scenic drive on a sunny day

This year’s venture to the Thompson River brought some new exciting findings. Thanks to Chris, we are able to enjoy eating some very fine quality red chinook salmon. Although the number of trout we encountered was no where near previous years’, it was made up by the quality of the dry fly takes in the evenings. It can be an intimidating river, which brings frustration at times, but success will come eventually with some persistence.

The first night sleep was short and rough. It wasn’t because Chris was listening to his radio at midnight. It wasn’t because of the trains that were roaming by a couple of hundred feet away from us. It wasn’t the mosquitoes. It was just too hot and the wind wasn’t able to cool things down.

At 4:00am, I heard cans rattling. I thought that perhaps they were raccoons having a good time, but it was Chris getting his truck ready. He came over and pointed the flash light at my face. “Hey! Ready to go fishing?” Mark and I quickly got ready and we were on our way to find some jack chinook salmon at 4:30am.

The method used is no different to how salmon are being fished on the coastal rivers. The bait of choice procured red roe, drifted under larger float in the 25g range because of the turbulent river current. Jack chinook salmon are males that return to the river a year earlier than others from the same brood year, therefore their size is obviously much smaller. All fish that anglers wish to take have to be under 50cm, so a measuring tape is needed if you wish to keep some fish. With a daily quota of four fish, it can make an outing quite rewarding.

Armed with my video camera, I began filming as Chris and Mark made their first casts. Mark was into the first fish on his second drift. The silver body splashed briefly under the dim light and the leader broke off. Mark thought it was a big adult chinook salmon, but I said he needs to tie up  better leaders because that fish did not look big at all. While Mark was getting ready on the side, Chris also found a fish on his second cast and a fresh silver jack was on the beach in no time.

Once Mark was back into the game, he immediately hooked up and brought in some fish. Seeing that the bite was on, I finally put down the camera to wet a line too. I managed to connect with two, before the bites died down slightly when the sun emerged. We ended the productive morning at 10:00am so we and our catches wouldn’t get too hot.

We then took refuge from the heat by spending a few hours in the coffee house nearby. By 1:00pm, Mark and I were getting itchy feet again. Mark wanted to land a bow since all of his fish had freed themselves. I was determined to catch one in front of the campground after not being able to find a good tug on the nymph from the day before. After flogging the water for a couple of hours, the result once again did not reflect the effort. Defeated, we made our way back to camp. I then realized that I had lost my landing net! A walk back along the same path did not recover it. The disappointment was quickly forgotten when a herd of bighorn sheep visited our camp just before dinner.

Freshly picked apricot for dessert

Another group of flyfishers, making their way to the big T

Indicators of a healthy stream

Seeing that we had some intense surface action from the evening before, we ventured back to the same spot at 6:30pm. As expected, the risers were having a feeding frenzy again. Mark connected with one in no time but it somehow fell off the hook once again. His frustration was further built by hooking the trees on his back casts several times. In the meantime, I missed a light take, but another one soon followed. This bow was not going to get away easily because of its greed.

By dusk, I managed to tempt a few big risers and brought two to shore. Perhaps the timing of the hookset needs to be improved, since the only fish being brought in were the ones that had swallowed the big dry fly.

Mark’s curse was finally lifted when this beauty surrendered itself just before dark. What might be even more accomplishing is the fact that he landed a northern pikeminnow on the dry fly a few casts later.

The catch numbers maybe low, but the experience was very rewarding, which will be put to good use when we fish in the same situation again.

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