British Columbia Fishing Blog

Today’s outing on a Lower Mainland lake was the best one so far this season. After hooking numerous fish on a brown leech pattern, I rigged up a flyfishing rod with an indicator for my friend Erin who has never flyfished before. After several misses, the indicator took a dip and remained under for a long time. Without being alerted, Erin yanked the rod back and the full bend suggested a much larger fish at the other end. I had to stop Erin from stripping in the line so quickly because the fish was pulling just as hard at the other end. With constant headshakes, this fish remained in the deep as it made its way to the boat.

Its first surfacing had me looking for the landing net frantically. It was easily the biggest cutthroat trout that I have seen from this lake! I leaned over to see where it was. A couple of times it made us hold our breath as it went for the anchor rope. The fly line’s loop connector to the leader was now caught at the rod tip. She had no way to bring the fish to the surface and I was too afraid to grab the line. Finally with some pulling the loop freed itself from the tip and the fish resurfaced. On my third try, I managed to slipped the entire fish into the net.  Not only was it long, it was fat unlike some of the early season fish that we often see. The semi-silvery, heavily spotted body also made it the prettiest specimen I have seen to date.

The Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC produces and stocks a strain of cutthroat trout that are known as Taylor 3N. Even though most Southern Coastal BC lakes’ low nutrient productivity is unable to yield large trout, these ferocious cutthroat trout often grow rapidly by feeding on larger food items such as leeches and sticklebacks. Released as yearlings, their average size can reach 5lb in two to three years. The fishing is especially good at lakes that are stocked with Taylor 3Ns and designated as a catch and release fishery. Look out for these lakes by searching the stocking history and take advantage of the first class fisheries around you.

Can’t catch steelhead but still want to touch them? Then a job at the local hatchery is perfect for you! Today we spent several hours at the Fraser Valley Trout Hatchery in Abbotsford to capture some footages for an upcoming video feature. Operated by the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC, this hatchery does not only produce rainbow trout for lakes but is also responsible for the steelhead brood program of several rivers across the Lower Mainland. Our objective today was to film the cutthroat trout spawning process, but the hatchery staff also demonstrated some steelhead spawning. Here are some photos for a preview.

While the Fraser Valley Trout Hatchery is exclusively operated by paid staffs, there are many community hatcheries in the Lower Mainland that are constantly looking for volunteers to perform spawning, egg sorting, fish feeding and general cleaning duties. For more information, please contact your DFO community advisor and ask him or her to provide you some contacts.

http://www-heb.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/community/contacts/ca_e.htm