Winter Time! Large flies, Large fish...

Winter time, the season I cherish the most for personal fishing! I simply haven't been out due to life, family, commitments etc. So sorry for not keeping up on the posts but this will all change soon, my favorite season has arrived. Yesterday I tied these up, not cause I need more flies, because I'm always into inventing & playing with new patterns... If one didn't then how would many of the popular flies fished today exist? At the end of the day it's just fun to approach fishing from different angles, try new things and challenge one self to sway from the norm! I think this is a great fly style much overlooked; It's durable, has great action in the water, gets you where you need to be and best of all has a little class too! A very well balanced design that I'll pride in fishing. Consider Arctic Fox / Temple Dog Hair wing patterns for your next outing, this stuff is active hair in great lengths when you have the source for it. If you can't find these materials, contact Jack Cook at Steelhead Anglers

Flyfishing for Salmon on Vancouver Island

Many years in the months of Sept & Oct we simply don't have the water to float and access sections of rivers that we fish in winter months, this fall has been different. With good water levels our options are endless and often productive. Guiding on Vancouver Island is great in that there are so many watersheds to choose from depending on how far one wants to venture, but this often leads to a loss in what is currently happening on any certain watershed when rivers are flowing good. Some of the benefits are this spreads the angling pressure thin with many days not encountering another person all day, and if the anglings good what could be better! The benefits become huge when you time the fishing just right but then there are the days when everything seems good but you just can't buy a fish! Pacific Salmon are questionable at the best of times when in our fresh waters and I feel there`s still so much to learn about technics on how to entice these fish to a fly. I find the personalities of our different species of Salmon are extremely defined when in clear waters. Coho and Chinook being the hardest to catch when fresh from the sea. Chum Salmon just seem to eat flies anytime you can find them, Pinks are on and then off the bite but will more often than not take a fly offering. Coho love a stripped fly, usually sparsly tied bait patterns. Chinook just seem impossible most of the time but on occasion get hooked up! Sockeye, well I have yet to see a fresh chrome one take an offering on a Vancouver Island Stream. Once these fish have been in the river for a while then they become more territorial and will bite anything that swims within their range once staging in the upper reaches of a river, but this isn`t the greatest time to target them either!
I often compare this Island fishery to the Famous Skeena region which I know well from my past guiding career. Clarity of the rivers on the island can often be a challenge and there are pro`s and cons to this factor! The downfall to Skeena Country is it`s not unusual to go weeks without good fishing conditions due to dirty rivers, resulting in anglers shuffling to any waters with any clarity to them and sometimes just not fishing at all. In fall months this often results in heavy angling pressure on the fisheries that are fishable which isn`t the greatest experience either. When these Skeena tributaries are in good condition they usually give up good catching and thats the trade off most anglers seem to care about... it`s easier to make excuses about the dirty water than try to come up with why a salmon won`t bite your fly in good water conditions and this discourages many anglers. I`ve witnessed a lot of great flyfishing in Skeena country when the water has a couple feet of visibility, simply swing a large fly and wait for the tug!  The above is somewhat different when targeting Steelhead on the Island as they are quite different from our Pacific Salmon. Our Chrome fresh Salmon are great fighting fish in good numbers, and frankly my uncertainty of this fishery keeps me trying even harder... The Coho in the picture is a great example of why to give it a go, a beautiful world class fish on a fly and no anglers to be seen!

Flash flooding rivers; Dead Low water to deadly high water in 3 hours!

My guest came up from Washington for a couple of days fishing on his first visit to BC. Being a Steelheader for many years his priority was to experience our Steelhead with a possible mix of Salmon. Prior to his visit the forecast was looking very interesting with good rainfall for several days. Rain we needed after 6-7 weeks of Sunshine and the run off drying up in the hills. This season we had some of the greatest run off I've ever experienced late into the summer months for Vancouver Island with good flows reaching into Aug. A typical summer would see the rivers dropping to low levels in mid July! I was excited about the forecast, thinking of happy fish thriving in greater flows after staring at the sun for 6 weeks. Typical of weather predictions though things tend to change as the days progress with the rain often arriving later; in this case driving the heart of the rainfall on the day of fishing rather than in the days past which of course would have given us a perfect dropping river to fish! On the first day, we headed west for Steelhead and we were expecting 50mm of rain. We knew it was going to be wet but the way things were looking it may be our only chance to fish Summer Steelhead in our 2 day adventure! We started fishing a river that was the lowest I've experienced it in 2 years... My client was stunned, there's Steelhead in this! I started him out with a small Steelhead Bee, fishing pocket water as we progressed up the river. I planned on fishing a stretch of river that was accessed by crossing the river, then working upstream for the morning as all the pools fished from the other side. Then at lunch we would cross back and hike to our vehicle. As he cast the Steelhead Bee the fly was getting drenched before it hit the water due to the amount of rainfall occuring! From pool to pool we encountered Steelhead as I payed close attention to the water levels... These fish were hot, taking the fly violently and tearing up the pools. My concern now was getting back across to the roadside before the river was too high to wade. Every time I got to a pool I focused on a rock to gauge the levels as my guest fished but clearly things were rising faster than I could ever imagine! Finally I said, it's time to cross and within a short time following watched the river blow out! I can't say that I have ever watched a river rise that fast while fishing it; we succeeded in hooking 3 awesome wild Summer Steelhead in 3hrs. A rising river isn't so bad to fish after all. The following day we got out on the Saltwater chasing Coho on the beaches before the winds came up, we managed one looker with a boil at the bait pattern before the rollers came in, time to head up the river!! The pic and video above is a result of the river fishing, a nice chrome Coho after many casts at cruising fish migrating up the river. A successful trip overall dodging weather and water conditions to the best of our abilities, every once and a while you get it right!

A Wave of Fish!

Its incredible how in a couple of days everything changes on our waters! For three weeks I have been anticipating the return of Pink Salmon to the Campbell River. With a few fish trickling in over the last three weeks trying to put clients on fish has been a challenge and then in one night, everything changes! It's very typical for these fish to return between the first & second week of July and of course until they truly arrive the word on the river is mixed with ideas, concerns and rumors... One angler has one theory, the other is skeptical and others have in their minds a more scientific idea as to why the fish aren't coming. Some anglers figure their not going to return at all, and then up to the day before the big arrival when you hear of the monster floods two year ago which the hatchery feels has blown out all the eggs and everything's a disaster for this return of fish, the chrome bright Salmon start to flood our waters! We may not get a million fish back to this 3km stretch of river but certainly plenty enough to please beyond expectations most anglers fishing dreams... This video was taken randomly last night after hooking approximately 10 fresh sea bright salmon while enjoying dinner, beverages on the home pool; don't try this at home:)

Pink Salmon On the Beach

 

With tough catching on the Campbell River today, we split the day and made an evening on the beach with hopes of finding salmon there. It was very quiet in the way of fish showing  and the waves were rolling in on us make things slightly more challenging. Oh yes the weeds, Kelp and everything else that the waves were flushing into the water created more challenges but with some persistence we managed to find a salmon willing to play! This fish was a handful ripping off lots of backing on a couple of runs! A fresh Pink Salmon with lots of spunk and a great reward well earned by my client, good job!!

First Pink Salmon 2011

My first Pink Salmon this season came much later than usual... Today while fishing the lower river I found a group of fish and as I cast my fly to them more pushed into the run. The rivers slightly larger than usual for this time of year too making it a bit harder to target these sometimes finicky fish! Fishing my floating line with about 12ft of leader and a weighted fly I fished many a cast before hooking up, as a matter of fact I think I made an hours worth of casting and then a bump! Next cast a flash and then finally after making the 30th last cast I hooked up on a nice Pink Salmon, sea lice still attached to this feisty little chromer! I'm guiding the next 5 days so I'm pleased to finally see a few fish in the Campbell, my home waters that can produce some of the greatest fly-fishing on the planet. in the last week I have also witnessed a few longer slender fish which i assume are Steelhead but haven't had any luck temping them to take a fly which makes me curious? If indeed steelies, these fish are usually quick to pounce on anything that swims in their territory. The big question is will there be another banner return like the last two seasons, we'll soon know!

Fishing Update July 26th / 11

 It's incredible how much anticipation there is regarding our Campbell River Pink Salmon fishery! Calls and e mails from people I don't even know wanting info on whether the fish have arrived yet, what to use, if they can keep some.... The return of our Pink Salmon run is certainly late this season, I personally witnessed my first fish on the 24th. Last year it was the 11th and by the 23rd we had full on action in our home pool till your hearts content and the river was fairly full of fish already! I have a post on this blog from the 23rd of July 2010 including a video for those interested in viewing...

This season I convinced a guest into coming last week instead of next. My opinion was the earlier you can experience the pinks in their return the better, the fish fight better and there are less anglers targeting them...  As a result, my client didn't get to experience any of the Pink Salmon he read about on Vancouver Island! This is the greatest challenge with traveling anglers wanting to angle for migratory fish and really there's no certainty from year to year whens going to be best; many get the old "should have been here last week" or "next week will be perfect!" Water & weather conditions weight heavy on an anglers success on the west coast so hitting the right week for the upcoming season is always a gamble...
One of my great friends & clients for many years now said to me last time we fished that one really needs to come for 2 weeks to have a few good days of fishing for Steelhead or Salmon. This particular friend spends many weeks at our old lodge up north every year and has witnessed group after group coming and going, some with success, others at a total loss and it's rarely related to ones angling skills...

 So far this season everything is later than I have ever experienced for Vancouver Island; I hope this means lots of good fishing ahead! I'm also guessing there will be less estuary fishing this season with all the water in our smaller rivers that usually holds back fish migration till fall months...
I certainly wonder how global warming makes record snow pack, colder weather and as a result very cold water in our rivers unusual to summer months... The recent 5 year weather trend has been good for Salmon & Steelhead on Vancouver Island, I hope it keeps up!