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Current Conditions
Summer has been slow in arriving. The longest day of the
year is past us already, and we're still waiting for some
nice summer weather. The early spring weather was not too
bad with some nice weather showing itself, but essentially
since May the weather has not really been that great.
Generally we start seeing better weather starting in July,
so we are all anticipating some sunshine and warm
temperatures.
The odd thing is, the weather we're experiencing is
mosquito weather, particularly during higher Fraser river
water levels. There have been very few mosquitoes around,
and I would rate the "mozzy hazard" as low, even at the
boat launches. Hopefully this will not change!
Speaking of higher Fraser river water levels, the river
has been in pretty good condition. There was no threat of
flooding due to lower snow pack levels in the interior
(some areas approached normal snow pack levels) and this
has kept the river in fishable condition throughout the
"high" water season. Driving through the Fraser canyon
lately, its easy to see there is still a lot of snow on
the tops of the mountains. We've not had much in the way
of decent weather to melt that snow off.
Current river flows are 10% lower than normal and water
temperatures are very close to normal at approximately 15
degrees Celsius.
Sturgeon
This will be a re-cap of the spring season our guests had
with us, with a few pictures of their catches. Overall,
the spring season for sturgeon was good despite some
earlier snowmelt bringing a fair amount of fine debris
down the river. Fishing off the main path of the river
during this time was essential. Fortunately, the sturgeon
still like to eat no matter what the river is doing,
especially in the spring after a long winter.
First up is a couple of Swedish travelers stuck in Toronto
due to car troubles. What to do? Fly across Canada for a
few days and go sturgeon fishing!! This is mid April - a
little on the cool side but the sturgeon were eager!
The lower river provides excellent early season sturgeon
fishing with the bulk of the eulachons spawning in the
area. Eulachons are the preferred diet of spring sturgeon.
Here is what Martyn had to say about his late April trip
on a UK fishing travel website - "What a difference a
parlour full of fresh food makes. millions of
spawning Eulacons (smelts) in the river and the sturgeon
have been biting properly today at last. Rods folding over
in the rest rather than twitchy poor commitments. Lovely
day fishing with 8 good sized fish including two over 100
with biggest around 130lb.
Several fish coughed out smelt spawn and several were
rolling and feeding in very shallow water as they cruised
in mopping up the fresh
larder. Brilliant fun I'll never get tired of this amazing
prehistoric creature. Roll on tomorrow."
That pretty much sums up April sturgeon fishing - it never
gets old!
A good sized fish for Martyn at just 1/2" shy of 9 feet
fork length and approaching 425lbs!
Guide CEJ with another good spring sturgeon that Martyn
just landed - 7'3" and 225lbs.
Returning for another swing at the Fraser river's sturgeon
are "The Four Englishmen Gentlemen" - Tony, Graham, Brian
and Nelson. Out in May of 2009, they decided to try it
again during the same month in 2010. These guys are such a
great group that truly enjoy each other's company on the
water and appreciate the fishing no matter how good or
bad, rain or shine. The guides really enjoyed their
company as well! Everyone managed to get a personal best
on this year's trip! Below are the photos of their
personal bests - I should mention that all the PB's were
accomplished in one day of their six day trip!! Sometimes
the luck of the fish line up just right, as it did on this
day in May!
250 lbs - nice fish!
June offers some decent fishing if the water conditions
permit - high water makes the hunt for sturgeon more
exciting and interesting, however the debris and "frass"
on the surface and in the water column can make fishing
frustrating because you are dodging junk and constantly
cleaning the lines. However, if the water drops just a few
inches, it seems to clean up real nice and make for some
great fishing.
Here's a good sized June sturgeon at 8'2" and 340lbs! Nice
work and landed in a tough spot too!
5 year old Jessica shows off a canyon sturgeon that is
just her size! Good form on the sturgeon handling too!
The next report will update the sturgeon fishery for July
and August - some good times to come!
Salmon
Theres nothing to say about salmon fishing right now. DFO
closed salmon fishing to all recreational anglers until
July 15th to protect early season chinook stocks.
Recreational anglers are not permitted to fish for them,
even on a catch and release basis. The season will open
for recreational anglers on July 15 with a minimum 30 cm
to maximum 77 cm maximum size limit. This can still equate
to a relatively decent sized fish in the mid to high teens
in terms of weight. Beginning July 30 until August 31, the
slot limit is removed and you are allowed to retain one
adult chinook greater than 50cm fork length. I wonder what
is to come September 1 when the late summer chinooks are
still in full swing?
Also of note, not all user groups are off the water. I
understand the constitutional agreement, but don't
understand at what point conservation measures are
enacted, or in this case "relaxed". There seems to be a
lot of "stretch" in it. It just seems out of place that
one group can keep killing chinook of any size during
specified openings, yet anglers can't even participate at
a catch and release level. While I fully support
conservation based measures to save salmon stocks,
allowing one user group to kill several hundred chinooks
to date and keeping another low impact user group off the
river seems out of line. On a catch and release basis, how
many anglers do you really think are going to be out there
burning gas, not to mention the time, to fish for and then
release a chinook? There will be very few anglers
participating, but for those that enjoy the bar fishery
and the family outing it offers, at least we are given the
opportunity. So the question remains, why are anglers
completely off the water? If there is a conservation issue
as we are being told, then everyone should be shut down.
Nothing has or ever will change when it comes to the
policies and management of the Pacific coast fishery.
The salt in the wound is that the river is in great bar
fishing condition as I write this....
The upside is that some very good chinook fishing is on
its way, particularly in August. These chrome red fleshed
chinooks aggressively bite spinning glos and multiple
hookups in a morning are common. They are also great
eating!
Trout
With the cooler weather prevailing this "summer", we are
still experiencing good trout fishing on most lakes in the
interior. Some of the higher lakes might be just starting
to really roll by now! Ruddicks Dam or Onion Lake as it is
also known has been producing some good fishing even
though it is a lower elevation lake. There are trout in
this lake well over 10 lbs and they pull like mooched
chinooks in a Johnstone strait back eddy. The drive is a
little over two hours which allows this lake to be easily
fished for the day, and the lake setting is well nestled
in the Interior Douglas Fir zone and mountain scenery.
Last time up we saw deer and a sow black bear with
two cubs! Chironomids, mayflies and leeches have been very
productive. Big sedges will also provide some exciting
surface action.
An average Onion lake rainbow trout with beautiful
markings
We hope you enjoyed this newsletter! Feel free to forward
it to a friend, and if they would like to receive our
newsletter, just drop us a note at info@BCsturgeon.com
We wish you all the best in your fishing adventures!!
Marc and Maggie
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