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  Cascade Fishing Adventures   Fraser River Undercurrents   Newsletter July 17 2010

 

 

  

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


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We wish you all the best in your fishing adventures!!
Marc and Maggie