Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Early start

Today I got up super early to go midweek pink fishing. I drove out to furry creek to fish the end of the outgoing and into the incoming tide. I started on the fly and had one hit and one hook up. Unfortunately it spat the hook pretty quick.

There were BIG schools of pinks swimming through the area, unfortunately too far to fly cast to from shore. Luckily I took a gear rod too. It didn't take long on the gear and I had a fish to hand using the usual Croc spoon. Got some video on my gopro and released the fish. The excitement was followed by a lul in the action u til the tide started to really come in, then the action picked up.

Today ended with over ten fish hooked (lost count) but only two to hand. For some reason I would get them a little over half way in and then they would spit the hook. I blame it on the fact I was using a gear rod and not on the fly.

Beautiful day out and lots of fun catching those

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Furry Creek

A bit late with this post, but better late than never.

My adventures in fishing took me to a couple new loctions this past weekend. I fished Howe Sound at Furry Creek from the beach on the fly. The target species was pink salmon and I got there rather early in the morning, just as it started getting light out. The ocean was calm and the tide was out. A few fish splashed giving me hope and making me excited and eager to cast my fly into the unkown territory. I waded out into the shallows and stripped some line off my reel in preparation of my first cast. It wasn't long before I got my first strike. Unfortunately for me it didn't result in a hook up but shortly after another strike resulted in a pink salmon trashing on the surface with my pink clouser fly in it's lip. A few brief headshakes and a couple of splashes and the fish came unbuttoned and said goodbye.
Not many fish were being caught on the beach, a few here and there but nothing consistent. My mind wandered to the beautiful scenery around me only to have my attention snapped back by the feeling of weight on the end of my line. I reactively set the hook and the battle was on. My fishing partner did a quick false cast and shot his line out to hopefully connect with others in the passing school... then WHAM.. we now had a double header. After a well fought battle we both got our dime bright fish to hand and snapped some photos.
The rest of the morning resulted in one more brief hook up and a couple of missed strikes. Things died down and we decided to head to the Squamish river, 15 minutes down the highway, to see if there were any fish there.

I had never fished the Squamish river but had heard about how beautiful it was. The tales were not wrong. It is a fantastic river with spectacular views all around. The fishing was a little difficult as the water was high, fast and dirty as well as the difficulty of an increasing wind. We fished it for a while,  saw now risers and only saw a couple of fish caught by other anglers. However, despite the lack of fish in the river, the experience was a positive one. I got to fish a beautiful new river and I will have a  better idea of where to go next time.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Beach fishing

Well yesterday I went out to fish from the beach in West Vancouver in hopes of hooking into some early pink salmon or a coho. I arrived at my destination and put on my waders in the blistering heat. I was instantly over heating but soon I was standing in the nice cool ocean. There were not many risers around but I knew there should be fish in the area. I have been doing a lot of Fly Fishing lately so I opted for a change of pace and went with a spinning rod and a lure to try entice the fish.
The fishing was slow, I saw one other guy catch a pink further down the beach and a couple on the nearby boats.
However, the day was not a total loss. I did manage one pink that put up a quick scrappy fight only to spit the hook right at my feet. I also managed to find a five dollar bill floating along (what are the chances of that?). I instantly had thoughts of all those movies where the character in the movie notices a single bill floating in the ocean along a beach only to look a bit further and find a briefcase full of money washing ashore... no such luck for me but I did pick up the five

Over all a beautiful evening to be out fishing. I think this weekend I will head a little further up the coast to try find greater numbers of money... err .. fish

Monday, July 22, 2013

Summer time heat

The West Kootenay trip was a blast. I caught plenty of beautiful trout in the river and even caught my first ever bass in one of the lakes. Sadly I had return to the busy city.


On a positive note. My return is just in time for salmon season. This week I have been tying flies for the inevitable onslaught of pink salmon that will soon be gracing us with their presence as well as some flies for coho beach fishing. I look forward to trying a few out and hooking into some nice chrome fish.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Kootenay Caddis

Currently I am on a 5 day trip fishing the West Kootenay region of BC. I am staying in Castlegar, right on the Columbia River. At this time of year there is an amazing caddis hatch that goes on in the river and the trout know it. In the evenings the water boils with rising trout and I bounce with excitement and anticipation. I fished the latter half of the day yesterday after a long 7 hour drive. Upon arriving I found the river to be quite high so casting a fly from shore would prove difficult, although not impossible. I unpacked the car and went straight to the river and set up my 6wt fly rod to the sounds of trout slashing at caddis on the surface. The fly rod proved to be frustrating as the fish apparently did not want any of the flies I was trying so I thought I would try   something completly different. Out came the spinning rod with a small silver hammered croc spoon with an orange stripe. Well it didn't take long for these aggressive trout to take a whack at it and I was soon into some fish. Biggest for the day was 20 inches and put up quite the aerial acrobatic display.

Today is another day and we will see where it takes me and my fly rod.