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[BladeKid]

i thought this was a late April fools joke ...  

[hotrod]

Nice fish Rod!
It looked like a cap coho to me! They look exactly like that and are expected to start running over on the cap in three weeks or so! I can't wait for that!


    Hotrod

[Steelhawk]

I agree with Hotrod. Sure look like those early Cap coho. Perhaps their leader of that group has the guidance system slightly tilted & miss their home river by a few miles. 

[fishherron]

Just when you think that you've had it all figured it out, mother nature throws a curve ball and makes you go "Huh?"

I was just getting used to fishing without my Goretex jacket in last few days' gorgeous weather, it all went downhill this morning as I woke up to howling wind and grey sky. Nevertheless, it wasn't going to stop me from heading out this evening because when the Tidal Fraser is hot, you have to take advantage of it before it dies off. It's a big piece of water, fish can come fast but can also disappear fast.

The wind was blowing from the south today, which is not so favourable for fishing along the north shore of South Arm. I decided to pick a spot on the north side of Richmond instead, where I could be somewhat sheltered from the gusts.

I headed out just after flood tide at around 6:30pm. I find that I am more likely to catch something when the outgoing tide coincides with dusk. Water was slightly dirtier than yesterday, but still very reasonably clean. The wind caused chops on the main channel, but I was looking for sheltered spots such as small bays that are formed by rock piles. All the fish have been hooked just several feet from shore, so best to break down the shallow portion into sections and tackle them individually.

I started with the fry pattern once again. I could see salmon fry swimming by my feet in large schools once again. Just minutes after I started casting, I spotted one shiny fish clearing the water just outside my casting distance. Cutthroat trout? I said to myself. Obviously, what else could it be? Another swirls appeared soon after, this time even closer to me.

Just I was getting excited, the rod was tugged hard. I hooked up and felt one head shake after another one at the end of the line. A silver body soon appeared on the surface, followed by a leap before it dashed straight toward me. I stripped the line in as fast as possible without burning my other hand with it. Once I caught up, it went straight toward the shallow mud flat where I wanted to land it. Perfect! I walked over and turned the fish to its side. It was huge! It had to be the biggest cutthroat trout that I've seen or caught down here! After a closer inspection, I was shocked. It was no cutthroat trout at all, it was a coho salmon!



How was this possible? The weather felt like October, but it is April, right? Even though it was a hatchery clipped fish, I watched it swim away since I had not expected to keep any fish in the first place. Beyond excited, I hopped back on the rocks and casted the fly out once again. A big swirl soon appeared in front of me. There were more around! I soon hooked another fish, but the line slacked immediately. The line came back fly-less, the leader must have been damaged during the previous fight.

With another fly tied on, I was back at it again. Although the next thirty minutes produced no action, I was blown away by what I was seeing in front of me. I counted at least seven more rises. Beside a couple of swirls, all were leapers and appeared to be coho salmon. They were just beyond my casting distance, which probably explained why there weren't more hook-ups. I attmpted until it became too dark to even see my own fly.

Once again, the Tidal Fraser has proven that it will always be unpredictable, doesn't matter how much fishing time you have invested on it. What will tomorrow bring?

If you were fishing around Steveston you most likley got visitor blueback,smaller Coho, called them years ago. They may have followed a a bait fish of some kind into the river mouth. This is the time of year that these fish gorge themselfs, and they move fast. At one time a long time ago guys would catch twenty thirty in a day. All over the lower gulf from the Sunshine Coast to Polar Pass and Texada

[coho_killer]

Very nice catch rod bet ya didn't expect that did ya?

                                        CK

[drh]

That second fish,is that a bull or a dolly?I caught one just like it  in the ved about 5 p.m. today.

[Every Day]

Bulls and dolly's are the same fish....
Bulls are from rivers/stream.ocean running fish
Dolly's are from lakes.
Same fish but different names depending on where you catch them.

Been quite a few dolly's around lately.
Got a BIG one 3 days ago on roe. Look around the size of an 8 pound steelhead, so I was guessing about 5-6 pnds as they are much more slender. 

[Rodney]

No. Bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) and dolly varden (Salvelinus malma) are two different species.

The ones that we encounter in the Fraser River and tributaries are bull trout.

I've written about this many times, so I'll just copy and paste a summary that I did recently regarding the differences.

The differences between the two species are pretty inconspicuous that most people (myself included) are unable to identify them correctly after a couple of glances. Lately I've simply been referring all of them as coastal char (when fishing in coastal rivers) whenever people ask what they are.

Even trained individuals make lots of errors in differentiation the two. Take a look at this PDF file.

There are three differences. They differ in total number of branchiostegal rays, total number of anal fin rays and jaw length. They also differ in maximum size but that's not a good identification key, since an old dolly varden can be the same size as a young bull trout.

Page two of this PDF file summarizes the distribution of the two species. Bull trout are more widely distributed and have four different types of life histories. Stream resident (reside and spawn in small streams), fluvial (reside in large rivers, spawn in small streams), lacustrine-adfluvial (reside in lakes, spawn in tributaries), anadromous (migrate into ocean, spawn in streams). The first three life histories are mainly found in Interior BC, where dolly varden do not exist so you can safely assume that they are bull trout when you catch them away from the coast.

The anadromous/coastal populations of bull trout overlap with populations of dolly varden. The relationship between the two has only been studied and more understood in the past couple of decades. Even though there is an overlap in distribution and the two only differ slightly physically, those little differences determine the different types of waters where they inhabit. Bull trout tend to take over deep large runs while dolly varden tend to utilize headwaters/small streams. The two come in contact during their spawning phases and hybridization has been well documented by genetic studies in most drainages (Columbia, Skagit, Fraser, Skeena, Peace, Nass, Stikine, etc) since the late 90s.

Knowing how to tell the differences between the two is not so important for anglers in areas where retention of both species does not exist, we just have to look and appreciate them before releasing. On the other hand, the differences and extent of hybridization become important in management and protection of headwaters.