Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => Fishing Reports => Members' Fishing Reports => Topic started by: flyrod on December 19, 2009, 05:02:52 PM
-
Fished today for the first time in quite a while. It was a great day. Didn't get out until 10:30 am and fished until 4:00 pm Fished the runs across from Lickman on the Yarrow side. Nothing. Tried Jigs but to no avail. The water is in great shape. Went over to Peach on the Sardis side and fished the runs up stream. Some nice water. Saw a couple of clean chums leaping into the air. Touched nothing.
Heard of some chrome coho seen down at the train bridge. No fish weighed in at Fred's. There was a report of a nice dolly taken up river on the fly. Quite a few anglers on the flow enjoying the day.
Lots of eagles around too. Sure gorgeous to watch. I laugh when I read these Alaskan and remote lodges in BC marketing that if you come to their place you will see eagles. We are blessed with an abundance around here to enjoy....and for free.
Looking forward to a great season this year.
-
Thanks for the report. I'm going out tomorrow to see what I can find. Fish or no fish, still sounds like you had a good day out there.
-
Yes is was a great day out there... water in prime shape, a little color below Allison and crystal clear up top... no steel for me but a nice wild Coho in decent shape got the blood pumping!
-
Got to the River after 2pm and within the first hour had a hatchery to the beach, and another hit later on...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v604/BigFisher/Picture183.jpg)
-
Got to the River after 2pm and within the first hour had a hatchery to the beach, and another hit later on...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v604/BigFisher/Picture183.jpg)
Nice rainbow. ;D ;D ;D
-
Is that a rainbow?
-
Is that a rainbow?
Yes residualized rainbow... get quite a few steelheadin.
Biggest last year was about 4 pounds.
-
Nice rainbow. ;D ;D ;D
The heavily spotted back is a dead give away and resident rainbows tend to be a bit darker in appearance.
-
rainbow/steelhead... no diffence unless there's a barrier downstream and/or it never smolts. These fish can smolt at any time throughout their life. They can even be progeny of resident fish and smolt.
-
Yeah, I still wonder what triggers smolting of a rainbow trout.
-
what kind of float were you using
-
I believe that the reason why o.mykiss smolt to go to the ocean is due to genetics :D
The behavior is passed down the gene pool
-
was out on sat and the water was in good shape and it was great to be out again,i managed to hit one steelhead of around 7lbs and my buddy landed a chum that was in decent shape,this was my first time out for steel this december and there have been some positive changes to the vedder that are just screeming to be fished.
-
Now this thread brings up an interesting question. On a river system, for example, the Thompson, where you might just encounter a +50 cm rainbow how would you determine if it was a Steelhead or not?? I believe the regulations do not describe a tangible difference between ocean going and river bound so I guess we may as well just consider anything less than 50 cm a rainbow and larger than that a Steelhead? Sound right? On the Thompson you wouldn't keep any +50 cm fish anyways but it would be interesting to know if you can tell the difference. My son recently caught a small Steelhead on the Thompson that had all the typical Steelhead markings (you know, silver, few spots, etc) but because of it's size I was almost conviced it was a large rainbow. Just didn't have the markings of a resident fish. It can be confusing...... ??? :-\ Anyone out there got any thoughts on this?
-
nervo, you should be able to tell right away. also the tail. keep your eyes on the tail and the spots on the back. rainbows tend to have alot more spots then steelheads, the color on the rainbows should be darker, while steelheads have a blueish back
-
2 things I have found with rainbows...
Residualized rainbows ALMOST ALWAYS have white tipped fins, and I've never seen a Steely with those (anal fin especially, see pic of resident rainbow below and Bigfishers pic). They have a more football shape, with lots of spots and also spots below the lateral line.
I have seen river rainbows as chrome or chromer than Steelhead, and sometimes they are the same colour, this is not a good thing to judge it on IMO.
My buddy also got a rainbow this year in the Veder - about 5 pounds - that looked like a summer steely except for white tipped fins (rosy cheeks and all).
(http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/qq336/EveryDay_fishing/February%202009/IMG_0253.jpg)
Squirrel you say the thing that triggers a rainbows to smolt is genetics.. this is true, but I think you mis understood the question.
Why do some fish stay in the river 3 or 4 years before going out to the ocean?
Why do some stay in the Vedder until they are 5-6 pounds (have gotten a few in the past few years).
One other question that people might find interesting.
The last few years I have noticed a HUGE increase in the number of resident rainbows, has anyone else noticed this?
I wonder if this is a good thing, maybe meaning the river has enough nutrients to support a population without them having to go to the ocean for food?
-
Thanks for the input. I noticed that indeed the fish in question did have some white tipped fins. This seems to confirm my suspicions that this was actually a resident fish. Squirrel had mentioned the colour and spots on a resident fish but I also have seen plenty of local fish that were mint silver. I have never, however, noticed the white tipped fins before. I'll keep my eyes peeled on future catches. On the note about resident rainbows in the Vedder, I haven't so much as caught a rainbow while either coho or steelhead fishing for a few years. Have most of your catch come from a particular stretch of river. The Tamahi area seemed to have quite a few residents. I fish a lot of bait so I expect I should be catching them too. Strange? :-\ Anyways, thanks for the insight. I'll report on future catches. :)