Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => Fishing Reports => Members' Fishing Reports => Topic started by: milo on August 18, 2013, 10:47:24 PM
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I had the best day today, fishing a floating line with four feet of #10 test leader and a bead head fly. I was fishing slow water and getting them mostly on the retrieve.
I had started with a slow sinking tip, but after flossing three or four in a row, I realized that I needed to change something. Out came the full floater, and the rest is history. Twenty fish to the beach in about three hours, all of them right in the yap. Reminded me of coho fishing in the sloughs, with those pinks jumping and rolling. Took home two identical twin males - as chrome and as humpless as they can be. ;D
Somebody made a comment about there being lots of people with a fly rod. True, it seemed everyone and their cousin was fly fishing today. Sadly, most of them were lining the fish with their sinking tips. They will be in for a rough awakening when the fish become few and far between.
Mamquam's water visibility was quite decent in the afternoon, BTW, at a good foot or so.
Furry Creek was fishing very well, too. My buddies limited out in the morning in less than an hour.
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Great to hear you had a fantastic day. Hopefully we see eachother again soon.
All the best :)
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The morning was good enough at Furry Creek but I heard the afternoon and evening was slow. I hooked 13 and landed 7.
There is less fish than previous weeks, but there are fewer people too, so you actually have elbow room when you're casting.
(http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae153/ficfic/P8180045_zps1dca3a14.jpg)
(http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae153/ficfic/P8180041_zpscb9bfb9d.jpg)
(http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae153/ficfic/P8180039_zps47048aed.jpg)
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The morning was good enough at Furry Creek but I heard the afternoon and evening was slow. I hooked 13 and landed 7.
There is less fish than previous weeks, but there are fewer people too, so you actually have elbow room when you're casting.
(http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae153/ficfic/P8180045_zps1dca3a14.jpg)
(http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae153/ficfic/P8180041_zpscb9bfb9d.jpg)
(http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae153/ficfic/P8180039_zps47048aed.jpg)
Great pics FLC!!!
Where are your pic milo?
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Where are your pic milo?
Too busy catching fish to bother. ;D
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I stopped in to Furry Creek near the end of the day. Still a decent amount of visible fish juming, but fading light and low water vis meant slow fishing. Should have been there at low tide in the a.m.!
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Went up for the afternoon with the wife and 13yr old daughter in tow. Its been a few years since she caught a salmon and her interest has been waning. Anyway Squamish didnt let her down, set her up drifting a small chartreus dick nite under a float in slow moving water and she ended up hooking and landing several...only one foul hooked. I used the flyrod with a chartreus clouser and its the best fishing I've had since....the last pink run. Lots of fun and as you noted Milo I was surprised at how many flyrods were out.
My buddy calls Squamish Valhalla and sometimes I have to agree.
Bluenoser
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. I used the flyrod with a chartreus clouser and its the best fishing I've had
Yes, it was unreal the last time I fished it. At one point it was a fish biting every cast; not 4 casts would go by without hooking one in the yap. That bite lasted >1 hr.
C.Clouser ftw.
<20% foul hook-ups made for a very enjoyable fishing experience on the 6wt.
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<20% foul hook-ups made for a very enjoyable fishing experience on the 6wt.
That's a great ratio. But with practice and adjustments to the particular spot one is fishing, it can go down to almost zero.
Glad to see the floating line approach is catching on...I am kind of terrified about what we will be seeing on the Vedder this year if the trend of using sinking tips to sweep through schools of migrating fish continues. :-\
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hey guys, I'm thinking about heading up some time this week. Is it as big of a gong show as everyone makes it out to be? Or can one actually find a bit of solitude by simply walking 10 or 15min down the river?
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with practice and adjustments to the particular spot one is fishing, it can go down to almost zero.
I was fishing "still"water (no current) that was pretty thick with fish... I think the only way not to foul hook one would be with: a dry fly, something with very little weight, and/or a very fast strip. Even then I see foul-hooking as possible (as fish were porpoising fairly frequently), but -- ya -- probably less frequently.
If you have any other suggestions I'm all ears.
Thanks milo!
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can one actually find a bit of solitude by simply walking 10 or 15min down the river?
You can find solitude on MOST rivers by taking a hike ;)
The well documented spots on this river are a zoo. Avoid them if you don't like people, sharing, elbow room, and/or snaggarts :P
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The area I fished in Squamish on Sunday had ZERO people and endless fish. I did have to walk for 10 minutes though...exhausting ;)
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Dennis, is that a trailer hook set up on your spoon?
How did it work on pinks? Have had nothing but great success with it on bull trout, bows and steelhead. Haven't had a chance to test it on pinks or coho yet
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Lots of solitude available on the Squamish if that is what you are looking for. Just hit the river away from any of the popular spots and you will find a nice area to yourself. For me, the gong show is part of the equation in pink and sockeye fisheries.
Trout, coho and steelhead...that's another story. I will walk up to an hour to get away from it all.
If you have any other suggestions I'm all ears.
You can try casting 45 degrees downstream and start stripping only when the fly line is in full parallel with the flow. It is rare for a fish to get foul hooked on the retrieve.
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Lots of solitude available on the Squamish if that is what you are looking for. Just hit the river away from any of the popular spots and you will find a nice area to yourself. For me, the gong show is part of the equation in pink and sockeye fisheries.
Trout, coho and steelhead...that's another story. I will walk up to an hour to get away from it all.
You can try casting 45 degrees downstream and start stripping only when the fly line is in full parallel with the flow. It is rare for a fish to get foul hooked on the retrieve.
I figured that, too, but I must have fouled at least 3 fish yesterday just from pulling my line up out of the water from the hang down to initiate my snap t. You'd think you could just pull your line up out of the water parallel to the fish without any issues and 95+% of the time you can. Why those fish were diaganal to the flow/current is anybody's guess but I did manage to get through the day even having a few fouled fish that you couldn't do anything about without losing or changing my fly.
I saw an awful lot of guys having to replace broken off flies due to fouled fish. When the fish are thick like this I go up to 12 lb. maxima with no issues. In the event you do foul a fish at least you can quickly muscle them in, release them without too much wear and tear, and get on with your fishing. Still, I'm glad they're not chum! LOL
I'm sure getting annoyed at the number of fish that I see getting dragged onto dry rocks to be released. I must have had at least 4-5 fih come floating by me, some even bumping me in the legs, that WERE NOT spawned out....just damn poor releases! You can tell people not to do it but they've got every excuse in the book to justify it.
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That's a great ratio. But with practice and adjustments to the particular spot one is fishing, it can go down to almost zero.
Glad to see the floating line approach is catching on...I am kind of terrified about what we will be seeing on the Vedder this year if the trend of using sinking tips to sweep through schools of migrating fish continues. :-\
Milo, do you find that floating line without a sink tip only works in the main part of the bar where water is slow? It is not easy to get a spot there though. Each fly guy seems to claim a big space in between and if you go late, you will be forced to fish the faster water below or above the main bar. That may be the place to have sink tip or sinking line. The last time I went with full floating line on a weighted fly in the faster stretch, hook up was much slower than the guy below me with a sinking line. I thought my skill was the reason for the slower action. Then he tried my rod and he could not hook anything with the floating line in 10 minutes. He switched back to his own rod and started hooking fish right away. So perhaps sinking line or floating line with sink tip has its merit in the faster stretch of the run. But you are right though. A sinking line will get some fish foul hooked but a good % is in the mouth.
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Dennis, is that a trailer hook set up on your spoon?
How did it work on pinks? Have had nothing but great success with it on bull trout, bows and steelhead. Haven't had a chance to test it on pinks or coho yet
Those are Eagle Claw long shank hooks, but I wouldn't be surprised if they also sell them as trailer hooks. I find the longer shank is causing a lot of them to be hooked in the back of their mouths instead of near their lips. Comparatively, I think its performance is pretty solid.
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Milo, do you find that floating line without a sink tip only works in the main part of the bar where water is slow? It is not easy to get a spot there though. Each fly guy seems to claim a big space in between and if you go late, you will be forced to fish the faster water below or above the main bar. That may be the place to have sink tip or sinking line. The last time I went with full floating line on a weighted fly in the faster stretch, hook up was much slower than the guy below me with a sinking line. I thought my skill was the reason for the slower action. Then he tried my rod and he could not hook anything with the floating line in 10 minutes. He switched back to his own rod and started hooking fish right away. So perhaps sinking line or floating line with sink tip has its merit in the faster stretch of the run. But you are right though. A sinking line will get some fish foul hooked but a good % is in the mouth.
There is a lot of river where the water is SLOW, almost stagnant. The upper part of the bar just below the Mamquam is only one of those areas. Then comes a faster shallow stretch and then again a slow long stretch. Yes, it can get busy, but sooner or later you can squeeze in somewhere. The floating line works basically anywhere where some douchebags haven't waded out to their nuts and pushed the fish out.
Just ask Bryan Bronswyk. Last week he found a spot where no one had waded below him, and he was basically roll-casting ten feet in front of him and catching good numbers of fish where the rest of us were getting nothing.
If given the chance, pinks will hug the shore and travel or sulk in a foot or two of slow moving water. On Sunday, to prove my point, I waded out to be in line with others who were up to their waist in water and I started casting towards the shore with my floating line. I started catching fish right away because many of them were travelling BEHIND us. The expression on the faces of some of the people fishing around me was priceless. LOL!
Now if you have no choice but to fish the faster and deeper water, obviously you need a heavier tip and/or some extra weight added to the fly (type II-IV will do just fine almost anywhere on the Squamish). If your fly line is bouncing off or snagging the bottom, it is too heavy - period.
I have seen people fishing type 8, 11, even 14 below the Mamquam and frankly, those people hardly catch any fish legitimately. When their fish are not completely foul hooked (tail, back, fin, etc), they end up with the hook embedded in the outside corner of the mouth - flossed. Not much fun if you ask me. Ask any fly fisher who has figured this out. A pink salmon properly hooked will jump, splash and roll just like a trout or a coho. A snagged or flossed fish doesn't. They are little more than a dead weight in the current.
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Excellent advice Milo. I normally wade up to my ankles and caught a ton of bullet chrome pinks close to shore. When guys came in below they waded up to their knees and pushed fish out. I still caught fish right in front of them. I politely told them they were in too deep and some took the advice while some did not. And thanks for mentioning using a full floating line. Works well and reduces foul hooking for sure. It's really cool to have a fish strike your fly in one foot of water!
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Great comment Milo.
When I fished the Squamish Bar last week I used a floating line with an 8 feet clear intermediate poly leader with 4 feet of tippet. Mid bar area required 1/8" brass dumbbell eyes and 5/32" eyes for the lower area where the current was a little faster. This set up allowed the fly to swim just over the head of pinks and minimized foul hooking. Of the more than 50 pinks hooked, I think I foul hooked 2 or 3 fish. All the fish I landed except one were hooked inside the upper mouth. As Milo mentioned, go light on your setup as pinks are eager to bite and they are swimming in very shallow and slow water. When I was fishing the lower part with less people, I did not require more than 10 feet of fly line as fish were traveling only 10 feet from the bank due to low vizibility and aggressive seal action.
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You can try casting 45 degrees downstream and start stripping only when the fly line is in full parallel with the flow. It is rare for a fish to get foul hooked on the retrieve.
The water I've been fishing doesn't have a current but I'll keep that in mind for the future, as on the Cap this year I was casting 90 deg... Seemed like a recipe for flossing but I heard that the fish like to hit a fly floating along naturally (i.e. at the pace of the current)...
A pink salmon properly hooked will jump, splash and roll just like a trout or a coho. A snagged or flossed fish doesn't. They are little more than a dead weight in the current.
Yeah, nothing like feeling those headshakes, runs, etc. rather than tail wags or what-have-you. Buddy guy was snagging fish left-right-and centre the other day under the pretense of "jigging"... He was having good fun with it but I couldn't help but feel bad for him...
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Just because you have waders doesn't mean you need to use them.
Years ago on the Fraser at Slaughterhouse I had been catching Coho within 10 feet of shore. One day I got to my lucky spot and there was a guy up to his waist 15 feet from the shore. I explained the fish were between him and the shore. He said he was staying where he was. I asked if he minded me fishing between him and the shore, he said "good luck".
On a brass orange stripe croc, First cast was a wild doe gently released, Second cast hatch male, quickly dispatched and gutted. Missed hooking up next cast, Fourth cast wild doe, Fifth cast hatch doe, quickly dispatched and gutted. Now this was faster to limit out than normal but some days are like that.
The guy finally comes up with "I guess I should get out of the Water". No sh*t Sherlock.
Just because you own waders doesn't mean you need to use them.
Cal
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A lot of fishermen have this mentality that the fish are always on the other side of the river.
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Fish are always where you don't think they should be.
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Fish are always where you don't think they should be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C05TrzVCEF8
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C05TrzVCEF8
I want one of those in my backyard!!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C05TrzVCEF8
A fishing hole, literally! ;D
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Probably those little ponds are all connected in underground channels. This is common in limestone country with many sink holes. Otherwise how would that trout get in there in that little hole?
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Kinda looks like the back side of Mike Lake
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Geology sure does look a lot like BC!