Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: rezak on October 27, 2014, 05:39:56 PM
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It looks like we're in for a period of heavy rains over the next week. So I'm curious do you sit and wait it out or continue fishing the flooded murky waters. I'm still undecided. Any tips for those that brave the weather. If you do head out be carful and stay safe. The waters and current can be deceptive.
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It's extremely dangerous with the rising water. Be aware of your surroundings at all times. Dress accordingly.
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Only dippers or long liners work the river in muddy waters.
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I switch to different water, not everything is murky.
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Be careful but fish big blades close to shore or up against log jams and woody debris. If the rivers get very high the banks can be unstable and large debris can violently thrust out along the shore posing a deadly threat.
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If the rivers get very high the banks can be unstable and large debris can violently thrust out along the shore posing a deadly threat.
I was at a party up on the Squamish river, and a full size tree came floating down the river,tip first. It breached the shore and proceeded to puncture my friends car windows, grabbing the car lifting it and twisting it. It bent the door so bad he couldn't close it at all.
Now if that had of been a fishermen...
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I'm done for the season seems everywhere I go the water is to murky to flyfish anyways and its about to get worse. I refuse to resort to fishing any part of the spawning channel at the stave even if it is legal and not about to go back to chucking gear (Just A preference) . So far this type of rain has only happened one other year that I can remember so I will wait till next year and hopefully it wont be this bad
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I was fishing the elk this year when it had 1 inch or less or visibility.
Got four fish on a dry fly in 4 casts through a spot.
Dad had several hits on nymphs and landed two.
Just because its murky doesnt mean the fish dont eat. They have lateral lines for a reason, just have to match the food being blown out.
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I've caught fish on the fly in the most intolerable looking muck.
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I'm done for the season
Then you will be missing many weeks of still of excellent fishing, fly or otherwise.
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Its been my experience in the past that when the Stave River becomes this high that the fish turn onto roe or gear. The other problem becomes access to Frog water , normally I could kick my belly boat to find these areas but that's at a much lower water level. Its great exercise and a lot of fun
but impossible when the water is this fast.
Maybe I'll try again down by the mouth but for the most part I think I need to invest in a kayak for years when the water is high. Its gets frustrating not being able to get away from the mob mentality of the Stave but with less shoreline available it becomes even more unbearable.
Either way thanks for the encouragement
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I wasn't necessarily referring to the Stave. There are other river systems on the north side of the Fraser that offer excellent fishing through November, and even into December.
The rain will stop. When it does, these systems offer excellent fishing as the river drops and clears.
But even on the Stave, when the chums die off, and so do the crowds, there will still be coho and cutthroat about.
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What are they going to do with the Stave running this high... a lot of the Chum will end up spawing in areas that would normally not be under water - will they leave it as is for the season?
On another note - who's doing the construction work up there - sure are a lot of debris from the job site such as 2x4 2x6 plywood and plastic poly littered along the banks now
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Clarki
I realize the other rivers on the north side may be in better shape specially when these rains stop unfortunately I am limited as to how far I can drive. The Stave or Dewney water systems are my only options at this time.
I just came back from the Stave and levels have dropped significantly possibly to allow the crew from Inch Creek to net some of the coho from the toilet bowl. I talked to one of the guys from Inch creek as they were down there last week to assess the situation and said they would try a sweep today.
Hopefully after this next wave of rain the weather will cooperate and conditions improve, its just been a late and frustrating start to the season
NiceFish
I noticed all the debri when they first opened the flood gates at the dam huge chunks of what looked like styrafoam also went floating down river it's quite the mess today as plastic is stuck everywhere snagged on branchs of half submerged bush. I have no idea who is in charge but surely this could have been avoided.
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Thanks for the update
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he Stave or Dewney water systems are my only options at this time..
Perfect. The Dewdney/Norrish system has good/excellent flyfishing, into December. I didn't want to see you hang your rod up too early in frustration when the season still has a lot of game time left in it.
Cheers.
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May want to consider trying Chehalis as well, it should be starting now.
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chehalis is a tough river to fly fish
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Perfect. The Dewdney/Norrish system has good/excellent flyfishing, into December. I didn't want to see you hang your rod up too early in frustration when the season still has a lot of game time left in it.
Cheers.
Great, as if they weren't enough people packed on a small system now there will more.
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Great, as if they weren't enough people packed on a small system now there will more.
Yep, blame this post. ::)
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Great, as if they weren't enough people packed on a small system now there will more.
Really? We're going here. That place isn't exactly a secret. We've all had this conversation recently in another forum. None of these spots or any spot is a secret, if you see cars parked, it doesn't take much common sense to figure it out.
Heck before the river changed, for a couple bucks we got this from Freds. Before the river changed. Cat's out of the bag now!!! OH wait... (http://i.imgur.com/cF5qmJ7.jpg?1)
Sorry, I got off topic. Chehalis isn't to bad to fly though, thats why we got a bunch of different casts to cover different types of water.
Also if he happens to have a switch rod, he could 2 hand cast very easily with nearly no room for back casting.
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Great, as if they weren't enough people packed on a small system now there will more.
It's already a gong show up there. :) nothing new.
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If it turns out to be a gong show I'll be quite happy to go back to fish the Stave River as in my previous post I can use my belly boat and kick my way to good spots. I strictly flyfish and have no intention to crowd out any other anglers. I fish to have a good time and find it relaxing the last thing I want is to hear people whine about having no space in there secret hole.
This is one of the very reasons I considered hanging up my fly rod for the season in the first place!!! With the higher water and less space to fish, comes more bickering between anglers
and it's really getting pathetic !!!!!!
Clarki only mentioned other water sytems on the north side to have me reconsider my options and not to give up fishing for the year. Dewdney slough or Suicide creek is no more of a secret and/or gong show than the Stave or Chehalis rivers.
Just as the old saying goes ......be glad your out there fishing wether you catch fish or not because it sure beats a hard day at work.
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It's already a gong show up there. :) nothing new.
There's just no common sense in giving someone that specific of info. The smart thing to do would have been either 1) Let him put away the rod for the year. Some people need to learn the hard way or 2) Reply like "there are still good opportunities" and send him a PM.
If you don't think a small system with pressure can get even busier look at the Cap. That's always been a small system with pressure but has gotten out of hand the last few years. We used to hike into the canyon and not see anyone all day and now those same spots are packed. If you think it's simply because fishing is more popular, you're wrong. Like others have said, I'm sure you'll find a reason why I'm wrong because you're always right ::)
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Dear flyguy1
Please disregard my previous suggestion, which lacked common sense.
There are 2 things I would suggest instead. Either,
1) Put your rod away. You need to learn the hard way.
2) Don't put your rod away. There are still some good opportunities.
Sincerely, clarki (smart version 2.0)
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lol ;D
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Dear flyguy1
Please disregard my previous suggestion, which lacked common sense.
There are 2 things I would suggest instead. Either,
1) Put your rod away. You need to learn the hard way.
2) Don't put your rod away. There are still some good opportunities.
Sincerely, clarki (smart version 2.0)
No back pedaling! Stick to your guns! lol ;D
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To clarki
Thanks for the (smart version 2)
But please forgive me clarki .... for It seems I missed out on something here or perhaps nodded off for a few minutes.
Maybe due to the lack of the common sense of speaking about specific info on highly pressured rivers, I should retire my fly rod for good and quit fishing all together. After all I'm not sure I'm learning much of anything here period............ let alone learning the hard way ::)!!!!!!
Sincerely Flyguy1
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Well before you go up and quitting, at least check out a couple other websites. FlyBC has a great little fly fishing community, I don't actually use the site myself but I see it pop up on my facebook and I am considering joining to group at least on FB, I dunno, we'll see it. I am not in a hurry too but I am curious.
I don't like to see anyone quit so I will share some rivers with you. But you have to do some leg work, talk to people in shops, google maps places (you'll see me say this a lot) anyway most of these rivers I have fly fished before. But generally I bring gear with me just incase. Keep in mind, this year as just been bad because of weather so its hard for everyone.
If you don't mind commuting, you got a few options.
- Lower Pitt - I can't remember exactly where I went but google it.
- Harrison River - It's pretty big but there is some doable spots, its not like you need to cast across a river.
- Chehalis River, requires a bit of hike to some good spots but do able.
- Stave River - well goes without saying.
- Cheakamus River - suffered from a chem spill awhile ago but still seems like fishing isn't to bad. I'd probably scout that one.
- Vedder - It's pretty ugly there during salmon season that map I linked earlier has a full list of locations and the name of each pool from Pilings and Kurtains, up to the Ranger run. You can buy one for a buck or just google Fred's Custom Tackle Vedder/Chilliwack Fishing Locations.
- DeBoville or Sturgeon Slough (there is a bunch), honestly they are all on google maps, you don't even have to search for anything just open it up and look at the blue lines (which end up being bodies of water) and then zoom.
- Merritt and towards Kamloops and even as far as Enderby has amazing fishing if you can sneak away for a weekend.
ALWAYS CHECK YOUR REGS FIRST - I am not accountable if you get fined or worse! This is your only warning.
You do have to do some leg work though. Google and the internet is your friend, its not hard to find these spots. Most of my spots have been from family fishermen/women and just exploring, but that was when it didn't cost you 150 bucks in gas to do it. (I remember when it was 97c/liter)
Protip, something I learned just recently thanks to Yahoo.ca if you type * in the search bar it'll force a pop up of every buisness in an area so you can find land marks easier. Because sometimes zooming all the way in will show nothing. Or if you put in an address somewhere it may take you to nowhere or the middle of a road because it can't find the address. ::)
These are just a few spots I have no many its nuts, most I don't even know what the regs say about em or if they are even still seeing fish.
Also if you aren't doing lakes, check out a bunch of lakes too.
Mike Lake, Rice Lake, Buntzen, Sasamat, LaFarge, and so on. I don't know if lakes are any good in the fall, its usually my summer thing when I am bored.
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If you do lakes go around Merritt and Kamloops. Fall is one of the best times to fish lakes and they can have some huge rainbows lake depending.
It might take a while to figure out, but (coming from a river guy) a nice day on a like weather wise almost beats a nice day on a river. However if its raining its bloody miserable on a lake...
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There's a lot of other possibilities out there. Many of them have only natural wild populations of salmon and trout but I am getting old and forgettable and I can't remember them at the moment. Otherwise I'd be happy to invite people I don't know to go to those place and enjoy gut hooking wild cutthroat by fishing dew worms ;D. Once the freeze up gets going up country the Fraser will drop and offer opportunities for trout, char and even coho in specific locales. Local lakes will fish well in the fall and even in winter if the weather is mild. They do stock the lakes in the fall and any fish from the spring plant will have grown some and behave more like natural fish. Check the stocking reports on some other page on this site or on gofishbc.com. Buntzen, Sasamat, Mill, Grace, Mike and Rolley have all been stocked within the last week or so. There are regular reports (weekly or so) on some major tackle shops websites, Berry's Pacific Angler and Fred's for example, and mention most of the well known locations including Dewdney Slough. FWIW I've been up there a few times the last week and it's not so great at least as of Monday but I did get a nice wild coho on my 2nd cast that day - blanked for the balance of the day. Strangely enough the tackle shops don't report on some of those little wild streams, like Ableander Creek with great fishing this time of year 'cause I guess they figure it's just not worth it or perhaps for some other reason.
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Also remember, if a river/creek is not listed on the regulations, salmon retention is illegal.
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Maybe people just need to read and understand both sets of regs for the region they intend to fish.
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Maybe people just need to read and understand both sets of regs for the region they intend to fish.
Agreed. But back on topic I hope there was something useful, no reason someone should end their season early because of some bad eggs or lack of information when there is plenty out there.
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It's possible to find opportunities fly or gear any month of the year. The amount of rain we've had makes it challenging as many larger systems are so high but change your thinking & focus and there are places to fish for salmon and or trout.
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I went fishing today as the crowds look to be tapering off only four of us flyfishing the toilet bowl which was great. None of us got so much as a sniff but I still had a good time as no one was whining or complaining and as Clarki predicted water levels went down :).
Flood gates are still open but not discharging as much water which is good for the guys from Inch Creek enabling them to collect brood stock.
Just want to thank those of you who encouraged me to keep my chin up and hopefully the rain will ease up in time.
Tight lines....
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I went fishing today as the crowds look to be tapering off only four of us flyfishing the toilet bowl which was great. None of us got so much as a sniff but I still had a good time as no one was whining or complaining and as Clarki predicted water levels went down :).
Flood gates are still open but not discharging as much water which is good for the guys from Inch Creek enabling them to collect brood stock.
Just want to thank those of you who encouraged me to keep my chin up and hopefully the rain will ease up in time.
Tight lines....
Were you allowed to walk down the road or did you have to cross the side channel and walk through?
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Went fishing today and man it was on fire!!couldn't keep them off the hook.had a great workout kept me pretty warm. ;D
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to BCFisherman
You still have to cross the spawning channel to get to the toilet bowl and probly will until they finish construction in 2018 . You will need chest waders as the water gets quite high during high tide but at least its not as deep as before. Some of the trails from the road to the channel are getting pretty slick from all the rain so be careful as I slipped a few times.
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Were you allowed to walk down the road or did you have to cross the side channel and walk through?
I walked down the road and around the gate yesterday after fishing. Guy even smiled while he let a service truck exit through the gate..... crossed the channel on the way to the river though.