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[FishOn36]

Have any of you guys fish here? More specifically in the Hougen Park area. Was there today and caught a bunch of different stuff including a nice 2lb trout, along with a lot Pikeminnow, a small Carp, and a couple Sculpin.. no Pumpkinseeds this time around though. What else is in there? I've seen some big carp jump in there during the evening hours on several occasions. I'd like to specifically target trout, but I'm not sure the best method is for that in terms of lures/bait. The tried and true worm/bobber combo works wonders in there, however it's usually small pikeminnow's going after it. They must be in there by the thousands! Judging from all the crap floating in the water, and how dirty it is, I think it's safe to say that eating anything out of there is definitely out of the question.

[wizard]

some of my earliest childhood fishing memories was at that place.
There used to be decent cutties in there but mostly we got sculpins or bullheads.
I may go there this summer to try for the carp.
Definitely wouldn't eat anything out of there.

[fisherforever]

Definitely don't want to eat anything out of there, lots of farms with fertilizers and chemicals also a very high asbestos rating, it is naturally occurring coming from the US. City of Abbotsford usually does some asbestos removal every August.

[Dave]

Years ago sturgeon were commonly caught in the Sumas River - not sure if they still are.

[Ezio]

get the odd sturgeon in there still but there are more down by the canal if your looking for them specifically

[RalphH]

Fished it quite a bit back in the early 70s around Jock McDonald Park and the Cole Road rest area, As you describe there were mostly lots of coarse fish and the odd trout plus a good run of coho in late October into November. I imagine that`s mostly gone. I`ve tried once or twice in the last couple of years while searching about for a place to catch carp with a fly. There certainly doesn`t seem to be much fish in there as there once was. Back then large carp would be rolling frequently but not today. Most of the old fishing spots have little sign of use by anglers now and in many such spots the banks are overgrown with blackberries.

[FishOn36]

Fished it quite a bit back in the early 70s around Jock McDonald Park and the Cole Road rest area, As you describe there were mostly lots of coarse fish and the odd trout plus a good run of coho in late October into November. I imagine that`s mostly gone. I`ve tried once or twice in the last couple of years while searching about for a place to catch carp with a fly. There certainly doesn`t seem to be much fish in there as there once was. Back then large carp would be rolling frequently but not today. Most of the old fishing spots have little sign of use by anglers now and in many such spots the banks are overgrown with blackberries.

I've seen big carp jumping in there, so definitely are still around...probably not in the numbers like there once was. Any tips on how to specifically target trout in there? The worm and float produces mostly tons of little 4-6" pikeminnow. Haven't been able get anything on lures at all, but I just a bought a few panther martins over the weekend that I'll try cast-retrieving next time. The water is very dark around this time of year with all the fertilizer and junk that's running in there, so I don't know what king of lures would be best. Something with a bit of flash I suppose? The fish sure don't have a problem finding worms though, as soon as you cast it out you're getting action usually. Here's what it looks like, I took these pics last Thursday.

[Knnn]

I have fished some of the darker coloured sloughs with a bright UV chenille flies and caught cutties and NPM.  However, that water looks too muddy for fish to key onto visual lures (even ones with a lot of flash) and they probably rely on scent only, hence the worms work well. 

I do not know if fish have better vision under water than we do, but if water visibility is less than 1-2 inches, I figure it would be tough to attract them unless there was scent or some type of vibration?

[FishOn36]

I have fished some of the darker coloured sloughs with a bright UV chenille flies and caught cutties and NPM.  However, that water looks too muddy for fish to key onto visual lures (even ones with a lot of flash) and they probably rely on scent only, hence the worms work well. 

I do not know if fish have better vision under water than we do, but if water visibility is less than 1-2 inches, I figure it would be tough to attract them unless there was scent or some type of vibration?

They must be strictly attracted to the worms scent in there, because a lot of the time as soon as it hits the water it's already getting nipped at by usually small fish. I guess the Panther Martin's would be worth a try, cause they claim that the blade on em produces a vibration.

[zap brannigan]

I've caught coho there when i was much younger with a worm under a float, use to go there quite a bit when i was real young.

[bigsnag]

Same as Zap, I used to catch jack cohos in October with worms under a float. Its loaded with crayfish, they would give you a pull down on the float and there was half eaten crayfish on the banks.

[sumasriver]

Used to bar fish the Sumas with worms for Coho with my dad .
Also used to troll with success with a willow leaf troll  and a worm on the Sumas .

[Blood_Orange]

Just want to second the idea of not eating anything from the Sumas. As fisherforever mentioned there's asbestos in the river that comes from an old landslide site in the US. It's naturally occurring which means they can't really stop it but they do dredge on a regular basis. The dredged piles are a health hazard for local residents.

Below is a link to a very short summary. Worth two minutes to read:
https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.Cleanup&id=1002688#bkground

To answer the OP's original question, I fished the river once two years ago. Lots of pikeminnows, caught one small trout, talked to a guy who fished for sturgeon just upstream of the barrowtown pump station.

[JustPuttsin]

I remember going fishing near barrow town with my grandfather in around 1970. At that time there were some nice size carp but mostly caught bullheads. I don't recall there being any pikeminnow in there at that time. Some things just never change...its amazing that anything can even live in a slough like that.

[sumasriver]

I always find it so interesting to fish all the different waters around our area.

My largest salmon  caught in in the sumas was as a kid trolling near the private hunting area  upstream from Mcdonald park...