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[mykisscrazy]

Well yesterday decided after seeing the weather and I just couldn't do any more data entry for the day. Checked the Tide Chart and off I went. 15 minutes from my house and I was there. Put the waders on, set up the 8 wt (I'm hoping for a lunker!) and off I go. Walk for about 15 minutes then start casting to some structure. Nothing. Visability not the greatest about 12 inches. But then notice there are like rolling clouds of silty water then clearer parts - sort of like cloudy day with sunny breaks. In amongst the clear bits I can see fry swimming by. So , now am searching for the clear bits and casting toward them and retreiving fast. Bam fish on. 14 to 16 inches Bull trout. I was Happy! Anyways, keep walking come to some rocks. Now I see fish at the surface cutting through the schools of fry. They are about 1 foot from shore! So I stay back and cast. Bam! Fish on! another Bull Trout about the same size. Release him and watch the water nothing for about 5 minutes, but now are further out and u/s (d/s with the tide!). So walk to the shore and again looking for the "clear bits" and start casting. Third fish on! this one about 20 to 22 inches! and fat. Walk up a bit more the clear bits are quickly disappearing. Go back and find that the clear bits are now further out. Casting and now the 4th fish! Remember my phone and quickly took a photo- 16 to 18 inches. Walked around for another half hour to 45 minutes. The "clear bits" have really all gone and visability is under a foot.
All fish were caught on a fry pattern ghost tip and a 3 foot leader. Water was 2 to 4 feet deep
Anyways, Rod thankyou for posting about your trips to the tidal Fraser! You have introduced me to a really fun and seasonal fishery close to home! Hopefully there will have a few more weeks of "cloudy with clear periods!"

[Rodney]

Fantastic! I was just considering heading down there this afternoon because this type is the best. Last weekend I was walking around with a rod for 30 minutes and I watched fry being chased to the point that they were jumping and bouncing off rocks! Most of the feeding is taking place just a couple of feet from shore, which makes sense since that's typically where the fry would be travelling.

[mykisscrazy]

So went out on Sunday.

Water and tide I thought was perfect. The visability was great maybe 3 feet.

But after that - saw very few fry and saw no swirls...and caught nothing. Walked and searched for about 3 km of shoreline.
Ran into a Bar fisherman on my way out and he was quite surprised to see someone with a fly rod. He too hadn't caught anything.
The largest Bull Trout he has ever caught in the Tidal Fraser was 32 inches! When it first hit he thought it was a Chinook! He kept it (wasn't supposed too). When he cleaned it, in it's stomach was a starry flounder of about 12 inches! So, the big ones may be keying in on larger prey on the bottom rather than the fry that are up on the surface. He ate it (the bull trout) and said it tasted absolutely horrible and has never kept one since. Makes one wonder though how many fish are being kept by the average fisherman

[Rodney]

Unfortunately intentional poaching by some old timers and incidental kills by some uneducated new anglers are not uncommon. This is why I tend to have the motivation to push for more interest in this fishery and have no problem telling people where I have had success in the past because it is underutilized by seasoned catch and release anglers. Introducing more educated anglers into this fishery would benefit as it brings more eyes and ears to the river when it comes to reporting violations. ~30in is also about the length of a bull trout that I saw caught in 1997 by Ivan Berry while we were all bar fishing at North Arm during one cold November day. The big fish are definitely there, just have to get through the smaller ones by using bigger patterns like you said.

The other poor practice that I have been very vocal about is leaving small sculpins dying on land when they are caught. This is a main component of large bull trout and cutthroat trout's diet. Not only it is cruel and illegal, removal of them would probably have a negative impact to some degree on trout and char population in the Tidal Fraser.

On a much more positive note, Saturday I watched tens of thousands of fry swimming by me and managed to long-line release a rather big cutthroat trout after seeing it swirl on the surface three times.

http://www.fishingwithrod.com/blog/?p=102