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[cutthroat22]

I caught one sockeye in the lower fraser on a pink pixee spoon last year and have seen sockeye caught(2) on a skated dry fly on the fraser a few years ago.

Curious whereabouts and what your friend was skating a dry fly on the Fraser for?

[BBarley]

Couldnt be more wrong about the fly guy flossing - the trick is to use a heavy sinktip then a floating fly (one of the muddlers is a good bet) then the line does the hard work of getting down to the fish while the fly dances around in the current and is extremely light - unlike a hook with a gob of roe on!  Meaning it is less likely to foul hook.

I'm sorry, where and what "couldn't be more wrong about the fly guy flossing"?

I've hooked pinks using a floating line and a slightly weighted small pink fly. I've had them swim 5 feet from behind a boulder to nail the fly, almost pulling my 6 weight out of my hand....
But catching pinks on the Chedder and Campbell, hell the Kispiox or the Bulkley, is much different than fishing sockeye on a main stem river.

[Every Day]

I have had 5 sockeye take a dry fly skated across the top of the water in the Vedder in the last 4 years.
I believe it is called a silver thorne pattern.
Blue hackle collar on front, silver body and red tail.

[ribolovac02]

In the last few years i cought a few sockaye,but i still think like the rest it is more luck than anything.

Few years back we were bar fishing the fraser,around 25 people one the bar all bar fishing,that day no one hooked a spring but 4 sockaye were cought on a bar rig with  a spin'n glow atached to the end of it and all were green for some reason.
We got the two i belive out of the four,one unfortunatelly had it so deep down its throat that i suspect it lived after,we safly revived it in the shallow water.

Two years ago i think on the vedder i was shortfloating a small pink and black jig tipped with a prawn with no succes at the time and all of the sudden a huge school of socks moved in and i had two fish take the prawn so agresivlly it was unbeliveble.
Never happened again,but never since than that I have seen that many socks in a one pool,i think teritorial aggresion took place in that case"I THINK".

Just this year i had one take a indian blade #4 short floated right through the seam were fish would swim on their way up river.

So my thinking is they do take but its a rare surprise,bur sure a great reward for a hard day of fishing.

If you ask me they are pound for pound the hardest fighting salmon with out a dought.

[BBarley]

I know of someone who fishes the Skeena that uses shrimp, just the same as the stuff you get in a shrimp ring, and he'll float it 2 feet under a little red and white float. He always has success, and there is no way he intends on, or ever lines them. They will bite, you just have to know the technique to get them to bite.

I, for one, have yet to master the technique......

[Steely]

Curious whereabouts and what your friend was skating a dry fly on the Fraser for?

The one caught on the spoon was in the Delta area and the dry fly fish were caught in the chilliwack area. I didn't know the guy so don't have a clue why the guy was skating a dry fly, trout I guess

[Kype]

BBarley - "But catching pinks on the Chedder and Campbell, hell the Kispiox or the Bulkley, is much different than fishing sockeye on a main stem river."

Simply put - no it actually isnt that different.

Experienced anglers realise that larger rivers are not daunting at all as they should be fished like smaller / mid sized rivers.  Salmon always prefer to run a large river closer to the shore than the centre for the obvious reason of avoiding the heaviest current.

So with only shallow wading and a good control of your fly line, crucial to slow the travel speed of your fly, it possible to fish very effectively without flossing and without trying to cast to the centre of the river!  Focus on the water closer to you!!

There is little difference - just a frame of mind.

I have fished rivers all over the world just as wide and fast as the Fraser and the same strategies always ring true as a general rule.

[BBarley]

Kype, I know all too well about people seeing big rivers like the Nass/Skeena/Fraser, and watching them wade up to their waste only to launch their fly line as far out as they can.

Speaking from my own personal experience, I've hooked sockeye on the Skeena in 2 feet of water, maybe 10/15 feet from shore. It's the people that don't know that the salmon swim close to shore, that ruin it by pushing the fish out by wading into their travel lane.


My comments more refer to the fact that fishing for pinks on a small system is typically different than fishing sockeye on a mainstem big river. In a clean system, big river or small, I don't even use a sink tip, like I said I use a floating line, long leader and slightly weighted fly, because I know the pinks will hammer a fly 2 feet under the water surface. This same presentation, has never taken a sockeye in the same system.

I'd encourage you to use a floating line, or even an intermediate line with a slightly weighted fly, and try on the Fraser. If you hammer the sockeye, PM me

[Kype]

Hey BB - no worries will do - likely to head out one evening next week actually. 

Hear you with the floater and or Intermediate - but with Salmon I do prefer a heavier tip line then a floating fly like a plastic tube or a muddler - they just move better than a lighter line and a heavier fly in my experience.  Used to target Atlantics on the Tweed system in Scotland - and these fussy fish always prefered it this way around.  Funny thing was the 'tourists' would always head for pools of slower water while most locals headed for the faster water then fished the seam (where fast water meets the shallow bank water) and would mostly both out fish and also pick up far cleaner (running) fish.

Tightlines BB. 

PS.  Will let you know what we find if we do get chance to get up the valley later this week.

[troutbum]

I have had 5 sockeye take a dry fly skated across the top of the water in the Vedder in the last 4 years.
I believe it is called a silver thorne pattern.
Blue hackle collar on front, silver body and red tail.

?? i had no idea sockeye would take a dry fly

[ribolovac02]

I've heard that people skate dry fly's in the salt for coho but sockaye is new to me,good to know.

[Every Day]

?? i had no idea sockeye would take a dry fly

They don't usually.
You have to remember I lived on the Vedder my whole life.
I was out every day after work tossing dries for res bows (c&r) at dusk. That probably adds up to close to ~200 hrs on the water while the sockeye were running.
The first 3 times surprised me (all in one day) and the other 2 times were very spread out but it does happen.
Also got a summer steelhead of about 6-7 pounds in the lower a couple years back on a size 14 stimulator. Thinking it was a stray chehalis or coquihalla fish.
Weird things are bound to happen when you are out as much as I use to be.

[Britguy]

Having the ability to hold a fly in front of waiting fish will dramatically increase your chance of hooking one
if the fish are close to the bottom you need to be able to get the fly down and have as natural presentaion as possible ( no weighted fly)
this is best done with a sinking line\tip (type depending on flow of water)
I hooked several Steelhead in one day with this method
The fish did not take the fly untill my line was straight and i paused before starting my retreive
also using this method at peg leg i had a fellow fly fisherman approach me and ask how come i was hooking all my fish in the mouth while he could not get them to bite
just my two cents

[BBarley]

Britguy,

I think that's what makes steelhead fishing such an experience, especially with a fly.

One time fishing the Kispiox, fishing with a floating line and just using a wet fly swing quartered downstream just to keep the fly under the water. I had a steelhead chase my fly numerous times into about 1 foot of water. Everytime it would just swim towards it right near the end of the drift, then eyeball it as I let it hang at the end of the drift. I tried everything to try and get it to hit, quick strips, slow strips, mixed strips. Nothing doing. Finally I just pulled about 4 feet of line off my reel at the end of the drift, and that was all it took.

I've never had much luck getting sockeye to chase flies, perhaps because the method I use usually works well. But I know full well how much better it feels to get a fish to chase a fly, just to have it hammer it when you crack the code and find out that magic technique.

[Luongo321]

Anyone know where to catch salmon from shore in Richmond right now?