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[RalphH]

When you can catch searun cutthroat!

My Birthday can be a magical day! Sometimes I can line up the exact day with a bit of fishing and some surprising success. Yesterday was such a day and I had the good luck of connecting with a number of cutthroat from about 9 inches to 17. The larger fish including a few in the 15 inch range were in wonderful condition, fat and full of bait fish they burped up. They jumped and ran. While it was a warm and bright day some overcast and marine fog plus water temps of 57F at 8am made for good fishing conditions. Often these fish hold against the bank under cover. The biggest fish exploded from beneath a mat of duckweed and algae to my left. The next fish from similar cover to my right on the next cast! By noon I was tossing flies that weigh no more than a gram or two into gaps in overhanging vegetation on the far bank that were more or less equivalent to an open mail slot. All the fish were on #10 olive wooly buggers with flash in the tail.

Photos:











I also caught this little bass! First time in this particular water and only the 2nd bass I have caught in a Fraser Valley stream. Cute as he was with some sadness  I dispatched the little bugger.

[milo]

Happy Birthday RalphH!
May you celebrate many more like this. 

If you start catching more of those bass, make sure to give them a chance to swim one last time (in your frying pan). They yield two little filets, but, my oh my, do they ever taste good!   

Great pics, by the way! And that green woolly bugger with sparkle, what a versatile fly it is! It catches every kind of fish.
I can bet dollars to donuts that you have had more than one coho to your name thanks to that fly.

[yoh]

Happy Birthday, wow 17 Inches!!

I have yet to see anything bigger than 10 to 12 in in the Fraser tributaries close by, I was under the impression it is hard pressed to find them in the LM and without driving out into the Interior.
Have also yet to catch any non-wild cutties either. Will have to keep trying 

[clarki]

Have also yet to catch any non-wild cutties either. Will have to keep trying 

The Province stopped the ACT ( anadromous cutthroat trout) stocking program in the Lower Mainland in 2019.

So for all intents and purposes, there are no clipped/hatchery/ non-wild cutthroat remaining in LM waters.

But if you do catch one 1) it will be a giant, and 2) buy a lottery ticket!

[RalphH]

The Province stopped the ACT ( anadromous cutthroat trout) stocking program in the Lower Mainland in 2019.

So for all intents and purposes, there are no clipped/hatchery/ non-wild cutthroat remaining in LM waters.

But if you do catch one 1) it will be a giant, and 2) buy a lottery ticket!

Yet tackle shop employees still tell newbies they can take 2 'hatchery' trout in any stream in Region 2! Been there and heard them say it. If only there were some hatchery trout to harvest.

[yoh]

The Province stopped the ACT ( anadromous cutthroat trout) stocking program in the Lower Mainland in 2019.

So for all intents and purposes, there are no clipped/hatchery/ non-wild cutthroat remaining in LM waters.

But if you do catch one 1) it will be a giant, and 2) buy a lottery ticket!

That explains a ton... but hey, I'll keep dreaming...

[RalphH]

Further to Clarki's comments above, I just wanted to mention that in the last few years of the ACT stocking program the number of waters that received plantings of ACT was very limited. In that year only the Fraser, Chehalis, Harrison and Stave was stocked. Some of the waters I fish have not received any stocked ACT fish in the last 15 to 30 years.

[clarki]

… Little Campbell also received hatchery ACT up until 2019

IIRC the thousands of fish that the Fraser received weren’t dumped in the same spot but rather spread out over the Fraser Valley. I seem to recall that Maria Slough was one such location

[RalphH]

some years over a dozen different streams:

https://www.gofishbc.com/stocked-fish/?reportType=regional&rel_year=1990&region=LOWER%20MAINLAND

much larger numbers as well.

[yoh]

Is this your way of saying where to find winning lottery tickets? 

[RalphH]

Check how long cutthroat trout live, particularly the anadromous (sea run) variety. If not harvested by anglers or taken by various predators maximum lifespan is about 10 years tops. Most hatchery marked fish won't survive their first encounter with an angler once they reach the 30cm size limit.

https://pearsonecological.com/fish-l2-single/coastal-cutthroat-trout/

[scruffy]

 Happy birthday, great way to spend it!!