Jayhad Posted September 22, 2009 Posted September 22, 2009 I flew to Abbotsford with less then great expectations, after all I was headed out for my grandfather’s funeral. I knew I wanted to spend some time fishing with my father but didn't expect out of 5 days I would get much time. I was happy to find out that my father was pretty excited to just be on the water for the maximum time allowable. Checking our schedules we figured we would be able to fish 3 full days, pretty good in my books. We wanted to do some sturgeon fishing but $60.00 for the tag is getting a little ridiculous and it meant we would have to sacrifice actual fishing time with boat prep, running the river, searching out bait..... Yes I said bait so we decided to just focus on fishing the Fraser around the confluence of the Harrison. Our main prey was to be pinks and if we are lucky, so I thought, maybe hook a big Chinook or two. First day on the water was Saturday, what a gong show. There had to be 3000 people in a 5 k stretch of the river. Tonnes of random campers, camping at the waters edge. More ATVs, 2 strokes and old blazers then I could count tearing up and down on the gravel dunes and sometimes blasting in the water behind you and I can't forget to mention the 100s of jet boats, 50% of which don't give a *hit and take the 383s and 454s full throttle past the long line anglers. So I figured what ever it tends to be a new Canadian trend, here and in BC. There was a 4 man fight just up stream from us that saw 2 dudes get stabbed, over a fish getting broken off on a line tangle up.......... wow eh. I was excited to fish with my Redington CPX 6wt 12'6" Spey as I was going to use a Skagit set up for the first time and I wanted to compare, plus I hadn't used the stick since last winter on the Bow. I was fishing with a piece of T-17 and after an hour and a half, 3 cut backs on the tip and 2 different lengths of the leader I started to seriously bang fish. This is when realizations started to come into play. You truly aren’t catching. Only 30% of the fish I landed had the fly in their mouths and I would think 90% of those were flossed. I generally fish with swivels and I could feel the swivel sliding across lips. The second day of fishing was great at first; I started to nail out pinks and then it happened. I hooked a big nasty Fraser River Chinook; the battle ensued for 15 minutes most of which was me just hanging on trying to keep my tender fingers from getting smashed by the handle of reel spinning the wrong direction at break knuckle speed. I had managed to get the beast up to shore and was holding my rod up reaching for the tail; in the iconic fly fisherman pose. The Chinook had other intentions though, with a quick thrash the big pig showed me what he thought of my 6wt, turning it to trash. I was reminded why I always carry a spare stick……….did I say always. Apparently my arrogance that was built on fishing the coast for 20+ years was rewarded with a learnt lesson. So I spent that day driving 120k round trip to get my hands on demo Sage VT2 8wt. She held up and was returned to the owner with nothing more then some burnt out cork and a sore arm. The third day of fishing wasn’t as great as the others in regards to numbers, but we managed to have a great time. It was Wednesday and the river was quite with angles but the nets were drifting down in full force so there was slim pickings. All in all, I had some great time with my dad, and I landed over 60 salmon in about 24 hours of time on the water. I don’t think salmon fishing on the fly will see much more of my attention as I think I becoming a trout snob. I enjoy the challenge, knowing fish are there but have no desire to feed on what you are offering presents problems that make us better anglers. The searching for the answers in salmon fishing come quick and once learned I find it starts to get boring. But don't get me wrong everyone should try this once, if for nothing else then a major confindence boost. Hope you dig the pics and tight lines Jay my dad with a pink me with a pink, i killed this one big humpy Doug with his first fish on the fly Test driving the Sage VT2 Quote
Jayhad Posted September 22, 2009 Author Posted September 22, 2009 Me and Pinky Classic double header Big beast Nice pink with my dad's finger another fine specimen of humpyness Quote
Jayhad Posted September 22, 2009 Author Posted September 22, 2009 crowds.... and my dad's finger Fish on PInky good bye Quote
Jayhad Posted September 22, 2009 Author Posted September 22, 2009 This one is already in the canner Quote
admin Posted September 22, 2009 Posted September 22, 2009 Looks like it was a nice trip despite the unfortunate circumstance. Colour me green, I wish I could get out for a run like that. Quote
ggp Posted September 23, 2009 Posted September 23, 2009 Awesome! Looks like you had a great time! Quote
bhurt Posted September 23, 2009 Posted September 23, 2009 Jay, You really need to burn that sage hat, lol j/k Good to see you had a good time, and when you have some time we gotta get out and slam some fish on the bow. Quote
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