Fishing Report
January 14, 2012
Happy New Year Everyone!
With the arrival of winter many fly fisher intention’s turn towards the indoors. Whether it be tying flies, pouring over maps or repairing and prepping gear for the up coming spring, winter is a time of planning and preparation. For those of you that are interested in sharpening your skills or furthering your fly fishing knowledge base, Michael & Young will be offering a variety of specialized courses and seminars through out the winter and spring. Winter usually brings along another sickness that many of us have fallen to time and time again; cabin fever. For those of you that are already feeling the symptoms of a long winter, here are a few options that may help ease the “pain”.
Steelhead fishing has been fairly good on the Vedder so far this season with the mild weather. This week the river has been on the drop and clearing steadily as this cold snap moved in. We have heard of a number of fly caught fish this week, on everything from black to hot pink. It seems like there are decent numbers of steelhead throughout the system.
We have heard of steelhead on some of the other local systems, including the Chehalis, Stave and Allouette Rivers. Keep in mind that many of these systems, including the Vedder, may still have a scattering of late season Coho trying to spawn. These fish should be left alone to finish the circle of life that they have started; any incidental catches of Coho should be handled with care and released as quickly as possible.
Cutthroat fishing has been decent throughout the Lower Mainland, also perhaps due to the milder weather. Try the Harrison, Stave, Little Campbell, Nicomekl, Alouette, and the sloughs and backwaters of the Fraser. Also, beach fishing the salt can be very productive for cutties at this time of year.
Cutts will start focusing their attention towards staple foods such as nymphs and minnows. Try dragging small black stonefly nymphs or small black leaches slowly along the bottom with the odd erratic tug. One can also try to dead drift them in the current under indicators to detect the subtle takes of winter fish. Minnows are usually quite small this time year and can be fished on the swing in current or stripped through slack water as well. Reports have suggested that there are some alevins starting to hatch, and egg patterns are still productive as well. Sculpins are also a good and often over looked source of protein for eager cutts. Use small Zonkers and leech patterns stripped erratically at different depths; this will usually produce a few fish as well.
Keep moving until you locate a pod of fish as most cutts will not travel alone and if you get one there’s bound to be more in the near vicinity. Remember that the even though the fish are fairly lethargic they will move around quite a bit, so just because you found them one day doesn’t always mean that they’ll be there the next.
Some Dolly Varden and Bull Trout action has been reported on the Squamish and Cheakamus Rivers. These char stay active all winter long as cold water temperatures do not effect them as they do the trout family. Try swinging Zonker style flies as well as large leaches along the bottom through runs and deep pools. Often these fish will respond better to a stripped fly than a swung or dead drifted one, so keep changing it up until you can figure out what they like.
Our Annual Spey Day will be on Saturday, April 14th this year. Special guests include Travis Johnson, member of the prestigious Carron Spey Casting Team, and Mike McCune, steelhead guide and Skagit casting legend (the “M” in the “MOW” tips from Rio). For more information on our Spey Day or any of our regular courses, please give us a call or stop by. We have a couple new classes this year, including an intruder fly tying class, tube fly tying class, and Skagit casting boot camp class. Also, we just received a GIANT shipment of 2012 Simms products, including the new Flyte and Headwaters Goretex Jackets, as well as Guide and Freestone boots with felt soles.
Happy fishing!
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