[11th Warrior]

I fished the CR for a few hours today around lunch and landed (and released) 3 pinks, the largest being about 5lbs. The water is still relatively clear but it's fast and I really had to watch my step. The first fish was landed on a pink version of the Icy Blue I posted earlier this week. I snagged that fly on the bottom awhile later and went to a store-purchased pink shrimp. First cast...whammo! Pinks like shrimp! LOL.

Saw a couple of guys with spinning gear and they were doing about as the same as I was. Saw another guy with a fly rod, not far from me and I think it might have been bronjuan, based on his "get your fly down" thread.

Sorry no pics. Camera is packed for my trip to Yellowknife tomorrow morning.

 

[bronjuan]

nope, sorry not me...I was there Tuesday night and wednesday morning. I was fishin a full pink wooly bugger then a shrimp...both equally effective.

 

[HOOK]

nice report guys :thumbup: wish we got pinks over here every year like you island boys do. they are fun and stupid and hungry. the Pink wolly bugger is deadly on the Squamish also eace:

 

[PumpingIron]

nice report guys :thumbup: wish we got pinks over here every year like you island boys do. they are fun and stupid and hungry. the Pink wolly bugger is deadly on the Squamish also eace:

Where do you get that info from? Stupid and hungry? Not at all correct. For example. We fished the Oyster yesterday. We found this one pool where there were about 20-30 pinks. We tried everything to get them to bite and they wouldnt even look at it. It was crystal clear water we could see our flies go right infront of them and they wouldnt even move.

We also fished the Campbell yesterday and its slow. Their are not a lot of fish in the system. Their should be WAY more. Unless you fish the few spots where they are schooling up you wouldnt do well. They sit in a pool right beside the Quinsam mouth and if you dont mind fishing shoulder to shoulder you can get your limit quite easily. Their are a couple other areas like that as well. There are NO fish in the Quinsam which shocks me. This river should be polluted with them but its a ghost town. Their should be way more fish than their is in the Campbell and other tributaries but they are where? Even on the beaches where you would see them jumping its not happening.

 

[11th Warrior]

Interesting feedback PI. I agree the Quinsam should be teaming with fish, but right now the water level is so low, they wouldn't be able to swim in it. I was fishing between the logging road bridge and the other bridge next to River Sportsman on the Hwy 28 side. There was easily a fish jumping every 8-10 seconds. When I was there, I saw maybe 6-8 people fishing with a couple of them on the other side of the bank. Where were you fishing?

My neighbour is headed up today and he's going to take a serious look at bronjuan's idea of early Coho. Although we didn't see any yesterday, they might be there.

 

[HOOK]

well maybe the pinks get a little morfe aggressive when they hit the mighty fraser because they are extremely easy to catch when they run our waters. I have never gone out for pinks and been skunked even in the fraser tossing spoons or flies. perhaps it might be because they are still so close to the salt where you are that they arent as hungry yet? I have not been able to fish the island areas yet however my girl has relatives in Campbell river so we are going next year.

whats the best time of year so i can hit the campbell and its tribs? im also going to do some ocean fishing but they know about that as her uncle is on the water daily LOL but he never fishes the rivers

 

[bronjuan]

nice report guys :thumbup: wish we got pinks over here every year like you island boys do. they are fun and stupid and hungry. the Pink wolly bugger is deadly on the Squamish also eace:

Where do you get that info from? Stupid and hungry? Not at all correct. For example. We fished the Oyster yesterday. We found this one pool where there were about 20-30 pinks. We tried everything to get them to bite and they wouldnt even look at it. It was crystal clear water we could see our flies go right infront of them and they wouldnt even move.

We also fished the Campbell yesterday and its slow. Their are not a lot of fish in the system. Their should be WAY more. Unless you fish the few spots where they are schooling up you wouldnt do well. They sit in a pool right beside the Quinsam mouth and if you dont mind fishing shoulder to shoulder you can get your limit quite easily. Their are a couple other areas like that as well. There are NO fish in the Quinsam which shocks me. This river should be polluted with them but its a ghost town. Their should be way more fish than their is in the Campbell and other tributaries but they are where? Even on the beaches where you would see them jumping its not happening.

I don't know about that...they were teaming pretty hard there on tuesday/wednesday. One was jumping ever 2 or 3 seconds. We could NOT get into a fish for the life of us on tuesday (although it was the first time I've ever fished the river/fished for pinks) but they were pretty active on wednesday. I'm thinking that some have gone stale in there and it's important to hit the high tide right cause there will be some fresh fish coming into the river.

 

[PumpingIron]

well maybe the pinks get a little morfe aggressive when they hit the mighty fraser because they are extremely easy to catch when they run our waters. I have never gone out for pinks and been skunked even in the fraser tossing spoons or flies. perhaps it might be because they are still so close to the salt where you are that they arent as hungry yet? I have not been able to fish the island areas yet however my girl has relatives in Campbell river so we are going next year.

whats the best time of year so i can hit the campbell and its tribs? im also going to do some ocean fishing but they know about that as her uncle is on the water daily LOL but he never fishes the rivers

They dont feed when they are in the Fraser. When they bite its a reactionary bite not a feeding bite. As soon as salmon enter freshwater they dont really feed. They have one thing on their minds and thats to get to their home rivers and spawn. I have caught lots of pinks on the Fraser and when you are catching them is when big schools come through. Not just like 20 fish at a time its when thousands are coming through and thats when you catch fish. If a school of 20-30 fish came through you would have to be VERY lucky just to catch one. I just moved to the island a few months ago but have been fishing the Campbell for a few years as I have family there. On Thursday when we were there I fished just below the Quinsam and the fish were not even jumping. I did see them in the river as I had my polarized glasses on but the fish I saw were just on the move and not holding. The only place I saw where they were holding was that big pool beside the Quinsam. Below the logging bridge was packed with fisherman and I dont fish combat style so I didnt want to fish there.

As far as when to hit the Campbell your guess is as good as mine. Its best to hit the Campbell when the tide is coming in as a wave of fish would come through. Otherwise you are fishing stale fish that have probably been in the system for a couple days. Maybe they are late or maybe they just wont show up.

As far as it not having enough water thats not the reason. When salmon want to go to their spawning grounds they will try to get up even in a couple inches of water. They will move into a pool regain enough energy than go through the shallow water and keep doing that until they reach their destination.

 

[Family_man]

I just got back from the campbell and it was slow unless you could get to those specific pools. I did however get into a few springs but didn't land any. I also got to land and release a hatchery cutty that was about 15inches and really deep. The logging bridge was where I got most of my action with a coho muddler. I agree with the mouth of the quinsam being good but the river is dead.
Mike

 

[11th Warrior]

whats the best time of year so i can hit the campbell and its tribs?

:naughty: All the tribs to Campbell River (except the Quinsam) are closed to fishing all year.

 

[11th Warrior]

Further to my last report, the Campbell is starting to slow down now. I took one fish yesterday and I saw 3 more caught & released in the 4 hours we were there. The Quinsam has fish in it! 14-20" pinks are headed upstream now.

 

[PumpingIron]

I was on the Campbell on Saturday and caught 30-40 pinks. Saw about a dozen big springs rolling while I was there as well.

 

[11th Warrior]

I guess I'm only 1/30th the fisherman you are. I saw the springs as well. Those things are huge.

 

[PumpingIron]

I guess I'm only 1/30th the fisherman you are. I saw the springs as well. Those things are huge.

I doubt that. My stepfather is the one to thank for my success. He goes to the river everyday as he is retired and lives there. He found a beauty spot.

 

[11th Warrior]

Now that school is back in session in CR, and people are back to work after the long weekend, I'm heading up again today with the kids to see if I can better my luck from the weekend. Last night I tied up a bunch of pink, blue and green clouser's :thumbup: Probably only going to spend a couple of hours on the river...but it's better than working :happy:

 

[anthony]

ohhhh I miss fishing campbell river so much :'( wish i could go there more often. Now i have some port Mcneill rivers to play in but still dont compare to Campbell

 

[11th Warrior]

Well we hit the flow around 1130 and the spots under the bridge were taken, so we went up river. We ended up at the intersection of the Q and the CR. Water was crystal clear and moving quite quickly.

...and not a single fish to be found. We were there for almost 3 hours and not only did we not get a fish, nobody on the river took a fish! I fished the Q for a bit as well and I did see a couple of fish jump, but they were more like "fish that bigger fish eat". The kids were pretty disappointed (and so was I) after our success on the weekend.

I guess I'll put the clousers away until next year :wallbash:

 

[boatman38]

I managed to fish a fast little slot just below the quin,and caught a pink every ten minutes or so.Heavy sinktip and weighted fly.Too many people stay in the popular pools.I fished the little seams behind boulders in the fast water and had excellent fishing all last week.Also lots of coho in the salmon,and a nice steel in zebellos

 

[Wookie]

When they bite its a reactionary bite not a feeding bite. As soon as salmon enter freshwater they dont really feed. They have one thing on their minds and thats to get to their home rivers and spawn.

[/quote]

As for Salmon not feeding when in Freshwater, I've heard the Birkinhead stock actively feeds, and guides use 10 - 12 inch rainbow trout spey flies to catch them.... so there ...

- man I should get back to work

 

[Pat AV]

Lets keep this one on track guys, if we want to discuss the science behind hooking salmon in fresh water, a new topic in the freshwater fishing forum will be the right place to do that.

Thanks