BC Fishing Reports banner

Design suggestions please?

7K views 21 replies 9 participants last post by  Reeman 
#1 · (Edited)
Could anyone suggest the best setup for mounting a torpedo launcher to a pontoon boat. I have often thought that this modification would come in extremely handy when doing a drift on the Bulkley River. :mad:

But seriously, it is time to limit this nonsense, the last time I drifted Quick to Telkwa it was ridiculous and completely out of control. As I fished the day I came across several dead hen fish and one buck that had most likely been hooked far too many times or bashed themselves on the rocks. Of course the jet boaters are oblivious to this unfortunate state of affairs as they just blast through the frog water so that they can camp on the runs.

As a good friend once said "everybody thinks Steelhead are hard to get, the secret is if you know the score there are really just bitin' fools". I miss his sage advice. Now if others would just heed some of what he preached. I know this will be considered a troll but we are screwing up this great resource as a group and really need to seriously consider the consequences of our folly.

Clarification about how I observed the dead fish on that day.
The "frog water" down deep is usually where you see the carnage if the dead fish are not obvious and in the shallows. My new camera is a swim one to 30 feet, with underwater flash compensation and good fstop controls.
 
See less See more
  • Like
Reactions: Pat AV
#3 ·
No I am not suggesting anything of the sort. What I am suggesting is that unfortunately we are stressing this system far too much by making the access too easy and we will pay for it. There is no peace in fishing the Bulkley any more it is a ZOO largely because of jet boats! There is no reason why it cannot become drift only no fishing from boats river above Smithers.

It is time for this river to be class one above Smithers all the way up to and including the Maurice. And the JET BOATS have to go period. Sure below Maurice Town but not above. I am sorry but in my estimation there is no other alternative. And setting it to guided only with jets is not going to cut it, it needs to be classified for what it really is and that is one of the last remaining great rivers in BC PERIOD.

Like I have said I am 60 years old and do not care one wit if I offend a few greedy people, I have become completely disgusted with the state of fisheries management in this province in the last 10 years!
 
#6 · (Edited)
Before that at least there was some oversight. Now the Conversation Officers have all but been castrated. Or at least cut back to the point of complete impotence! I regularly see people walking all over the reds only days after they have been dug by Chinook. The ignorance and stupidity of the scene is appalling. Stressing fish by catching them over and over again is just plain pathetic. I have stopped angling for steelhead on most rivers for this very reason. It is absolutely true "steelhead are bitin' fools" most guides know this but pretend that they are not!

Also I have seen small fry backwater stranded by the wake of a monster jet doing warp 40, when I saw this happen 5 years ago on the Bulkley right in the Town of Smithers it woke me up to the insanity of so called "sport fishing" in this province!

Am I angry, yes, will I shut up and keep these observations to myself instead, no. I have now armed myself with a waterproof high def camera and intend to expose these and other examples of environmental stupidity very soon. I have spent too many years watching these things and keeping my mouth shut. However I do intend to act in a very responsible and sensitive way to this insanity.

The pontoon boat torpedo launcher idea was a nasty joke but what I have in mind is worse because it will embarrass the perpetrators of these travesties.
 
#5 ·
yeah, I'd have to agree with you. It would seem that our neighbors to the south are figuring things out now. Washington has no wild fish out of the water, Idaho has drift only sections. Not sure why these aren't adopted up here.
Nice thing, one of the rivers out my way has road access closed to certain areas at certain times of the year. That means a pretty big hike in, if you want to hit those holes. On the other side of the coin, a catch and keep season for bulls exists that kind of boggles my mind.
Seems to me that the mentality is to maximize use and take fisheries to the brink and then try to protect it while it teeters. It's too bad we that don't have conservation coming first and to allow fisheries to thrive.
 
#9 ·
Well I've popped the bubble of my beef so if you care to look at my other posts I believe you will see that they all center around fishing responsibly and I am not at all adverse to helping others to learn. This was the angling philosophy of our dearest friend Jack Brautigam who taught more people how to responsibly angle for sport fish than any other person I have been blessed to know. I do not act in anger or give someone camped on a good run for hours the finger as I drift by or cut in below, or mouth off.

My first steelhead was on the Quatse when I was 15 years old 45 years ago. And now because of the way people abuse these magnificent sport fish I have no interest in fishing them anymore period. Having to take a fish out of the water to take a picture is one of my gripes. So you will not see me post one for my "avatar" however the picture is about to change.

My environmental experience goes well beyond just sport fishing, but in learning to fish responsibly I have also learned how to observe much as I fish. However the peace and knowledge of fly fishing over the 35 plus years has taught me the most about the environment. Before that I was too busy making babies and the like.

Sorry I posted the rant in the boat section and I completely understand the need for a quick move into oblivion of this post. You have to pay the fare somehow for this site ;-)
Eric
 
#12 · (Edited)
Hahaha, nice Shane...thanks for that.

Ahhhh my apologies for not responding to this sooner. I did see it was here during a late lunch this afternoon, but there was no way I could take the time to respond then, please accept the delay as a matter of circumstance and nothing else.

So Reeman, first off, you must know that Prof and I are good friends, we speak with each other quite often, and fish together too from time to time, (albeit not as often as we might like). Regardless, we are friends, but this does not always mean we agree or see eye to eye, sometimes we just agree to disagree. I guess I should have known if anyone would speak up, it would be him, and I had expected that aside from you, someone else might speak up at some point. My post was fully intended to break things up a bit and give pause for thought. I had anticipated it might illicit some emotion, maybe anger, maybe even agreement in some regard. Rest assured it was meant as a good strong haul on the reigns even though you did not hear me call Whoa...

It is interesting how people take things. One person might respond with righteous indignation, another maybe with details of how great they are or how much they have done in their time on this fine earth. Others still might laugh it off, ignore things altogether, respond in kind or start a fight. What's even more interesting still is each person's vantage point and perspective, the cogs turning their thoughts so to speak. These are what are revealed to some extent in each response and the focus of it. These are both a reflection not only of them and the thoughts behind their response, but also of the person at the end of the stick which did the poke that drew the reaction in the first place.

As such, It is important that I make sure it is understood that it has never been, nor will it ever be my intention to discourage or quell ideas or passion on this site, please do not mistake my interest here as such. We might all hold the stick at any given moment, I hope that in fishing and what it teaches us we all show the humility to temper our use of it with patience, purpose, and care. To temper our human nature with the realization of the weaknesses that go with it. Pride, glory, ambition...these are many of the things that might sully the messages we intended in our good will, it can be hard for each and every one of us at any given time to acheive what we intended because of this.

I will respond mostly now to your post Reeman, but at least in part this should also satisfy Prof's post also. I hope you read very carefully and don't mistake my intent here for something it is not. You've popped no bubble on your beef, there's no surprise here, I read all your posts from the start. Your focus on responsible angling practices, ethics and environmental stewardship are exactly the subject and focus that this website has promoted all along. My sense was and still is that you would fit in quite well here. I think if you take the time to get to know the anglers in this community you will quickly realize that many of us are of like mind and ideals. Many are not only skilled and competent anglers in various disciplines and styles, but also thoughtful and conscientious in their promotion of the sport. Gary is worried I'll have a beef here...I don't per se, not in the way you or he might think. My concern is more the parts of your message that strike a chord with me, might be lost on many of the other members. You see, those that know me and Prof, and many others here at BCFR realize that we are all quite straightforward and to the point about angling ethics, responsibility, etc...we drive it home over and over again and don't give up...but there are others, the public, the less die hard anglers that don't live it like we do that you lose right away at the least bit sign of disfunction. This talk of fingering people as they drift by, the pretending, and the bitterness of it all...we understand why it is there, we even know it first hand in some ways, but for those who the message really needs to get through to you lose them right away when they hear that. Suddenly all they see is the bitterness and the personalized argument, rather than think and buy into the facts and the reasons behind what you are telling them. They see a flaw instead and the message is lost. It was my hope to point that out somehow, to say hey, whoa, in your zeal, in my zeal, in prof's zeal, we may do more harm than good when in fact we were the very best candidates to do good in the first place, and that would be a shame.

So I extended an invite to introduce yourself a while ago and there was no response, and I did again here in the hopes you would and see that BCFR is a collection of anglers with much more to offer than you might have thought...anglers of like mind and ethics who want to evoke change and make a difference. I see your comment about my avatar and I ignore it because you do not know me well enough to say otherwise or how that fish was handled but the message was good besides that, similar to those others here have given in the past. I see also your comment that I moved this thread here to this section into oblivion, but in truth, as you get to know BCFR, you will see I moved it here so that more people would see it. There is a demand here for this section and that is why it is here in the first place...we want that message to get across, and the members do too, but we also want it to get across not in the fashion of the nut holding the sign and yelling from across the street, but in the manner that gets everyone's attention and makes them read, makes them think, and has a positive effect on our fisheries.

It does not matter when your first steelhead was or how old your are. Someone half your age, or half mine for that matter, who hasn't held their first steelhead yet might hold the same ideals and have the same heart and care for our resource as you do. It doesn't matter if they can't fish like you, or if they would outfish you to such extreme embarrassment that you would never show your face on the river again, they might be of exactly the same mind you are and deserve immediate respect for it. We cannot belittle their experience or tout our own in front of them, to do that is to automatically lose at least a percentage of them. It is anglers like yourself that can make a difference, anglers like Prof, like you, like the member reading this right now that can evoke positive change, ethics and responsibility in all the newer anglers following behind them.

I see you have finally responded now and introduced yourself in the member intro section and I am glad to see it. The internet is a strange place to talk fishing, but it is a worthy effort and has potential beyond what anyone would have expected. I hope that all of us that care about it will remember that and give a damn to do it well so that the change we effect is good and worthy, and not diluted by interpretation and misundertanding instead.

I see your friend Jack had a great impact on you, and he was clearly lucky to have you as a friend. I believe that in addition to the things he did out there to impact you and those he knew, he would have done great things here too and I hope the same for you. We have anglers here that are as keen as you or I have ever been and they are willing to listen if we say it right. There are scientists and teachers, students, fathers, mothers, children and such...professionals, laborers, fish bums and the like. I think no matter who you are or how long you have fished they will listen, it's up to us to ensure the message is sound, and soundly delivered too.

I hope that this message is received well by you and all the members of BCFR who read it. I know that despite whatever differences any of us have at any given moment that we have similar values and care for the same things every day we live. I know for sure that if we were to meet each other on the river bank we would get along just fine and fish in peace, anyone who knows me well enough would know that much is true.

So in the spirit of the title of your thread, and since I have been allowed my suggestion here, all boat designs aside, what designs do you think might be good for the steelhead fisheries of the Skeena and why, specifically but not exclusively the Bulkley and the Morice...?

:cheers:
 
#16 · (Edited)
each other on the river bank we would get along just fine and fish in peace, anyone who knows me well enough would know that much is true.

So in the spirit of the title of your thread, and since I have been allowed my suggestion here, all boat designs aside, what designs do you think might be good for the steelhead fisheries of the Skeena and why, specifically but not exclusively the Bulkley and the Morice...?

:cheers:
The real guides are usually considerate when booting along, A sensible and enforceable limit to the speed size and weight on small water like the Bulkley is an absolute minimum. But the real problem comes down to the number of anglers. Obviously as the pressure increases over the next few years, as it inevitably will in an essentially unregulated environment the Bulkley and other smaller rivers will continue to just be an extension of the highways system they might be better served by the Minister of Highways .

Sorry I see no other answer on smaller rivers in the areas where fish spawn and hold.:(

The question you posed seems rather unfair as there is a huge difference between jet boating on the Fraser near mission or the Skeena near Terrace when the said sleds are then used in the skinny September water of the Bulkley.:2cents:

Of course a 20' super sled with a 400 merc would eat rock on the Bulkley so at least you do not see them, but you certainly see the same 40 plus horse 14s-18s.
 
#13 ·
What's interesting here, is I read you both conveying similar messages in different ways. Your ideas, thoughts and concerns are organized differently, but it SEEMS focused in the same regard. I would challenge any journalist from the Washington Post or New York Times to write an article as compelling or thoughtful as some that have been done here in the past. The contributors to this site are far more than just fisherman...
 
#15 · (Edited)
I am very sorry that I have deeply offended the Prof. I assure you I had absolutely no idea he is a member!
I am no saint and do greatly appreciate Profs efforts to educate anglers in this province. I will tone down my sarcasm in the future. I am hoping to, in my lifetime see a Cariboo lake name after Jack Brautigam it was he who taught many to still fish those lakes. I am the individual who named his special bug the "karma". As a memorial to Jack there is no better choice than Fir where he has a memorial at the second point across from the camping grounds. He died putting on his waders, Cariboo Fly and Tackle in Quesnel for many years before the big box stores hit the town was his store and he only lost it due to his poor health NOT THE COMPETITION.

DO NOT think for one second that I blame the Prof for messing up the fishing on Fir! It is not as if people from all over the planet who want to fish the best places cannot easily figure things out by using well known and heavily used Government Of BC sponsored internet resources to find these places!

Fish Wizard and the stocking reports made it so a ten year old in Pawtucket could figure it out and beg his dad to take him to Fir Lake!

Thanks for understanding my folly and pigheadedness.
Eric
 
#17 · (Edited)
Reeman, sorry for my delay in replying here.

I think you have confused our member Professori, with some other "Prof" that you might know from your travels. I don't believe they are the same person, nor was Prof miffed with you, but rather, he was miffed with me.

Regardless, to your points then...

I supposes the question about the Skeena might seem unfair, but in my haste I think I may have mislead you as to the purpose of it...I should have said Skeena watershed and not just Skeena, because what I was asking was what your designs were for the regulations as you felt they should be, and as they would apply to any river draining into the Skeena, ie: the entire watershed, or to specific rivers in different ways, whatever you like.

Now recent changes to the regulations closing fishing to nonresident anglers on weekends etc, etc...were made as of last year. I am not sure how the program is working in the field since it was put in place, but I do see some positives. There are a reasonable number of rivers where guiding is not permitted, weekends for Canadian citizens only on many of them also. It seems at least an effort is being made to adapt to the growing number of anglers, and clearly its needed.

Now, by the sound of your lament you have had some issue with jet boats. Personal issue. This is understandable, I too have had my own days when a jet comes roaring in and spoils at least the next few hours that it is around. Are you running into a lot of jet boats on the non guided resident only days also? Weekends? How about the river where guiding is not even permitted?

I am not arguing for or against your suggestions, I am simply looking for some elaboration, clarity and more perspective on your stance here. I've included a copy of the Skeena watershed angling regulations changes with this post so that the members can view it for themselves as a reference.

Looking forward to your contributions,

Sincerely,

Rib
 

Attachments

#18 · (Edited)
Thanks for obtaining and posting the latest relevant document on this regions steelhead regs.

As a suggestion it would really be good for this site if you could somehow put a permanent link right in the php? css boarder headers to the regs if the Government still allows it. If not you could do it easily without a link and a cut and paste address "http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/fish/regulations/" (only without the quotes) with a non redirecting open tab css change. Not a terribly difficult task for a real php? web guru.

Sorry even thinking about php? makes my <head> ache!

I will study it in depth as I have not read the steelhead regs for a while I just get endorsed and pick up the synopsis in a shop...old school.
Also I will consult with others who regularly fish the Bulkley as I have not been there in 3 years and then we completely avoided Smithers and just hiked into Humble Pie. Then took off for the Copper and others before the leaf hatch makes dry fly rather difficult without having to use too many things that come out of the spey wallet.
Or having a sudden encounter with the real spey guru and realizing my wallet was inadequate.

I did fill out the questionnaire on this issue a while back when it came in the mail. But the options I chose were obviously not very popular to the majority which certainly must now be mostly the jet boaters. And pro corps and/or non reg corp fly enterprises in BC.

Regards
Eric
 
#19 · (Edited)
Thanks for obtaining and posting the latest relevant document on this regions steelhead regs.

As a suggestion it would really be good for this site if you could somehow put a permanent link right in the php? css boarder headers to the regs if the Government still allows it. If not you could do it easily without a link and a cut and paste address "http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/fish/regulations/" (only without the quotes) with a non redirecting open tab css change. Not a terribly difficult task for a real php? web guru.

Sorry even thinking about php? makes my <head> ache!

I will study it in depth as I have not read the steelhead regs for a while I just get endorsed and pick up the synopsis in a shop...old school.
Also I will consult with others who regularly fish the Bulkley as I have not been there in 3 years and then we completely avoided Smithers and just hiked into Humble Pie. Then took off for the Copper and others before the leaf hatch makes dry fly rather difficult without having to use too many things that come out of the spey wallet.

I did fill out the questionnaire on this issue a while back when it came in the mail. But the options I chose were obviously not very popular to the majority which certainly must now be mostly the jet boaters. And pro corps and/or non reg corp fly enterprises in BC.

Regards
Eric
We have links to the regulations in our link directory and our "a little bit about BCFR" welcome page, amongst other places.

Just about every angler here probably has the regulations in their favorites and saved in their phones for offline reading in the off chance they need to double check the regs while on the road.

But thank you for the suggestion nonetheless...::)

Don't be daft man, the sarcasm and web guru garbage is insulting. Old school would not suffer such behavior, so to claim some imagined status for reducing yourself to such a level is incredulous. And what's this about you not knowing the regs now either????!??! :eek:

You've been criticizing them and you haven't even read them in a while, nor even been there in the last 3 years to see whether things have changed!?!? This was big news, important to the fishing community and just put in place last year after work by countless advocates on all sides to resolve the issues...and you didn't even look at the changes before you started bitching that changes needed to be made????????????????????

I am incredulous at your nerve reeman, with your insulting the forum and its members in the other thread, this here, and various comments in other posts since you signed up, some humility on your part at this point would go a long way, 'cause you are certainly losing my respect.

:mad::mad::mad:
 
#21 ·
Just wanted to expand on my brief post from last night and thank Reeman for bringing this up. This board is very Fraser watershed focused and it is good to see other areas being discussed. Also it is good to see some discussion happening period, seems like things have been very quiet for a long time.

To speak directly to the topic of jet boats on the B/Mo I would like to see powered watercraft banned above the Bimac boat launch. I think that would be a good compromise and would give guys an area to drift without fear of being run down.

As to issues facing Skeena steelhead in general RIGHT NOW the biggest one is interception of steelhead by commercial boats targeting Babine Lake sockeye. These sockeye should be harvested for sure as they are doing quite well, I would like to see it done selectively as the dollar values associated with Skeena steel are huge and there is nothing like it left on the planet.

The biggest threat facing Skeena Steel moving forward will be Northern Gateway Pipeline (NGP) and the many other pipelines proposed to run through the watershed.

What we can all do is look into the policy of each government trolling for our vote in the upcoming BC election. Find out who opposes NGP and vote for them.

As far as changing boat regs on the B/ Mo a letter to the appropriate government agency is all we can do diddo for commercial interception.
 
#22 ·
On target and focused, thank you I agree totally.

At a minimum nothing with motors above the highway bridge in Smithers. If this puts too much pressure on the Chicken Creek area and the residents of Smithers close enough to the River finally get tired of the Indy 500 antics during steelhead season then perhaps access will need to be restricted to a lottery on boats and only with the minimum requirements for running against the current. Which is about 20-25 horse jet on a light 14 foot with no more than 3 anglers in the boat.

If the guides cannot compete on the same footing with non guided drift and pontoon boats then they have no business calling themselves guides. Fishin' taxi drivers yes but certainly not river guides.

Of course emergency boats and the CO would be the exception, for obvious reasons. But if the COs are smart they would use pontoon boats or drift boats and a satellite phone. Why warn the cheating anglers or fish poachers?

Unfortunately the last few times I was on the river it has started to look like a limited lottery in combination with guided rod days
might be almost necessary. This is why it must become class one water period and must have controlled access numbers in combination with resident only days.

Big brother yes but we have brought it all upon ourselves by ignoring things for too many years.



I believe I covered the other issue regarding an oil pipeline in another rather sarcastic but painfully ironic (to me at least) post about a poor Moose.
If we are to seriously consider the possibility of a rupture in the upper Morice especially during high flows the consequence would be felt in more than just Houston as I highly doubt that booming the Morice would help, if the spill was as bad as what happened in Michigan. But we are treading on slippery waters here and drifting off topic. One thing I do know though is having shut off valves remotely controlled in Houston BC or worse Houston Texas will not be adequate if a rupture ever does occur in any critical area.

Unfortunately we might have absolutely no say or even real input in the decisions that are finally made. Oil sales seem to be job one in this case. All this is subject for a different topic though and you have heard my opinions on the issue, someone could get rich piloting steam powered paddle wheel guide boats if the pipeline pops. NO problem finding fuel.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samnjoe
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top