[thefishnfool]

I know that it is steelhead season and all but I have a few questions for the salmon fisherman on board.

Being from down here in the states, my normal methods for springs (or kings as we call them) include, anchor fishing kwikfish, backtrolling, anchor fishing eggs, etc. I see when looking back at the posts on here for the last couple of years, that most guys on the fraser are either bottom bouncing, or bar fishing. I noticed that Abbyfireguy as well as Gofish last summer made mention of fishing with prawn spinners (another method that I like to fish) and also fishing kwikies.

So my questions would be be, how deep are these fish traveling in? Being that your bar fishing I would imagine that they are traveling pretty close to shore, but has anybody ever tried to fish some of the deeper slots from a boat or are there rules in place that you can't fish from a boat like some of our rivers do? When you are bar fishing are you just running a plain spin/glow or are you backing it up with a big glob of eggs?

What are the regs on the Frazer as far as bait, allowable methods, etc.

I have a sled and would love to experiement with some of our techniques on the Frazer. I think that they would be just as deadly there as they are here. Kinda similar to steelhead fishing in that you guys showed us the float fishing deal many years ago and now some of our river techniques for salmon are starting to catch on up there.

I would be very interested in taking somebody out that new the river and wanted to experiment with some new techniques.

Tim

 

[Mike D.]

Hey,

Others may say this differently...but this is how I look at it..

Chinook Salmon tend to run in "guts", "troffs" or "allies" in the fraser river.....its a matter of finding the right gut and fishing it...either from shore or from the boat...when bar fishing from the boat, this is called "plunking" as you are just tossing your bar fishing set up behind the boat....a depth sounder is very helpful when finding guts to anchor in....I like to look at the bottom when I am doing so...go close to shore and slowly drive your way out....look at the depths and the bottom....if the bottom is flat, and depth is not changing significantly than you are not fishing fishy water.....when you find a gut you will go from 3 feet of water to maybe 7-15 feet pretty rapidly (looks like a small drop off on the sounder) or a gradual slope.....anchor in the middle of the gut...(depends how wide it is) and cast your rods out.....I love it when fishing with 4 rods in the boat..most of the time a whole ally width can be covered!

Same as bar fishing...I see guys casting in 3-4 feet of water that is very slow moving...and they complain that fishing sucks...the key is to find where the guts are or where the water starts to deepen.....most of my springs from shore in 2006 were caught in 6-10 feet of water and it was moving at around a rapid walking speed......I managed 1 spring in water under 4 feet........but I know some days from shore I was casting out as far as I could and hooked nothing...and the guys anchoring right on the edge of the gut were nailing springs!

This year I think will have limited bar fishing oppourtunities....due to the 4th or 5th largest snow pack since the 50's! so the water will be very high, dirty, and there will be a limited amount of gravel bars....there will be guts every where......whether or not a guy can anchor in the raging waters of the prime fraser river.....but...in my mind barfing will suck until about mid-late july.....as clarity will be horrible...and the glos, kwik fish etc..will be hard to see etc....

When I bar fish, I do not put a big glob of roe on, although some people do...but I think the new trend is beginning to turn into bottled scents .......although this year will be different those big globs might add a ton of scent etc...as I reely do not want to floss for springs when sockeye are closed to retention....this answers your REGS question....the DFO last yr (06) asked the sporties to use selective methods (any method that does not snag fish) like chucking spooons, heaving bar rigs etc....for the most part we listened.....there was a few sections of concern...there is also a rule that in freshwater "fin fish" cannot be used other than when targeting sturgeon...so no chovies etc. for springers....but prawns are ok as they are not classified as a fin fish (yet anyways)

Hope some of this helps...will have a fun time out there this yr...so far I have 6 killer combo's ready to be tested this yr! will tell you know how horrible the results were ;D

Mike <")))))))><

 

[thefishnfool]

Mike-
Thanks for the reply! I would whole heartedly agree with what you say as these are the same things that I would look for on all the rivers that I fish also. That is a pretty universal thing in river salmon fishing no matter what river you so choose to employ it on (with exceptions of course).

I love it when you can cover a swat like that. I like to call it "the wall of death."

What is the run timing on the fish? Looking through reports and what I can find on the net, it looks like there is an early run of fish end of May/first part of june, and then the main run of fish would be end of June-August or am I way off base?

When fishing high, dirty water like that I have always done well running big baits of eggs and getting a large scent trail going when visually induced strikes are hard to come by. When you say the water "clears" up, how clear does it usually get?

I have heard that you are not allowed to use dead fish for bait. What is the logic behind this rule or is there one? I would suspect that it is something to do with conservation but maybe there is someother idea behind it. Seams that with all the problems that you have with flossing, that the DFO would try to make it easier and give guys incentives to try and fair hook fish, ie use of ALL baits allowed.

Anyways, thanks in advance for your your responses. It's always good to toss ideas around. The day I stop learning, is the day that they bury me.

Tim

 

[Crazy Drifter]

Hey fishinfool
Mike D hit pretty much all the main points on the river. As far as times the main spring runs start showing up june after the freshet ends. there are some fish in May,but the big runs start showing up after. Last year I started experimenting with different lures, and found spin"n"glows set ups( old faithfuls) were definately more effective in faster guts and using kwik fish, hotshots and I think they were called apex's( look similar to a flat fish)in slower areas was quite productive. My thinking behind this was the hot shots and lures action was too much in the fast water where as the spin and glows love the high flow , the whole noise thing. I also used blue fox's and mepps' in some of the areas where the main flow went from shallow to deep, like a riffle in smaller flows and found that either plunked or casted produced fish quite regularly
As far as clarity goes this year during the peak of summer there were some areas where visiblility was 6 ft. plus, and the mighty muddy Fraser had a blue green tinge to it.
Cheers,
Crazy D

 

[Mike D.]

Wall of death! that sounds cool lol, I'm gonna say that next time I go plunking ;D

We used to have strong numbers in early springs....but now it seems as if we have seen a rather disturbing downfall in recent years...conservation could be the key but I don't want to touch that....I remember going out and hooking into 4 springs a day over the 1st weekend of may...just before the freshet!

You have it right on the nose with June-August, June is a little spotty and it peaks right in august..and september is pretty good until around the 20th I will say...

one day you'll nail em...next day it will be crappy for some reason or not very consistent.....thats when I started to think...we hit a good spot on the lower one day nailed fish...moved up river the next nailed fish...and misa versa for most of the yr....ooops I said a secret....dunno if it worked or not in total (spirits or sumthing?)...but buddies who fished the spot the days we didn't fish them got very little hits....there seemed to almost be a dead zone...... : wonder why....

if you ask why its spotty...its because there is not a consistent stream of springs going through anymore they seem to be stacking up somewhere...when a school moves through...your bound to get one...not like years ago when you could cast out there and hold onto your rod because your bound to get one on in 5 minutes! Thats the good days when I was introduced to BF! amazing fishery!

The fall chinook fishery is a good one to check out, although the majority of them are whities.....there is still a good fight to be had (some get up to 60lbs!)....I'm going to try to pull plugs for them on the Harrison and Fraser this fall... I normally have the fly rod in hand and target Coho and Chum, and also target sturgies with the meat stick...but for a change I'm gonna target springs on the PLUGS! ;D

Mike <")))))))><

 

[rln]

fishnfool
no bait wraps using sardines or other fish (herring, anchovies,etc.) are allowed on plugs. You can wrap with shrimp,squid, etc.

 

[thefishnfool]

Mike & everyone else that replied-
Once again thanks for the replies. Will store the information for use this summer/fall.

I hear ya on losing runs of fish. Seams like not to long ago (5 years or so) our steelhead rivers were open for catch and release on wild fish until the end of april with some of them being open year 'round. Now all we have left that stays open after the end of Feb. is the upper Skagit above Concrete and the almighty Sauk. Kind of a bummer in that our best steelhead fisheries have been shut down. The worst part about it all is that instead of all the pressure spreading out over 3 different river systems, it is all on the Skagit system now. Wouldn't suprise me if they shut this fishery down in the next couple of years for that very reason.

July/August is a good month for me to come up there being as the Skagit have a small king fishery on it that goes on in June. Can be a real hit/miss type fishery but can also be very good at times depending on the water flow. The first year that it was open the water was way to low and last year for the majority of the season the river was in the trees but when it did drop into shape, the guys in boats did very good.

A little trick that I have found that works well in area's where you can't use your standard bait wraps of 'chovies, sardines, etc is to take a peice of foam or velcro and cut into the shape of a bait wrap and install it on the plug like you would a sardine fillet. Then you can take and soak the peice in your favorite smelly jelly, shrimp oil etc. This seams to work better than just squirting the plugs down with the scent. One thing to keep in mind is when you are putting scents on the plugs ALWAYS apply them to the belly of the plug as they will stay on a lot longer.

Crazy D- Have you ever tried the unweighted trolling spinners? I know that back in the day when the Lower Skagit here was open that is what a majority of the old timers used and they knocked the shiat out of the big kings on them. The cool thing about them, is that unlike your standard vibraxes that have a weighted body that are hard to barfish or plunk, these just have beads for the body so they stay higher in the water column. They are also very popular in alaska, Tillamook bay, and also on the Columbia. Plus they do very well in faster waters where a kwikfish will wash out.

A little tip on running kwikies in faster water. While you can flat line them out behind the boat or run them on a lead dropper, by far the most effective way that I have found in faster water is to run either a number 30 or 50 Lure Jenson Jet Diver in front of the plug. The diver takes the force of the current in the diving aspect and allows that action on the plug to open up and slow down. The slower, the wider, and the more erratic that action on the plug the better off you are. In fast water the action on the kwikies gets real tight side to side and that is not good. To rig this up one would first slide a medium sized bead up the mainline, followed by a slider, then another bead and tie on a larger sized bead chain swivel. Off of the slider you would run about 25-30 inches of leader to the diver and off of the bead chain I run between 4 and 5 feet of leader to the plug. This is also a very effective way to rig the plugs for fishing water between 15 and 50 feet deep.

Tightlines to all and if anyone else has any input, feel free to add.

Tim

 

[Crazy Drifter]

We'll definately be trying the wieghted spinners this summer. I would like to see a picture of that planer system though.
Crazy D

 

[thefishnfool]

Crazy-
Will rig one up tonight and post a pic either tonight or tomorrow.
Tim