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I left the city behind right after my dental appt. and made a B-line directly to Peg leg bar to see first hand what all the posts were about and what the place looked like first hand. I thought, being a Monday, it wouldn't be quite as crazy as the weekend. Boy, was I wrong! :shock:
Firstly, I surprised to see how low the river actually is! The clarity in the water was perfect....at leat 4-5 feet in the slower water but surely 2-3 ft. in the main channel.
Last time I was there it was a bit of a dicey drive over the rock and sand to the river, but it is an easy drive (and no walk) to the entire bar, which is making it easily accessible to all.
On arrival, I parked and watched how the "flossers" flossed............My conclusion was, It is the same as any other type fishing....10% of the fishers catch 90% of the fish. I saw one rod catch five sockeye in 6-7 casts, and talked to others beside him who had not caught a fish for hours! There is a definite skill involved in being succesful, and it starts with the type of rod and reel. The level wind reel will outfish the spincasters 5-1..Now I am not saying it can't be done with a spincast outfit but it is definitely more difficult.
The longer the rod, the easier the cast, especially when you are waist deep in water. The place you choose to fish is dependant on the weight you use...Too much, you are on the bottom, too little and you are not in the "zone". I picked up four rigs from the bottom in shallow water.
The local native band had a small armada of boats out fishing the main channel above peg leg and I watched with interest as to how many actually were caught. Each set was in the boat usually just above where the channel splits, then they went to their camp on the northshore of the river where they were loaded into totes..I counted the release process from four separate boats and the average drift netted around 30-50 fish, and they were drifting by every ten minutes all day.
I casted some flies in the upper area and over a two hr. period I managed to catch a couple of small trout, and one resident 'bow around 1 lb. or so, and had one sockeye on for a few seconds.........fish on, fish off!
Now, later in the day around 4-4:30, I decided to set up my gear rod with what I had found in the river and give it a go....Knowing full well, this is a floss fishery, I watched with interest from the bank. Same guys, more fish.plenty of people with nothing. So I went down for a closeup and said to the guy" You are pretty good at this! What are the secrets to you catching many fish and the others catching nothing?"
"Simple", he said, "very sharp hooks, 10 foot. leader, the correct weight for the water speed.Cast, wind five turns(gets the hook down)....wait til the second or third bounce and pull". OK, I said to him, why arn't these people catching any fish below you? They seem to be doing what you are doing?...."Oh, theyre not using the right equipment" he said.
You have to free spool after the first bounce to get a drag loop in the line."
Now, you have to understand, this fishery is quite foreign to me but I have fished for a long time and getting the right drift at the right depth is not something new. So, I rigged up my HMX Graphite with the 2 Oz. 'betty and the 10 ft. leader that I found on the beach, pinched the barb (last person forgot, I guess??) and made a long cast out into the middle of the river.
Splash!!! Wind five turns, bounce, bounce, free spool, BAM! fish on!.....Next cast....nothing, just a few comments about "beginners luck"......Next cast, same as the first....Bam! Fish on!....Landed them both, and dropped them into the ice box, packed my stuff and left.
On the way out , the DFO were checking all fishers for licences/ coolers for numbers. I gladley showed them my paperwork and the TWO fish I had in the cooler and told them I was glad to see them, cause there are a lot of people down there that "APPEAR TO BE OVER THE DAILY LIMIT"
So that will likely be my one and only floss fishery, but under the present rules, it was legal, and fun to some degree.........At least I didn't go home empty handed!.....Also realizes what a family, social "event" this is with hundreds of families spending a day at the river, having fun.....To be conservative, there were 500 people fishing a mile of river and I saw at least that many fish caught.
An interesting side note to this after reading this morning's paper , I noticed the recreational fishery was left out of the count for the number of fish caught by "sporties". I realize that in the big picture, there are not so many caught as compared to other methods of fishing, but from what I witnessed in 6 hours on the Fraser on Monday, that sport caught number, including all the guide boats, could well exeed the current estimates........Ortho 8)
Firstly, I surprised to see how low the river actually is! The clarity in the water was perfect....at leat 4-5 feet in the slower water but surely 2-3 ft. in the main channel.
Last time I was there it was a bit of a dicey drive over the rock and sand to the river, but it is an easy drive (and no walk) to the entire bar, which is making it easily accessible to all.
On arrival, I parked and watched how the "flossers" flossed............My conclusion was, It is the same as any other type fishing....10% of the fishers catch 90% of the fish. I saw one rod catch five sockeye in 6-7 casts, and talked to others beside him who had not caught a fish for hours! There is a definite skill involved in being succesful, and it starts with the type of rod and reel. The level wind reel will outfish the spincasters 5-1..Now I am not saying it can't be done with a spincast outfit but it is definitely more difficult.
The longer the rod, the easier the cast, especially when you are waist deep in water. The place you choose to fish is dependant on the weight you use...Too much, you are on the bottom, too little and you are not in the "zone". I picked up four rigs from the bottom in shallow water.
The local native band had a small armada of boats out fishing the main channel above peg leg and I watched with interest as to how many actually were caught. Each set was in the boat usually just above where the channel splits, then they went to their camp on the northshore of the river where they were loaded into totes..I counted the release process from four separate boats and the average drift netted around 30-50 fish, and they were drifting by every ten minutes all day.
I casted some flies in the upper area and over a two hr. period I managed to catch a couple of small trout, and one resident 'bow around 1 lb. or so, and had one sockeye on for a few seconds.........fish on, fish off!
Now, later in the day around 4-4:30, I decided to set up my gear rod with what I had found in the river and give it a go....Knowing full well, this is a floss fishery, I watched with interest from the bank. Same guys, more fish.plenty of people with nothing. So I went down for a closeup and said to the guy" You are pretty good at this! What are the secrets to you catching many fish and the others catching nothing?"
"Simple", he said, "very sharp hooks, 10 foot. leader, the correct weight for the water speed.Cast, wind five turns(gets the hook down)....wait til the second or third bounce and pull". OK, I said to him, why arn't these people catching any fish below you? They seem to be doing what you are doing?...."Oh, theyre not using the right equipment" he said.
You have to free spool after the first bounce to get a drag loop in the line."
Now, you have to understand, this fishery is quite foreign to me but I have fished for a long time and getting the right drift at the right depth is not something new. So, I rigged up my HMX Graphite with the 2 Oz. 'betty and the 10 ft. leader that I found on the beach, pinched the barb (last person forgot, I guess??) and made a long cast out into the middle of the river.
Splash!!! Wind five turns, bounce, bounce, free spool, BAM! fish on!.....Next cast....nothing, just a few comments about "beginners luck"......Next cast, same as the first....Bam! Fish on!....Landed them both, and dropped them into the ice box, packed my stuff and left.
On the way out , the DFO were checking all fishers for licences/ coolers for numbers. I gladley showed them my paperwork and the TWO fish I had in the cooler and told them I was glad to see them, cause there are a lot of people down there that "APPEAR TO BE OVER THE DAILY LIMIT"
So that will likely be my one and only floss fishery, but under the present rules, it was legal, and fun to some degree.........At least I didn't go home empty handed!.....Also realizes what a family, social "event" this is with hundreds of families spending a day at the river, having fun.....To be conservative, there were 500 people fishing a mile of river and I saw at least that many fish caught.
An interesting side note to this after reading this morning's paper , I noticed the recreational fishery was left out of the count for the number of fish caught by "sporties". I realize that in the big picture, there are not so many caught as compared to other methods of fishing, but from what I witnessed in 6 hours on the Fraser on Monday, that sport caught number, including all the guide boats, could well exeed the current estimates........Ortho 8)
once you get the hang of flossing :? it gets easier every time
