Outdoor Encounters

conditions, temperature, moon etc and to know where and why the fish
hold/move through the rivers."]]>

I went fishing recently with some great friends of mine in Canada for some late Coho fishing on the famous Vedder River. It was a rough one as coming into town to visit old friends often leads to a great dinner and even better wine, but when you love fishing as much as I do it’s as simple as setting the alarm to make your first light spot before anyone else heading out for the weekend does - and there is always lot’s!

I’m constantly reminded of the importance of gear on infrequent trips like these. I had problems with some of my gear and missed the all important first light because of the dreaded “rats nest!”
“Always carry a backup reel” I preach! “Make sure you do this and do that so you don’t get a rat’s nest or your gear doesn’t fail.”
Well I was humbled this weekend, but as always it’s great to see old friends that you love to spend time with on one of the best fisheries in the world - the one and only Vedder.

My friend, who is a great Coho angler, recently asked me;

“I’d really like to learn how to read the river better, water
conditions, temperature, moon etc and to know where and why the fish
hold/move through the rivers.”

His concern is the changing river system and salmon numbers due to the ever changing environmental effects such as rain, residential or commercial development and maybe even global warming! I think we all have these questions at one point or another and I’m going to try and help us all out by covering these topics in future articles at www.gosalmonfishing.com

First off though, we need to understand that this year was definitely different than others on the West Coast as the summer was quite wet and the Fraser River saw record high water levels and a closed Sockeye Fishery. Even Spring salmon and Chum were few and far between in the river systems from reports but that could be due to sports fishing populations being down from previous years.

With that said, the Coho have been very abundant and Ryan along with others have caught more fish this year than in other years! Is it because of the lower amounts of anglers due to unfishable waters? Is it the absence of fish like Chum and Springs, that Coho are usually afraid to hang out with, the reason they are more active and less shy? Is it the low pressures of the angling community due to bad weather? Or are the numbers just up this year?

We’ll have a look at these topics and get to the bottom of them as best we can. In the mean time, don’t forget to check out some of go salmon fishing’s tips and techniques for more answers to your questions as well as recipes, tackle and species information to name just a couple of topics!

http://www.gosalmonfishing.com
http://www.rifles-n-rods.com

River fishing for salmon in strong flowing currents like the Columbia, Fraser, Thompson and the King Salmon River, just to name a few, can yeild some of the biggest baddest bodies of water with pools, back eddies and tail-outs that contain fights against monsters you may never forget! Because of their importance and size and the abundance of tributaries that feed them, these oceanic “arteries” are extremely important and rich with wildlife including salmon and have a variety of ways to put these beauties on your dinner table or just provide a fantastic and memorable sporting adventure!

Go Salmon Fishing.com has always said, fishing changes all the time from place to place, decade to decade and we love to use the internet to expose every tactic and bag of tricks, so you can teach people up north or down south, today or ten years from now, what you know works for you! You may raise a few eyebrows, but in showing them some pictures of your success through sending them into us, you can prove how well it works for you. Let’s go over some of these freshwater techniques right now. Bottom bouncing for salmon has really come a long way in the world of salmon anglers and is a very productive way to fish on a sand bar or gravel bed while the salmon make a run to their breeding grounds to complete their life cycles. For those who haven’t been exposed to the lingo of the avid angler things like “bouncing betties, pencil lead” and “blades” might sound a little funky, but we’ll cover all that stuff in the bottom bouncing section so check it out!

Bar fishing is so popular in fact, that it has done some “spawning” of it’s own in the way of having an etiquette evolve out of it. Because of popularity and abundance of weekend warrior gatherings, there has been a surge in un friendly conduct out on the rivers, so anglers who are out there to have fun have embraced this etiquette in order to make it a pleasant experience for all, so I urge everyone to go over this section. Although there are always bad apples that spoil the crowd, I’ve met amazing people out on the rivers and everyone has some great stories to tell, young and old.

Bottom bouncing or bar fishing definitely has its limitations and some anglers will hop into a boat to combat this problem as some bodies of water are much too deep and swift to cross by foot. Crossing a river can lead to some great bars as well as a little more peace and quiet as not everyone has access to boats. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to get into more fish though.

For those of you who don’t mind the challenge of finding fish in a boat and just love getting out into nature and trying something challenging with some amazing scenery, I recommend drift fishing!

Drift fishing on rivers has been one of the most successful techniques for steelhead fishing since the good old times when the old boys would chuck a line out from a log they were floating down the river for logging purposes and get into a silver bar! Obviously things have changed allot since then – fish are less plentiful, anglers use oars with backup motors mounted on specialty drifting boats that have an elevated and specially designed bow and stern to cut through the rapids

Fishing quietly on the river can be just as rewarding as it was back in the day, sometimes even more so. Fishing guides who know every method, piece of bait and holding pool can be a great way to try drift fishing for you first time, but if you think you already have what it takes or you want to learn more about drift fishing for salmon read more here!

A common way of fishing salmon on the Northwest Coast in US rivers is called backtrolling and is synonymous with backbouncing which uses similar tactics with a different setup of gear. Both approaches are very productive and often overlooked when you cross the border and show anglers in BC how you do it.

To learn more about these two methods of river fishing, be sure to check out our backtrolling and backbouncing pages for more information on exact techniques and how to rig up your gear at ;

http://www.gosalmonfishing.com
http://www.rifles-n-rods.com