Great River Fishing
Great River Fishing
Great River Fishing has your Vancouver to Chilliwack fishing report from October 24th.
Parts of the rivers are low and touchy, especially the old Five Fingers stretch of river (Wellington Bar to Bowmans Bar). Sturgeon has been consistent between the mouth of the Stave River and the mouth of the Harrison River, while Salmon is jam packed in the Harrison River.
Read the report below.
Sturgeon:
The sturgeon fishing has been very consistent lately. With the amazing amount of salmon in all of our river systems, the sturgeon have been making the most of it and biting well.
The early run of Chum salmon that we experienced at the end of September and the start of October have spawned and are starting to die off. Sturgeon have switched gears and are now actively seeking out chum parts. Roe and single eggs have been excellent as well as fresh and not so fresh chum meat. Also, if you have access to any white chinook meat it has been working as well as an alternative bait.
Many fish are now dropping down from the upper river and following the salmon up from the lower river and this bodes well for the sturgeon anglers fishing between the mouth of Stave River and the mouth of the Harrison River. These fish have been stacking up in the deeper holes and if you find a few, stick around, there’s bound to be more. Some guides have been doing very well fishing the shallower edges of the holes, especially for larger specimens.
The river is very low and one really needs to be careful out there right now, we have seen a few boats high and dry on the gravel bars. Of particular note the old Five Fingers stretch of river (Wellington Bar to Bowmans Bar) is very touchy and a prop driven boat should steer clear of this area. Definitely want to keep an eye out for shallow bars and watch your sounders as your running even in a jet boat.
Salmon:
What an incredible fall salmon season we are having!! All systems that typically receive salmon returns are in full swing now and by all accounts this is turning into a bumper crop of fish.
The Harrison River is jam packed with chum at the moment and the action has been incredible. Spey fishermen as well as single handed fly chucker’s have been doing very well on small flashy flies swung in the current. Float fishers have been slamming fish with jigs tipped with prawn. There also has been a bonanza of Coho around as of late and the fly guys, as well as the spin fishermen, have been getting into them consistently in the slacker waters and back eddy’s where they like to congregate.
For those that have not had a chance to fish this great fishery do not despair… it typically holds on well through the month of November and often we can find ourselves fishing for coho almost until Christmas. Also keep in mind that November brings some of the cleanest chum of the year, often chrome, these late fish tend to shoot up from the ocean and don’t have a chance to turn to their mating colors before being way up the river. If you’re looking to give a try why not drop Rick a line at rstahl@greatriverfishing.com and we’ll get you hooked up.
The Stave River is currently choked with chum as well and most of these fish are coming to anglers float fishing in the current closer to the dam. Coho are in decent numbers in the lower river and best fished on the slack tides with flies or lures.
It has been a great season for Coho and Chinook on the Vedder! It is very low but producing fish nicely throughout the river during low light conditions float fishing roe, jigs, wool combo’s and spinners. With the low water the mouth has still been producing well on the slack tides with anglers working spoons and spinners.
Read the full report originally published here.