Sockeye salmon (reds) are in- great fun and great supper pic added

[Okanagan]

Sockeye salmon opened on the Fraser River Wed.  I didn't get out till yesterday when a friend invited me.  I had 12 strong hits, hooked nine of those, played big strong jumpers and lost all but three of them.  Two is the limit and I handed the rod to my friend for him to catch his second one. Hot sunny weather like Florida. 

Great day but I am sore and tired and didn't take much for pics.



Big average.  We weighed the first one landed and it went 8.1 lbs. We had three that size and one about 5 or 6, which is the usual average of most runs.



Some clueless people anchored farther out in the current than the line of boats, next downstream of us of course, and we tangled three fish under their boat, anchor etc.  Lost two of those including the biggest fish of the day that acted like a Chinook.  Oh well, I got most of the fight out of him.

We moved upstream to get away from them when the boat above us left where it had been tied to the root wad of a big tree washed down the river and stuck on a shallow place.  Good spot except... my next fish got tangled under the log/tree trunk as we tried to net it.  It kept pulling line but we could not get the line free of the log.  We fiddled with it for 6-8 minutes trying various schemes to get it loose.  Finally I pulled the boat as close to the log as we could and stuck my arm down to see if I could reach the problem.  Pulled the now tired fish up closer and closer, let it out a few times and though I never felt the obstruction suddenly the salmon came loose.    He had a little fight left but after one more round we netted him.  All with barbless hooks!  Insignificant but interesting. 



Will prob get in trouble for admitting we tied to a log in fast current (with a quick release slip knot). 

[FinsnFur]

Insignificant?  I think not. But yes very interesting. Why barbless hooks though?
Sounds like one heck of a day. One that I could enjoy

[Hawks Feather]

Finally I pulled the boat as close to the log as we could and stuck my arm down to see if I could reach the problem.

For some reason I had a flashback to Swamp People and expected an alligator to be on the end.  Sounds like a great time.

Jerry

[Okanagan]

Why barbless hooks though?

I don't make de laws, I's just obeys 'em.

Single barbless hook for salmon and a lot of other fish all over the Province.  No trebles.  Fishing for pike etc. in Saskatchewan in June, we could use treble hooks but all had to be barbless. 

Dept. of Fisheries is trying to keep as many salmon alive to spawn as they can out of those that get hooked and don't make it to the fisherman's table.   A fish can likely get rid of a barbless if he breaks the line easier than a barbed hook.  Also, releasing them is easier all around on fisherman and fish if you release it for some reason.  The fight is hard on salmon and may tire it too much to make it upstream to the spawning grounds.  Fisheries are requesting that fishermen quit when they have a limit and not go on catching and releasing.  IME of watching people release salmon, most people kill most of them.  In Alaska, I think the law is that if you remove the fish from the water it counts as part of your catch and you cannot release it.  Not a bad law though hard to enforce. 

Been tying up leaders and will wander over to the river again.

[FinsnFur]

Mannnnn, I dont know that I could land a fish on a barbless hook.

[Dave]

Arent reds the most desired salmon for the table? 
And how do you fish for them?  I seem to remember casting across the current (from the bank) and trying to get a hookup as the fly (or lure) would swing in front of the fish.  The line gets swept through its mouth (they supposedly flush their mouths open once in freshwater)and you hopefully get hooked up as the hook gets drug along and through its mouth. 

[Okanagan]

Dave, yes on all counts:  Sockeye are the best salmon on the table and "flossing" them (the technique you describe well) is the only practical way anyone has come up with to hook them (short of snagging them anywhere) in the turbid Fraser River where they can't see the lure to bite.

Just now I added a photo of the infamous log to my original post in this thread.  My friend and I went back to the same log at the crack of 9:00 this morning and I caught two within ten minutes, one of them my second or third cast.  Then it dropped off to nothing and we didn't catch any more.  No schools of fish going by.

Some pics of the Fraser River near Chilliwack, below.  All five Pacific Salmon run this river plus steelhead and huge sturgeon.

Last evening the combat fishing crowds had thinned when I took the pic below near sundown looking east, upriver. I had driven through the water to cross the side channel in the photo, and you can see wet tire tracks coming out on the other side.  They curve around hugging the shore and enter the water in line behind the headlight on the silver pick-up to the right on the near side of the wide channel. 

A tentative driver in a smallish burgundy SUV whom I had followed to this unregulated boat launch followed me down to the channel.  I sat there awhile and watched to check out a shallow route, watched some waders and a quad cross, and then followed the quad's route exactly.  The burgundy rig drove into the water as I came out on the near side of the channel.  But instead of following me where the other vehicles had gone evidently he though it was all the same depth and went straight off into water up to the top of his hood.  He drove straight toward the camera position from the middle of the dry ground area in the middle of the vehicles on the other side.  Somebody with a 4x4 pulled him out of course.  Didn't think to photograph the drama -- was too busy fishing!

Still a few little snow patches on Mt. Cheam in the upper background. 



Photo below is looking west, down the river from the same spot.

[Dave]

Wow, there was a lot more happening in that pic than meets the eye.  Like the descriptions and would've loved to seen that burgundy suv (with his Obama sticker, no doubt) up over the gunnels!  -  Ahh, I actually feel bad for the guy.

[Hawks Feather]

Nice images.  I would love to be there with a camera at sunset. 

Jerry

[Okanagan]

Yep, some great sunsets with mountains framing the big river.

Here's a closer shot of the channel people drive across, where the SUV drove into deep water.  The shallow crossing is just off the right edge of the photo.  The wet trail shows where vehicles come out of the water at the right edge of the photo.

The driver who went deep drove straight toward the camera just left of center.  I took these a couple of hours later when I came back to cross.

[Coulter]

That looks awesome and mouth watering! You come over here and I'll take you out on Lake Erie then I have an excuse to come west to catch my own fish! I think I can get that cleared with the wife

We fish for steelhead around here too, but they just aren't very good on the table. That and all of the "Mup'ears" (Im "mupear" from Pittsburgh) kind of ruin the experience with overcrowding anymore

Steve

[Okanagan]

Might as well keep this thread going rather than start another one.  Pics below from this morning, misting enough to get things wet but quite warm.  My friend and i caught our limit of four in an hour and ten minutes.  Not hot fishing but good.  I hooked two and lost one of those.  He fought hard and fast, jumped high 5 times and I lost him pulling his nose onto shore. 

My friend hooked three, landed two and handed me the rod for me to catch my second one.    He is gutting his fish below.



Below is a telephoto across the river to the island people have to drive through a shallow side channel to reach.  About 8:00 AM on a Thursday morning of sockeye season in poor place to fish so there is no combat fishing line.  The river has dropped a foot in three days and cleared up to a foot of visibility.

[FinsnFur]

Noticing the size of the shore rocks there. Mercy, thats some big river rock. I bet thats a blast to walk on...not

[Okanagan]

Noticing the size of the shore rocks there. Mercy, thats some big river rock. I bet thats a blast to walk on...not

When wet they are super slick as well.