Jan 13 Fishing Report

Fraser River is in great shape, not much to report as we are taking a winter break from sturgeon fishing. As I have mentioned before if you are looking to get out we would be happy to go out and target sturgeon for the mark recapture study. This means that we would scan and tag all fish caught and focus on some of the know areas that produce good results.

For those of you that are interested in sturgeon on the Fraser and fish sturgeon yourselves, there are some new proposed sturgeon angling regulations that are currently being discussed through the new SCAAT group ( South Coast Angling Advisory Team) which I have a seat on and represent angling guides. If you would like to comment on them, I would be happy to receive your e-mails. below I have included 3 new proposed regulation changes for region 2 sturgeon angling.

1- Night closure: currently there is no night fishing for salmon permitted, this would extend to sturgeon as well. Rational is that most of the poaching that occurs on sturgeon is at night time.

2- Extending use of finfish parts (e.g. headless finfish) as bait into other waters in lower mainland (e.g. Pitt and Harrison Rivers): also needs

more discussion, rational is that we currently are allowed to use headless finfish in the Fraser but soon as you cross into Harrison or Pitt, regulations change. We are fishing for same fish so makes no sense to have different regulation, also simplifies regulations.

3- Lifting of large sturgeon out of the water. Similar regulations in effect in other jurisdictions that do not allow this. Rational is that currently the Best Handling Practices is being used by DFO and MOE as a guideline for sturgeon handling, this would make it law and a chargeable offense.

Looking forward to reading your comments and opinions.

Vedder River Steelhead fishing has improved over the past week, Oliver was out several days with good success and has provided us with this report.

After a full week of slow fishing, this week has really picked up. I have hooked fish from lickman to osbourne rd, todays fish was the biggest at about 12 lbs. River conditions have been great with good visibility up to today. The rain forecasted will likely color the river for the worse but that should be good for fishing next week as the weekend crowd will most likely struggle with water conditions. The system will have fresh fish all the to the upper river now so it should provide consistent fishing throughout the river. Best baits have been spawn sacks and roe fished under a float. Cheers Oliver.

Vancouver Saltwater fishing for winter Chinook has remained steady, good reports coming from several areas around Vancouver Harbour. Most of the fish are between 3 to 8 lbs with the odd fish in the 10-12lb range, crab and prawn fishing remains excellent. Weather looks like it will clear after Wednesday and forecast is for sun for the rest of the week and weekend. Tides are favorable so might be a good weekend for some salmon fishing.

Trade Show season is getting close with Vancouver Boat Show coming up at the end of January. Although I will not be at the show this year I will be at the BC Boat & Sportsman Show in Middle of March. We will also be at several shows in Alberta so stay tuned for upcoming shows and dates. I will also try to keep you up to date on what new products you can expect to see at the show this year.