All posts by Roadside

Strategies for Winter Steelheading

January 17, 2017 Roadside

Winter Steelhead Strategies and tips.

Presentation is everything! You’ve probably read this a thousand times, and it’s for a good reason. How many times have you heard "first cast, hit a big one" or "I walked in above these guys, 3rd cast, Fish on!" It’s been my experience that most Steelhead are caught within the first 10 casts of any one offering. Choose the primary lie in any given run. This is the most likely spot a fish would be traveling or holding. Place yourself well above and only enter the water when it’s absolutely necessary. Make your first cast above the predetermined primary lie and allow your offering to drift as naturally as possible.

10 cast rule, bread and butter of most successful Steelheaders. Once you’ve determined the primary lie you need to determine secondary lies then separate the run into sections to fish. I.e.: riffle, runs, tailout, and transition water. Choose which sections you want to fish, take into count, water depth, color and temp etc. Now you’re ready to begin fishing. Make no more than 10 casts in the same slot. If you’re fishing boulder runs, no more than 5 casts. If you feel the need to make more casts, "change the offering." Sometimes a small change can payoff with a nice fish. Once you’ve made your 10 casts walk downstream staying above the water not fished yet, so not to spook any possible takers. Continue this way throughout the run, you maybe surprised with a nice chrome fish.

For more tips on fishing for steelhead – http://guidebc.com/articles/steelheadvalley2.asp

Have a great week.

Vic Carrao

Jan 12 Weekly report update

January 12, 2017 Roadside

Cold Clear weather has continued in the Fraser Valley so all rivers are very low and clear. Temperatures in the valley have ranged from -1 to -9 plus wind. Today is very calm and quite nice so would be a great day to get out to scout our local steelhead rivers. Please see below for our detailed report.

Vedder River Steelhead – low clear condition continue to be the story but quite a few steelhead have moved into the lower river this past week, lickman, burgman area has produced some good results but these fish are on the move under darkness so be sure you calculate night time movement if you are getting 2-3 day old reports from local tackle stores. If Burgman area was good on Monday and your planning a trip for Friday, I would suggest fishing 5-10km up river to find those same fish.

If you never read this article last week , here it is again.– http://guidebc.com/articles/earlyseasonsteelheadtactics.asp

Fraser River Sturgeon – This week we have had ice flows on the Fraser so local boat launches have been closed. The ice flows on the Fraser will not last long, these ice chunks tent to come and go quite frequently and if we have a few days of above zero temperatures, the ice will be gone and you will be able to fish the Fraser again.

Winter is a great time to fly fish for Cutthroat on the Fraser, you can fish main river flow in 2-4 feet of water. Back channels also produce good results but most of the back waters will be frozen over so I would suggest fishing the main flow.

Harrison River – clear cold weather is the story on all local Fraser Valley Rivers including the Harrison but that also means no people and lots of water to cover. There is a good population of resident cutthroat and there are still a few Coho swimming around although they are getting pretty tired. Some early Chehalis steelhead are moving in and during low clear water they will hold in the Harrison and wait for highwater before moving up stream. Good bet is to fly fish or light tackle spin fish above Harrison rapids all the way up to Morris confluence.

Harrison River Sturgeon fishing can be very good in winter conditions so if you plan on doing a little steelhead/cutthroat fishing don’t forget to bring along your sturgeon rods. Best bait on the Harrison is salmon eggs and chum flesh.

Vancouver Salmon Fishing – Winter Chinook fishing is available year round in Vancouver Harbour, although it can be cold and windy at times, most of the time it is calm and cool during January. This week was pretty good out there with several local guides producing some great results. Winter is a great time to fish the Gibbs/Delta Guide Series flashers with spoons trailed behind.

Be Sure to Check back weekly as we will be posting new reports with tips, tricks and hot spots to fish throughout the season

Have a great day

Celebrating 22 years of Guiding Fishing Adventures 1994-2016

Vic Carrao

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Jan 05 Fishing Report Update

January 5, 2017 Roadside

With cold clear temperatures and wind chill we are experiencing some very cold weather, in some areas of the Fraser Valley temperatures are getting in the -20 with wind chills. Not many anglers out on the flow but you will always find a few die hards still out trying to land their first steelhead of the season.

Vedder River Steelhead – Cold clear weather patterns will keep water levels low and visibility clear until things start to warm up, in the meantime steelhead will continue to trickle into the river moving their way up the river mostly in the darkness of night. A few years back I was involved in a study of steelhead on the Vedder where we monitored movement of steelhead and it was no surprise to us that during low clear conditions, steelhead would move up river at night and hold in deeper pools and shallow tail out during the day.

Here is a link to an article I wrote a few years back, might help you understand steelhead and their habits a bit more – http://guidebc.com/articles/earlyseasonsteelheadtactics.asp

Here is another with information on the telemetry study back in 2000, might be old but not much has changed in the way steelhead respond to water conditions and migratory habits. http://guidebc.com/articles/telemetry.asp

Fraser River Sturgeon – During the Christmas holidays we managed to get out a few days for sturgeon on the lower Fraser. Sturgeon fishing was still very good and we still managed to tag and release a good number of fish with our local hero Rick Hansen. Salmon eggs and Lamprey eel are always a good bet during winter conditions, bites are very light so don’t take your eye off that rod tip.

Vancouver Salmon Fishing – Winter Chinook fishing is available year round in Vancouver Harbour, although it can be cold and windy at times, most of the time it is calm and cool during January. If you’re in the Vancouver area and are looking for an opportunity to get out on the water, we can provide 5 and 8 hour charters departing from Granville Island and River Rock Casino in Richmond. If your planning on heading out yourself, best to stock up on the GibbsDelta Guide Series Flashers and some G-Force spoons.