We have been talking about how the Trout fishing season was about to get started, well it has started. Yesterday we had some amazing fishing with over 20 fish landed and released. Many of the trout were in the 2 to 5lb range with several fish over 5lbs. Sturgeon fishing remains challenging but we are seeing some nice fish, salmon fishing in Vancouver remains consistent.

The Pitt River offers excellent opportunity for both fly anglers and light tackle spin fishing with spoons. This river changes its path on just about every heavy rainfall making the Pitt River one of the more challenging river to navigate and fish. This season the river is extremely challenging for running jet boats but once your past all the obstacles the amount of fishable water is much greater than in past years.

STS Guide Thomas Rutschmann has been guiding the Pitt along with Vic Carrao for the better part of 15 years, by far this one of our favorite times of year to fish the Pitt.

Some of the techniques used to fish the Pitt are similar to steelhead but then again quite different. When casting flies the best method is a down and across presentation ensuring your fly is just tapping along the bottom or as close as you can get. The way to do this is to use a high density sink tip in the 3 to 4 rating. Once the fly touches bottom, just hold tight on the line for a second and fly will lift off again, a quick mend will send if back down placing the fly in the strike zone.

Bouncing spoons along the bottom is a technique that we have developed over the years that produces some of the larger Bull Trout in the River system. Similar to fly fishing we cast the spoons upstream allowing it to sink to the bottom, once you feel the spoon hit the bottom, take up any slack and try to keep the spoon bouncing near the bottom by lifting and dropping your rod tip.

The Spoon in the above pic is a Gibbs/Delta Croc Silver Hex, 2 1/4 inch, 3/8 oz. These along with gold or silver Ironhead spoons are some of the most productive spoons for Bull Trout but also salmon, cutthroat and rainbow trout. The key is choosing the right size for depth and speed of the water so that you’re not hitting bottom to quickly or not enough.

This is a look at Vic’s spoon box, pretty impressive selection of Gibbs/Delta Spoons. Ultra Lures, Ironhead and Crocs are the top producing spoons.

If you would like to get out with Vic or Thomas, please give us a call, we are offering Pitt River fly and light tackle spin fishing trips from now through until August 15 but now is the best time for the larger Bulls.

Give us a call, 604-671-3474 or sts@guidebc.com

The Fraser River continues to rise due to Freshet. The Hope Water meter station is showing 7.4 meters which is getting crazy big in the canyon. I have ran the canyon at that water level but it is getting near the upper limits even for our twin engine boat. Over the next 4 to 6 weeks you can expect these types of water conditions to continue or until majority of snow pack is gone. With predicted low snow pack you can expect water levels to improve by early to middle of July.

Fishing this past week was fair, most of our sturgeon trips were producing decent results of 5 to 7 fish per boat. Most of these sturgeon were in the 3 to 6 foot range with a couple bigger fish landed on Friday. Best bait continues to be Lamprey eel but high water fishing means you can try just about anything. Sometimes thinking out of the box can produce some great results, cray fish, dew worms, pike minnow, shrimp and roll mop are all baits that are known to catch sturgeon.

Salmon fishing out of Vancouver has been fair to good, still lots of nice Chinook Salmon being caught, most anglers are focusing on the South end of Bowen or running across over to Gulf Islands. Lots of reports coming back from local guides and anglers who have been using the New Gibbs/Delta Guide Series Flashers, looks like the new UV Glo Guide Series is making a statement out on the water.

Photo compliments of Rick Clark of Born to Fish BC & Gibbs/Delta Pro Staff Member

Also new on the market is the Skinny G Series which comes in 6 color schemes, I have not used them yet but early reports are indicating that these spoons are working well in Vancouver and on the Island. Use them like you would any spoon, best is to roll them behind the UV Glo Guide Series Flashers using a 6 to 6.5 ft leader at 2 to 2.5 MPH. Give them a try and let us know how you do.

Over the next few weeks the Gulf Islands will really turn on, these trips are longer than average days with 10 hour trips being the normal. We are also gearing up for our west coast salmon and halibut charters so if you are looking for a great trip, give us a call. 604-671-3474

We were up on the Pitt River this past week, water is up but fishing was still pretty slow. The catch and release bull trout fishery really gets going the first week of June and last well into July with sockeye salmon and chinook salmon following close behind. If you are looking for a great experience on a remote river, the upper Pitt is that place. We have been guiding on the Pitt for over 15 years so you can be sure our guides know these waters.

A sockeye salmon takes a Gibbs/Delta Spoon while fishing the Upper Pitt in July

The trout fishing trip is an adventure in itself. We meet at Grant Narrows in Maple Ridge ( 45 minute drive from Vancouver) Grant Narrows is a park located on the south end of Pitt lake, we then boat across to the north end of Pitt lake( 35 minute boat ride) then run our jet boats up this narrow shallow river approximately 15Km and fish our way back down the river. This river is remote with limited access. Good wildlife viewing opportunities, including black bears. You can fly fish or spoon fish for sea-run bull trout up to 10 lbs, good numbers of trout between 1 to 3lbs with the odd fish between 5 to 10 lbs. There are also cutthroat and rainbows in this river. The cost for this trip is $850.00 for 1 or 2 anglers, includes lunch and all tackle.

West Coast Vancouver Island

Get ready for steady action and incredible battles with large chinook salmon and tasty halibut. Our West Coast fishing adventures begin middle of June through to end of July, we are 70% booked but still have some great dates in July. Most trips are 4 night 3 day but we also offer 3 night 2 day and guided day trips without accommodations. For more information please call or e-mail us sts@guidebc.com or toll free 1-866-223-5453.

Hells Gate Jet Boat Tours

The Fraser River is now in full freshet, lots of stick and debris in the water which will prevent us from doing our Hope to Hells Gate Tours. During high water we continue to offer our Harrison River Tour, Mission to Rainbow Falls and custom tours. Our Hope to Hells Gate and Hope to Sailor Bar will resume when water conditions improve.

We still have some weekday trips available in August/September, and weekend dates in October.

Mission Harbour under construction

This morning is the start of a project to replace the outside concrete dock at Mission Harbour. The disruption will last about 7 to 10 days while the old dock is removed and new dock is put in place. All boaters are asked to obey the "NO WAKE" signs posted at boat launch and marina. All STS trips will still depart from Mission Harbour but if you arrive early and don’t see our boats, don’t be alarmed as we will be4 using the boat launch each morning to put our boats in and out of the water.

Hope you all have a great week, tight lines

Vic Carrao

STS

Fishing this past week has been a bit slower, average sturgeon catch has been between 4 to 8 fish per trip, salmon fishing has been good with 2 to 6 hook ups. Crab and prawn fishing remains good. Local trout fishing is starting to pick up and with the good weather upon us we should be in for a great weekend of fishing and sunshine. See below for detailed report.

This was our largest fish this week measuring 8ft 4 inches, nice work Thomas.

Fraser River Sturgeon fishing has been a bit slower this past week, water levels on the Fraser are rising slowly , Hope water meter station is showing a rise from 5.75M to 6.01 M so looks like freshet has begun. I was up in the canyon earlier this week and the Thompson River is on the rise as well so I would expect this trend to continue over the next 4 to 6 weeks. Most of the snow pack is going to come from Prince George/North area so that would be the best area to watch if you are keeping an eye on water levels.

Even though sturgeon fishing is not quite as hot as it was last week we are still producing some nice fish, largest this week was 8ft 4 and we managed some really nice 4 to 7 footers as well. Lamprey eel seemed to work best but Eulachon and salmon roe are also producing some nice fish. As seen in the above pic, Berkley Gulp scent can sometimes get these fish feeding, these spray bottles make it easy to use and is available at most tackle stores.

Vancouver salmon Fishing has been good this past week with some very nice fish coming from South end of Bowen and Tungstal Bay, Gulf Islands are starting to pick up as well so good time to get out on the water. Crab and prawns are also producing good results if you have the time to drop the traps. We are currently offering day trips to Gulf Islands and Vancouver area fishing all the local hot spots.

Our 28ft Kingfisher is one of the most comfortable boats to fish from, rigged with the latest tackle from Penn, Fenwick ,Gibbs/Delta & Scotty

Pitt River Fly and Spin Fishing trips will begin in the next 3 to 4 weeks when the annual run of sea-run Bull Trout begin to enter the river. STS has been guiding this river for over 15 years now so we are super excited to get the season started. The sea-run Bulls that enter this system are chrome bright and ready to put up a great battle on light tackle.

One of my favorite places to spend the day, the Upper Pitt also offers great scenery and wildlife viewing opportunities.

Best fishing for sea-run Bull Trout is between June 5 to July 15, then Sockeye and Chinook begin to enter the river system. For fly fishing we like to use large streamers and egg suckin leeches, for spin fishing, nothing works better than Gibbs/Delta Ultra Lures or Crocs. Most fish are in the 1 to 3lb range but also some larger Bulls in the 5 to 10lb range. All fish are catch and release on the Pitt River system including salmon.

Mothers Day is on Sunday, great day to take mom out on the water or even better fishing for salmon or sturgeon. We still have a few boats for this weekend if you are looking to get out. We are also offering 2 hour Harrison River Tours which is would be a great way to spend the day with Mom, only $69 per person.

Happy Mothers Day Mom and my beautiful wife.

Have a great weekend.

Vic Carrao