So today was another great day to be out on the water and for those who got up early and hit the Squamish the morning rush of chum and coho after the tide provided about 3 hours of good fishing.  With the tide peaking just after day break, there was a good number of chrome fish, both chum and coho heading in from salt water.  So far the chum are good size but the coho are mostly small at a few pounds though rumors of some near 10 to 15 pounds are starting to spread.

There have been a lot of jack coho this year and they provided sport both on the fly and a drifted trout bead.  The Cheakamus was producing a fair number of small jack coho and if the bigger "Northerns" are what you are hoping for, they just don't seem to have arrived yet.

The coho did hit large streamer flies as well,.  In the main stem, they would hit it near the end of the sweep, in the Cheakamus, they hit on the retrieve.  Either way it was fun but some large coho would be great.  With the higher elevations covered in new white snow, the river should stay in fine shape if the coming days are cold enough so that the snow stays on the top and the river continues to clear.

Best times, is the mornings before it is full daylight till about the first 2 hours before and one hour after the morning high tide.  Today the high tide was about 08:30.  So click on the link on the Home page to see what the tides are before you plan to head out.

Today is Remembrance day and we all should take the time to remember the sacrifices that gave us our freedom and the ability to live in such a great land.  We can enjoy these things because of of the heroic efforts of others.  Say thanks for this gift.

One rarely has as nice a day as we had today in November and we won't say much as the Video says it all.  Enjoy Bozi's good day by clicking on the video here.  We were able to catch the tail end of the early morning run that yielded a nice hatchery coho but then had to move up-river to find where the fish had gone to.  Turns out the Cheakamus was the ticket and Bozi had a bit of luck to brighten the day with some nice chrome chum salmon.  How much longer the fresh chum run will last is anybody's guess.  There were hardly any fresh fish coming in with the afternoon tide.  So, fish when the fish are there.

Tight lines!

Saturday's pounding rain pushed the Squamish Gauge over the 4 meter mark and there seemed to be no end in sight as to how high it would rise as the rains which were initially forecast to end on Saturday morning dug in and kept soaking the North Shore and the Squamish Valley till well after dark.  The Squamish didn't stop rising till about 9 pm and then the river gauge took a hopeful turn back down.  So, we checked it again in the morning, packed our sandwiches and headed north.

Ernst took up the challenge of chum fishing on the fly rod and ended up having a really great day.  

The plan was to check out the lower river as the tide was hitting the high-low which would then turn to a high-high by about 13:00.  So with a slow start with only one hit in the morning we moved up river for some fun and then back down to the lower river about 2 hours after the tide started to rise.  Lucky for us, the fish started coming in and there were some amazingly chrome and feisty fish.  To check out some of the day's fun, click on this video link.   Tomorrow, should be even better fishing.  Tight lines!

With the forecast being rain I headed out early but the drops were splattering all over the windshield as I cruised through West Van on the way to Squamish.  I was wondering if it was going to be worth it, or would the rain pound  out the morning?  By the time I reached Furry Creek, the rain turned to a spatter and by Britannia the road was semi dry.  So it looked like there was a prospect of at least a few hours before the deluge hit.  I checked the Mamquam first but with low clear flow and only one chum in the pool at the rail bridge it was not looking optimistic.  About 20 minutes of casting lower down with no sign of fish movement confirmed the diagnosis.....time to move on.

The first four fish up at Fisherman's Beach managed to spit the hook which was getting rather frustrating and it got worse when the 5th was a nice chrome coho that lasted only long enough to do an ejection seat routine out of the water and spit the hook back at me.  Finally the 6th fish stuck and put on a great head shaking battle.  If you are stuck indoors this weekend because of the rain then just click here and imagine your are on the other end of the battle.

The run continued steady for about two hours and some mean knuckle busting occured when one or two big buck chum grabbed the flies.  Alas, only my neighbor about 100 meters downstream was the only one lucky enough to hook a nice coho.  It took him quite a while to land the chrome fish that was a decent 8 to 10 lbs.  It was the only other coho that I saw during the day.  So far, the chum run to the Cheakamus is strong but coho are still few and far between.