When most rivers are starting to wind down from the salmon and cutthroat season and the November rains pound the south coast it can be dismal for fisherman who sit at their living room windows looking out at the cold wet dank dreariness of it all. This however, is the season when some rivers hit their stride for the winter trout fisheries. The 20 days and nights of rain that pounded the south coast is slowly giving way to the more normal cold rains that come and go but leave the mountain tops frosted with snow. That frosting of snow and low temperatures and sometimes frigid outflow winds that roar out of the central plateau down the coastal fiords is just what we are looking for.
The warm temperatures and Hawaii Pineapple Express warm fronts have been pushed back by the advancing cold fronts and the glaciers have stopped melting and are now frozen. The bulk of the moisture that falls is coming as snow in the high elevations and less slides down the hills as surface water so the streams start to clear and recede. Likewise the Squamish and the upper Pitt begin to recede and clear and this is how the winter trout fishing starts.
Now is the time for eagles to gather and battle each other over the remaining salmon carcasses that float in the shallows and back eddies......and, now is the time before the Steelhead when the big bull, rainbow and cutthroat trout are feasting on the last of the salmon eggs that are still drifting from the spawning late run coho and the odd chum that is still around. These trout are feasting on a diminishing supply of eggs but they are beginning to look for shards of salmon flesh that has gone pasty pink or white and also for any wayward minnow that should haplessly swim above them.
The warm temperatures and Hawaii Pineapple Express warm fronts have been pushed back by the advancing cold fronts and the glaciers have stopped melting and are now frozen. The bulk of the moisture that falls is coming as snow in the high elevations and less slides down the hills as surface water so the streams start to clear and recede. Likewise the Squamish and the upper Pitt begin to recede and clear and this is how the winter trout fishing starts.
Now is the time for eagles to gather and battle each other over the remaining salmon carcasses that float in the shallows and back eddies......and, now is the time before the Steelhead when the big bull, rainbow and cutthroat trout are feasting on the last of the salmon eggs that are still drifting from the spawning late run coho and the odd chum that is still around. These trout are feasting on a diminishing supply of eggs but they are beginning to look for shards of salmon flesh that has gone pasty pink or white and also for any wayward minnow that should haplessly swim above them.
This is the time for large streamer flies that look white like rotting salmon flesh or like small trout and bait fish. The bulls, rainbows and cutties are voracious meat eaters and now that they are fattened up with salmon roe they are still aware that the cold waters and limited daylight will not be providing supplies of emerging invertebrates and insects for a long time. Those eggs and larvae are hidden in the gravel, woody debris and leaves of the fall season. There will be no salmon fry from now till April. So what-ever food there will be will be large chunks of rotting meat or fingerling to 6 inch young fish, hoping to escape the gaze of the predator trout.
It is the time when I love to tie big streamer flies onto a heavy fast sink-tip fly line and then let the games begin! Today, I saw some of the pools holding the remnants of salmon with four to six bull trout cruising in constant circles around them, waiting for wayward eggs. The coho are focused on the spawn and the trout were hard to knock off the eggs but a slowly drifted egg pattern might still work. I tossed several egg patterns but in pools these do not drift fast enough so I resorted to various streamers. Both the coho and the bulls chased the patterns almost to the shore but would turn at the last minute.
It is the time when I love to tie big streamer flies onto a heavy fast sink-tip fly line and then let the games begin! Today, I saw some of the pools holding the remnants of salmon with four to six bull trout cruising in constant circles around them, waiting for wayward eggs. The coho are focused on the spawn and the trout were hard to knock off the eggs but a slowly drifted egg pattern might still work. I tossed several egg patterns but in pools these do not drift fast enough so I resorted to various streamers. Both the coho and the bulls chased the patterns almost to the shore but would turn at the last minute.
So, plan B was to head to the mainstem where salmon were mostly absent and look for runs where hungrier bulls, rainbows and cutties were hanging in the sidestreams adjacent to the faster current. The first stretch of nice water paid off with a 24 inch doe bull trout anchoring the streamer. I say anchoring because that is the usual feeling when a very large bull hits. They like to bear down and just hold in place and it feels like you have snagged up. The line just held and slowly the rod began to pulse as the bull trout figures out that the fish it just inhaled is trying to go somewhere and the battle is on!
The big bull's battle seemed to clear the run so bull trout #s 2,3,4 and 5 came from another run. Most of the fish were in knee deep water with a slower but steady current adjacent to a fast run. Just the kind of place a large minnow or small bait fish would take refuge. While the bulls may strike on the swing arc, they will most often rise up slightly and hammer a fly that is dragged in short pulses directly upstream.
The smaller bulls will usually hit hard and since they don't have the mass and will tend to do an ambush run but it is surprising how small a fish will feel like an anchored snag until you really wake it up with a few pulls.
By the time fish # 5 tried to run off with the fly it was clear that this was going to be a pretty good day as several fish were pushing in the 18 to 20 inch range and were now well past their fall spawn, well fed and chrome again.
Bull Trout 5 and 6 were real porkers and I could not tell if it was a belly full of salmon eggs or more likely they had inhaled a large minnow or two.
Trout 5 and 6 were at the head of the next pool and hit the streamer with gusto which made me think they were much bigger than they actually were. But they posed nicely for some great photos.
And then there was Bull Trout 7. This fish was a class of its own. Again, I pitched a long cast into the pool dragging the streamer from the slow moving water towards the fast when the line just stopped dead. I pulled several times, to one side and then the other to free the line from the snag, almost cursing because I really didn't want to wade out to that spot to free the hook and possibly disturb the remainder of the pool.
Then the rod began to slowly pulse and I realized it was not a log but a monster fish which I could barely control. I had a 9 weight rod as originally I was hoping for the large coho but they had not gone after my offerings and when the rod doubled over and I could not turn the fish, I was beginning to wonder just what had I tied into? I saw a large silver flash which immediately brought the thought of a rogue early Steelhead. The Squamish does not usually see the Ironheads till late march and mostly in April so I began to suspect I was into one of the biggest bulls I had ever tied into in the Squamish. The rod kept bending and pulsing and the reel kept peeling out line so I did all I could to try and turn the fish from going into the fast water.
It was a tug of war to get the fish into the slow back eddy and eventually onto the shore where the tape said it was 27 inches long and looked to be 8 to 10 pounds. I thought this would be a great way to end the day, but there was still some of the run left to fish.
Then the rod began to slowly pulse and I realized it was not a log but a monster fish which I could barely control. I had a 9 weight rod as originally I was hoping for the large coho but they had not gone after my offerings and when the rod doubled over and I could not turn the fish, I was beginning to wonder just what had I tied into? I saw a large silver flash which immediately brought the thought of a rogue early Steelhead. The Squamish does not usually see the Ironheads till late march and mostly in April so I began to suspect I was into one of the biggest bulls I had ever tied into in the Squamish. The rod kept bending and pulsing and the reel kept peeling out line so I did all I could to try and turn the fish from going into the fast water.
It was a tug of war to get the fish into the slow back eddy and eventually onto the shore where the tape said it was 27 inches long and looked to be 8 to 10 pounds. I thought this would be a great way to end the day, but there was still some of the run left to fish.
Still somewhat huffing and puffing I waded back into the run and tossed the streamer so it would cut across new water and sure enough the rod anchored again and while I was still wondering "Log or Fish" it turned into a fish and the battle was on again. Back to shore, break out the camera, man this was turning into a good day!
Bull trouts 9, 10 and 11 came out of the back end of the pool just before the tail-out and though they were smaller, they hit the streamer fly with such gusto that they put a fair bend into the rod and a real spirited fight.
So the flies on the menu were varied but the large streamer flies did the best by far. And just a note, the eyes on my rod froze up as did my toes......at this time of year you might be the only one on that stretch of the river, but when the wind picks up and the water is almost liquid ice......dress for the occasion, take some food and a thermos full of hot tea or soup and you might just have yourself a great day!
Tight lines.
Tight lines.
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