As we have flipped from September into October and there has been little if any rain in the watersheds for over a week, river levels are dropping and clearing again. The great fishing for Chinook has continued and last weekend about a 100 + boats were out at the mouth of the Fraser. It seemed that there were more boats than fish as few were reporting success but the fish were visible on the sounders. Seems that Anchovy were the ticket but still, few boats reported landing any. However, since mid September the Chum have been entering the river and in the last week they have been entering the Fraser in ever increasing numbers.
As the test fishery shows, the springs have hit one of the second highest peak numbers this season and the chum are entering in numbers that are starting to rival the number of Chinook. This means that the Vedder and Harrison and likely the Chehalis will start seeing improving numbers of Chum. The early season fish should be reasonably bright and extremely feisty putting up line ripping battles for both fly and drift fisherman.
Might still be a bit early for the Squamish and the continuing warm weather will result in continuing glacial melt which results in really turbid runoff. One of the most turbid is the creek that enters the Cheakamus River just upstream of the cafe by the river crossing. A few days ago the river was still very turbid and lots of effort was required to find any coho or bull trout. The Squamish river has dropped another meter this week so look for water that is about 3 feet deep and has a quiescent zone as this is where the coho will be starting to school up.
Once we get some cooler and wetter weather the Squamish will actually settle down abit and good numbers of coho and chum should be in the system in about two weeks. If you want to avoid the crowds and enjoy the weather, it's still not a waste of time to try this river right now. One should always have some good weighted egg patterns for this system as you can either get a coho or chum or luck into a big rainbow or bull trout that is waiting in the tailouts to suck up any eggs that are drifting by.
The crowds on the Vedder were sometimes beyond the point of rediculous especially at the upper end of the canal. At the upper pool, people were literally crowding in elbow to elbow and it was a bit overdone where there seemed to be little common sense and move on to other places. Further up river around the rail bridge it was much more civilized and the drift fisherman were landing springs and the occasional coho. If we get some rain by mid week and the water comes up a bit it might wash a few of the pink carcasses into the Fraser. The smell of decaying fish was not for the faint of heart or nose!
Might still be a bit early for the Squamish and the continuing warm weather will result in continuing glacial melt which results in really turbid runoff. One of the most turbid is the creek that enters the Cheakamus River just upstream of the cafe by the river crossing. A few days ago the river was still very turbid and lots of effort was required to find any coho or bull trout. The Squamish river has dropped another meter this week so look for water that is about 3 feet deep and has a quiescent zone as this is where the coho will be starting to school up.
Once we get some cooler and wetter weather the Squamish will actually settle down abit and good numbers of coho and chum should be in the system in about two weeks. If you want to avoid the crowds and enjoy the weather, it's still not a waste of time to try this river right now. One should always have some good weighted egg patterns for this system as you can either get a coho or chum or luck into a big rainbow or bull trout that is waiting in the tailouts to suck up any eggs that are drifting by.
The crowds on the Vedder were sometimes beyond the point of rediculous especially at the upper end of the canal. At the upper pool, people were literally crowding in elbow to elbow and it was a bit overdone where there seemed to be little common sense and move on to other places. Further up river around the rail bridge it was much more civilized and the drift fisherman were landing springs and the occasional coho. If we get some rain by mid week and the water comes up a bit it might wash a few of the pink carcasses into the Fraser. The smell of decaying fish was not for the faint of heart or nose!
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