Sorry guys, I didn't make it down to Island 22. I kept limiting out too early

I only got to fish Sat. morning for 1 hour. My boat limited out by 6am

The run this year is small and most guys aren't doing too well. There is only 1/4 of the fish as last year expected back.

I fished all last week and on some days I saw the guides coming back to the launch without limits.

Typically it was taking most guys 4-5 hours to limit, the weekend though should have been better.

And btw they are Stuarts, not Stewarts.

I think oolichan is speaking the truth! I spent the weekend up there and the fishing was considerably slower than last year. We spent a lot of time on the lower end of the Harrison bar where the Harrison bay guide boats tag-team the best spot. Once they got one boat limited, they would radio another to take over. They said they were doing this because some of their other "sure thing" bars just weren't paying off and at least this one was fairly consistent.

Sat. evening, one of their client groups included a young boy about 13, and his dad. They just weren't hooking up and we were doing OK, so I handed off my rod to the kid (I know it probably wasn't legal, but the kid REALLY wanted to catch a fish) who reeled in a nice sock. The guide was a nice guy and thanked us for helping out.

We caught fish, but nowhere near the numbers we did last year. Oh well, it's still a fun experience camping on a river bar and enjoying the beautiful setting. There were a few pinks in the mix too for us, but unfortunately no springs this year.

The combination of lower fish numbers this year and the controversial native gill net drift fishery is turning the Fraser this summer into somewhat of a mild bust.

BD

The numbers were not there. Pretty slow for me on Sunday. The areas I fished seemed to be more crowded than last year.

4Salt,

Glad to hear you had a good time. You guys had the right idea camping upriver from the Island 22 / Grassy gong show. There's less fish , but the experience is much better.

Tag teaming the best spots is the way the guides do it - we watched another well known local guide sit on a spot around the Harrison all week. It was kind of fun tossing the buoy and drifting by them 6 times with springs on while they struggled to hook a sockeye.

Too bad we couldn't hook up, we'll have to get together to kick the snot out of some of those big white springs, but not on the vedder. How does 30 slabs a day sound?

Any chance the fishery will pick up???

Ya...next year.

Numbers will improve as we move towards the end of the month, odds are warm water temps will see the river at the peak of the run.

Who knows though...

sockeye coast wide are 4-8 days later than normal. The fishing should improve this week, but the gillnetters are getting a shot at the fish today. By the time the river fills back up woth fish , it may be flooded with pinks and hard to weed trough all of them to get at the sockeye. It will be a huge return of pinks this year, they are already reporting an excess of 2 million northcoast pinks that the canneries can't handle and it appears the fraser return could be 12 million fish.

Sounds Awesome! Just say the word ooli' and I'm there!

oolichan

Tell 4-Salt he can bring a friend

You're in!

YES!!!!!

Sorry you all didn't do so well. The season IS early

The fish are starting to get bigger and more pentiful.
Yesterday me and Shane boated 3 and lost 3 by 8:15 am before we had to go.
The biggest, a buck, was 27" long and girthed 17.5" My Normak read 8lbs, is that correct? Or do I need new battery.
We are seeing more kings being fought as they drift by
Someone tell me how to attach a digital photo I'll post it

I'm glad to see that at least someone is gettin' them. Good job G-MAN. Fish Jesus, Craven Morehead and their gang did pretty well last weekend too.

The main problem we were having wasn't our leader tangling aroung the swivel, it was the betty smashing the leader and weakening it considerably about an inch or two from the knot. We saw some guys using wire spreaders to prevent this from happening.

4Salt, There's a cheaper and easier way to keep your leader from taking abuse from the betty. You need 30# green spot dacron (as seen in sturgeon leaders) a barrel swivel and 3 way swivel. The picture below should make it all clear.

Excellent idea Ryan! Thanks! I lost a couple of fish because of what we were calling "Betty Smash." The Betty would flatten the leader and weaken it so much that we were constantly re-tying. Pretty soon our 10' leaders were 5' leaders!

Your idea is very clever.

How we stop the lead from mashing the leader is we use Tiny vinyl tubing 1/8 ID, about 4 to 5 inches long, backed up by a GOOD swivel. Then a 10 foot leader. Just like Ramstrong's pictue.

I went to a stiffer leader than my main line, that seems to help it drift out straighter.

I use 3 snap swivels, covered with latex tubing, to help keep my leader up off the bottom alittle. The tubing protects the swivels and my main line from ever being nicked or getting tangled in them.

Fish 25-30# leaders and you can toss the same rig for hours.

You can also handline sockeye into the boat...netting fish with 15' leaders is a nightmare.

I'd also recommend big hooks, 3/0 - 4/0's. It makes relesaing fish much easier at the boat and buttons the springs real well.

lots of fish down at steveston today (friday am), should be good be sunday if the first nation fishermen don't gillnet them all on saturday