Jan-Apr 2012: Tacos, Tequila and Steelhead

 

Without getting into any of the gory details, the last couple of months of 2011 were not the best. It seemed that, not only just for me, but for other dear friends too, that things just kind of fell apart in November and December. So the start of 2012 was almost a relief, a huge "thank goodness that's over, now we can try to move forward". I kind of laid low for the first few weeks of January, fished a little, lost a beauty little chrome steelhead on the Vedder. And January isn't exactly the easiest time to catch fish on the fly out there.

 

Ape and I setting up her booth at the Fly Expo 



 

April had asked me to help her out at her booth at the Western Canadian Fly Fishing Exposition in Calgary, so we carpooled with Greg and drove out towards the end of January. I don't know about you, but I love trade shows, particularily when I actually get the chance to check out the show and do some socializing. The people are one of the biggest reasons why I love working in the fly fishing industry, and there's something about shows, maybe its the absolute exhaustion combined with a wee little bit of alcohol, that creates a sense of family. The show went by fast, as they all do, but was crammed full of events. It was exactly what I needed to finally help me start feeling positive about myself and my life again. I was able to spend time with old friends, and meet some incredible new ones. That was the first time I'd really encountered this scenario: "Oh, Adrienne, do you know ________?" "We've never met in person, but we're friends on Facebook." It made me realize not only how small the fly fishing world is, but how like minded people are drawn to and seek out each other regardless of geography.

Me, Ape, Paula, Timbre and Caitlin at the Expo

 

February, March and April went something like this: work Thursday through Monday at the fly shop, with the occassional Friday or Saturday night drinks with friends, drive out to Chilliwack after work Monday to meet up with friends for Monday Night Tacos at the Jolly Miller ($1.00 tacos and cheap Corona) which invariably always got a little messier (tequila shots) than we intended, sleep in Tuesday morning and fish the afternoon, sometimes for cutties but most often for steelhead, sometimes stay over again and fish Wednesday, or head home for a little sleep and rebooting for the upcoming work week.

This season was my best for winter steelhead, not only was my hook up for time spent ratio pretty exceptional, but it was also the funnest season I think I've ever had out there. The Vedder is a busy system, and it is very, very easy to get annoyed and frustrated with the pressure. Some days we'd fish a run or two, meet up with friends, drink a few beer and have a good bullshit session. Did we find fish? Not every day, but yes, we still caught fish and had a hell of a good time doing it.

 

In March a good friend, Bill, came up from Washington to fish, and we had a fun couple of days on the river. I didn't touch one, but Bill and Ben both landed an incredible fish each. Bill unfortunately had to witness a beautiful wild steelhead being dragged up onto the gravel, unhooked, and then kicked back into the water. The angler was swearing mad that he had caught three wild fish that morning, when what he really was looking for was a hatchery fish to kill.

April started off with a bang with the Whistler Fly Fishing/Pieroway Fly Rods Cast & Blast in Squamish. I made it out for the Saturday night IronFly Tying Competition (which I won :P), the SSBC auction, and the subsequent late night shenanigans around the bonfire. The following week I had an amazing afternoon fishing on my own where I landed 3 beautiful fish with no one around, and finally landed a fish on my birthday. The M&Y Spey Day was a huge success again, and we followed it up with a big bonfire on the gravel bar afterwards. Josh made it out from Calgary for a couple days, and we had one beautiful day fishing the Cheakamus and the next day fishing a rising, dirty river in the torrential rain.

 

 

Stay tuned for for part 2 of 2012...

 

Girls' Day Out

This is my dear friend Sarah Henry. The one who has pictures of herself fly casting in her wedding dress. The awesome lady who caught a world record rooster fish on her honeymoon. And this is a ridiculous bull trout from her recent trip up to a big lake in the BC interior.

Well, Sarah and her husband recently (finally, Dave!!!) bought themselves a beautiful 20ft HCM jet boat, and have been burning through gas like it costs 39 cents again. That's 39 cents per litre, for the benefit of my friends to the south. Curtis and I went out with them a few weeks ago and helped them dial in on sturgeon, and Dave has been guiding on his days off and loving it. After his first day guiding I believe his words were "Best day of work...EVER."

One thing us better halfs of boat owners have been dreaming about is a girls day out on the water in one of our boats. Sarah and I finally made it happen. In the midst of torrential rain, and  a rising, colouring up river, we met at Island 22 boat launch in Chilliwack. Sarah had just gotten her boater's license the week before, and while she'd driven the boat and trailered it a couple times in Fort Langley, this was her first chance to do it all.

And do it all she did. I was there to offer moral support, a few words of encouragement and the odd suggestion or two. Other than that, I sat on my ass while Super Sarah backed the boat in, drove it off the tailer, parked the truck, drove us up river, pulled in to shore, anchored the boat up, then after fishing for a little while, pushing the boat off, heading to another spot, and finally re-trailering the boat (on her first real attempt - and the river at Island 22 is pushing WAY faster than in Langley). And... we even caught a few fish.

I have to say, I am so proud of her, she kicked ass, and will continue to do so. Sarah is one of those people who makes my life complete, a dear friend who I admire, respect and aspire to be like. And, to top it all off, she loves to fish.

So this post is basically to say congrats to Sarah for her first successful solo trip in her gorgeous new boat. Thanks for taking me with you. Here's to many more fabulous Girls' Day Out.

Check out Sarah and Dave's websites:

Fraser Valley Flyfishing

2 Handed Trout

Well hello sockeye!!

"The Fraser River Panel met Tuesday August 24 to review stock assessment data on the Fraser River sockeye runs, plan fisheries and review migration conditions in the Fraser River watershed. Test fishing catches of sockeye have continued to be strong in the marine approach routes over the past several days. These catches along with other assessment data have caused run size estimates for Fraser sockeye to increase. At the meeting today, the Panel approved increasing the run sizes for several Fraser River sockeye runs and adopting the following estimates of their 50% marine migration timing through Area 20: Early Summer-run sockeye increased from 2,900,000 fish to 3,200,000 fish (August 7 marine timing); Summer-run sockeye increased from 4,000,000 fish to 4,500,000 fish, (August 13 marine timing); Harrison sockeye increased from 900,000 fish to 1,000,000 fish (August 8 marine timing); Late Shuswap/Weaver sockeye increased from 11,000,000 fish to 16,000,000 fish (August 19 marine timing); and the forecast of 241,000 fish from the Birkenhead stock-group. The total run size estimate for Late-run sockeye (which includes Late Shuswap, Weaver, Harrison and Birkenhead sockeye) has increased from 12,141,000 fish to 17,241,000 fish. Current run size assessments suggest that the total Fraser sockeye return this season is slightly over 25,000,000 fish (including 105,000 Early Stuart sockeye), which is the largest return since 1913."

Link

Sometimes It's Good Just to Get Outside...

Pitt Lake

Harrison Lake

Lillooet River

Fraser River

Fraser River

Stave Lake

Allouette Lake

Allouette Lake

Stave Lake

Fraser River

Too Little, Too Late?

From the front page of the Vancouver Sun:

"Wild salmon advocates expressed relief Thursday after Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that the federal government will stage a judicial inquiry into the collapse of sockeye salmon runs on the Fraser River.

Details will be announced Friday in Vancouver by Stockwell Day, federal Trade Minister and regional minister for British Columbia.

Day is expected to name a judge to head the inquiry and to announce terms of reference. The inquiry will have the legal power to compel witnesses to testify — meaning that federal scientists will have the freedom to discuss their concerns about sockeye without fear of repercussion.

Sockeye runs spawning in the Fraser drainage have been in a two-decade decline after years of spectacular abundance in the 1980s, and hit a 50-year low in summer 2009.

That has prompted concerns, as detailed in a recent book by B.C. author Alex Rose, that sockeye are heading for a population failure on the scale of the collapse of Atlantic cod.

In his book, Who Killed the Grand Banks, Rose suggests that sockeye are beset by the same conflicting political agendas that enabled East Coast fishermen to push cod to the brink of extinction.

“Mr. Harper deserves credit for this decision. It’s long overdue,” Rose said in an interview. “After seeing the denial and obfuscation of DFO and its regime on the East Coast with the collapse of the Grand Banks cod, I’m convinced that we need to get these people on the stand and under oath.”

Documents show that while the Department of Fisheries and Oceans was officially predicting strong sockeye returns and a commercial fishing opportunity for Fraser sockeye in 2009, others at DFO were warning of a probable collapse based on grim results in ocean test fishing programs dating back to 2007.

B.C. New Democrat and Liberal MPs, first nations, commercial and sport fishing groups, conservation groups and local governments have all been calling on the government for action but until Harper’s announcement there was no evidence that the Tories intended to respond.

The reason for the decline remains a mystery, although poor marine survival rates among juvenile salmon migrating into the ocean for the first time appear to be the principal culprit.

Climate change effecting ocean temperature, declining ocean salinity, dwindling food resources and health threats from fish farms along salmon migration routes have been suggested as possible explanations — but the official position of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is that no specific cause is known.

Chief Bob Chamberlin, secretary treasurer of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, called Harper’s announcement “excellent news.”

“I think it’s crucial that they release a complete understanding of what happened with the sockeye collapse here on the West Coast,” Chamberlin said.

He wants the inquiry to look at potential for sea lice infestations and disease transfer from salmon farms to juvenile wild salmon.

“I would urge the Prime Minister to make the necessary resources available for intervenors to participate — if not, you’ll have well-resourced industries like fish farms participate and put their spin on things, and other people who could inform the whole process will be excluded.”

Craig Orr, executive director of Watershed Watch Salmon Society, wants the inquiry to look at the “disconnect” between DFO researchers who warned in 2007 of the pending collapse based on an absence of juvenile 2009-class Fraser sockeye in ocean test fishing, and DFO’s “rosy” pre-season forecasts for the 2009 sockeye Fraser return.

“An inquiry should allow them to compel testimony from the managers and the scientists, which is good,” Orr said.

Commercial gillnetter and troller Rick Burns, who abandoned the Fraser in favour of fishing the north B.C. coast four years ago, said he’s “all for” the inquiry and said it needs to be a “far ranging inquiry because there are so many factors that affect salmon.”

Phil Eidsvik, spokesman for the BC Fisheries Survival Coalition, said the inquiry is “great news for B.C. salmon.

“I couldn’t be more pleased – we have been asking for a full judicial inquiry into the management of Fraser salmon since 1992,” Eidsvik said.

“Harper has shown that he understands how important salmon is to B.C. and is putting his government under a microscope to ensure that B.C. salmon don’t go the way of Atlantic cod.”

ssimpson@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun"

Updates.

After seriously neglecting my blog for the past month, its time for an update. I still have not had a chance to finish up my report on Russia, but here are some firsts and personal bests from the last little while.

My first Atlantics.

My first browns.

My first sea trout.

My first Pike.

My first fly rod sturgeon.

And my biggest sturgeon yet - 8'8".