Yeah ok this blog is called Shore Fishing Jersey but as I’m currently on holiday camping in Dorset with no access to my diaries I thought I would write about the trip I did to Canada in 2012.
It was a surprise trip for my wife Zena to see some family in Canada, I booked the trip and then decided to look into what fishing opportunities there might be while we were there having no real idea about the fishing in Canada.
I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered you can go guided Sturgeon fishing on the Fraser river in British Columbia which was close enough to where we were staying in Vancouver. Anyone who knows me will know I will do anything to avoid getting on a boat so I researched the idea of fishing from the bank but quickly discovered it’s illegal as you are likely to get eaten by the bears, a fairly compelling reason I guess.
It was going to have to be a boat then, so I set about researching the available guides and there a lot of them. After looking on the various forums I was recommended one of the smaller companies called Cascade Fishing Adventures which were actually one of the older companies. I booked the boat to myself for 2 days to give myself the best chance of hooking a fish.
We were in Canada for 2 weeks and the 2 days fishing were in the middle of the second week so I had a lot of exposure to the truly phenomenal views that are just everywhere and I knew the river was going to be stunning.
The whole Salmon and Sturgeon fishery set up there is really incredible and an education for us all. It’s a massive tourist attraction with hotels set up to cater for the anglers and a massive tackle shop all in the same area. I was dropped at the hotel the night before my first days fishing, not getting much sleep due to a mixture of excitement and apprehension. The hotel was full of anglers from all over the world and it’s like that all the time.
The first morning I was waiting outside my hotel for my guide along with all the other anglers as a stream of 4×4’s and boats arrived to pick everyone up. It was quite interesting that we were one of the last to leave and we went in the opposite direction to every other boat. The guide told me that most of the guides will just go to the obvious places and all be congregated together, we were going somewhere more remote where we would most likely not see another boat.
The view were really breathtaking.
The gear was quite interesting, the rods were actually cut down beach casters with lever drag reels loaded with braid. It wasn’t very deep but there was a lot of flow and 1lb of lead was needed to hold bottom. Bait was sections of lamprey which I believe is a seasonal thing with salmon eggs being the first choice at different times of the year. The one thing I struggled to get my head around was they don’t change the bait, often using the same bait to catch several fish which seems pretty alien to me.
The sturgeon are a complete catch and release fishery, barbless hooks only and you are not allowed to take any fish out of the water unless they are really small, if you want a photo you have to get into the water with the fish.
The first day the fishing was quite slow, there had been a lot of rain in the previous few days which causes a lot of debris on the river causing a similar problem we get with weed. I had one smaller fish which was nice to avoid a blank.
And then right at the end of the day when it was just coming to pack up time I hooked into a much bigger fish. It might have been 14 years ago but I can still remember these things really go. Imagine hooking a fish of around 150lb in less than 20 foot of water with so much flow you need 1lb of lead to hold bottom and your using braid!
After what felt a titanic battle including the fish jumping right at the back of the boat a few times it finally tired a bit and we were able to slowly motor into the bank where we could get a measure and a converted weight. I can’t remember the exact conversion but it was in the region of 150lb
The second day we again went in the opposite direction to the other boats and found ourselves all alone. The debris had cleared and the fishing was much better with a constant stream of fish. Early afternoon I hooked into another big fish that wasn’t stopping so we had to lift the anchor and follow it with the boat as it had gone around a bend in the river. It turned into an epic battle that resulted in my biggest of the trip at 6ft 10inches and around 170lb.
We motored back out to the spot and dropped the anchor and within 2 minutes of the bait hitting the bottom I was in again with another big fish. This was really jumping, a spectacular sight. I managed to land this one without having to up the anchor but we released it at the side of the boat with the guide estimating 150lb plus. I was completely wrecked and we still had a couple of hours to go.
At this point I think he could see I was shattered so suggested we go try for a Salmon for the last couple of hours. I had seen some Salmon fishing in Canada on tv a few times and they struggled to catch so I was a bit sceptical but he assured me there was a good chance of fish so we went and had a go.
We moved to where another river converged with the Fraser and for the first time in 2 days we saw other anglers. The gear for this was really strange, a spinning rod with an Abu 7000 set up on float with a tin head lure instead of bait. There were Salmon jumping regularly and he said just stand in the water, trot the float down the seam. Easy enough I thought, just like snipe fishing and first trot I was in to a decent sized Salmon. It turned out at that time of the year they are heading back into the river so are pretty tired so the fight is nothing special. I went on to catch several before it was time to pack up mainly around 10-15lb, I was told I’m allowed to keep one but I can’t give it to the guide. I declined but Zena’s family were not impressed when I told them lol.
And that was it. An epic adventure which I would recommend to anyone. While we were there Zena’s uncle took me to a greasy spoon cafe in a builders yard. I wondered what we were doing there until he showed me a wall of loads of really old photos of giant Sturgeon from back in the day before the fishery became controlled, some of these fish were over 12 foot long and likely over 1000lb.
The guide told me normally once they get much over 400lb it normally takes more than one angler to land them. I can imagine.
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