Fishing the mighty Fraser River
One of the largest most fertile rivers in the world, the mighty Fraser River.    Back   Home
The Fraser River starts at the base of the Rocky Mountains near the Alberta / British Columbia border. The river cuts it's way through 970 miles of British Columbia's most rugged country ending up in the city of Vancouver. Approximately 100 river miles before the Fraser reaches Vancouver the Fraser Valley begins.
  
The Fraser Valley offers many unique fishing opportunities, river fishing for salmon and sturgeon, carp fishing in our local sloughs and fly fishing for trout and whitefish in lakes and rivers. All these fisheries provide excellent opportunities for those willing to put in the time to learn, how, when, where to fish them. The angling opportunities the Fraser Valley offers are world class. I have never yet heard someone say where they live, the fishing is better or the scenery more beautiful. You soon realize what we have is very special, even on a slow day; our quality of angling is much higher than most places in the world
 
The Fraser River is one of the largest salmon bearing rivers in the world with an average of 10 to 30 million salmon returning each year. The Fraser is also home to one of the largest freshwater game fish on earth, the White Sturgeon. Sturgeon can grow to lengths of over 15 feet and weigh as much as 1800 lbs. Sturgeon on the Fraser are famous for making tail walking leaps and tackle breaking runs that put even the fittest anglers to shame.
 
The salmon migration in the Fraser Valley begins as early as March with the first and largest species of the salmon family, the Chinook or Kings as our American friends call them. Although the runs of salmon begin migrating in March, the river is not open to retention of salmon until May 1 when the majority of fish are in the river. The early run of Chinook or what we call the summer run will last well into August with prime fishing between mid June and mid July. The great thing about fishing the Fraser is that once the salmon runs begin they continue to improve all summer and well into fall with the other 4 species of salmon following close behind. Most of salmon are staggered into 3 or 4-week intervals, nature’s way of keeping animals feed with fish until the harsh winters set in.
 
Sockeye Salmon are the second species of salmon to enter the Fraser River and are fast becoming one of the most popular sport fish in freshwater. The Fraser River hosts the one of the largest sockeye migration anywhere in the world; on a high yield year over 30 million salmon will swim the Fraser to their spawning grounds. These fish are fresh from the ocean and are Chrome silver.
 
Sockeye begin their annual migration in early June and continue through until mid September. There are several distinct runs of fish that we target, early Stewart River Sockeye, Weaver Creek Sockeye on the Harrison River, and the late summer, Adams River Sockeye. Some of the best action is early August through to September. Because of the shear quantity of fish many methods work well, Bottom bouncing with corkies and yarn and fly-fishing are the two most popular. Many 100 fish days per boat can be achieved using either method.
 
Pink Salmon are the 3rd species to enter the Fraser River but return every second year on odd years only, 2001 is our next return. Pink Salmon start their migration in mid August and continue through to the end of September. Pink Salmon are one of the more easily caught species of salmon for two reasons. First there sheer numbers, between 5 and 10 million Pinks return each year and second, they are very aggressive towards predators such as lures and flies and spinners. The timing of the Pink Salmon's migration coincides with the annual migration of the Sockeye salmon which can reach as high as 30 million fish add the two species together and you have one of the largest salmon bearing rivers in the world.
  
Coho Salmon are fished on all of our river systems. Starting in early Sept on the Fraser River and continuing through to Nov in the tributaries. Coho salmon average size varies from river to river; 6-10 LB is an overall average. We fish many methods for Coho, fly-fishing, spin fishing, float fishing and bar/plunking. Each river system has it's own unique characteristics, some river systems fish better with one method preferred over another
 
Most of the river's and sloughs in the Fraser Valley have good numbers Coho returning each year to spawn, like all the other salmon species, these fish are chrome bright and ready to put up a battle. The Coho begin to arrive in the Fraser Valley rivers and sloughs in late August continuing well into October, fishing for these great fish lasts well into November.

October is one of the best months to fish for Coho in the Fraser Valley, by the first week in October most of the rivers in the area have good numbers of Coho. The great Coho fishing is not only a big attractor to our area but also the world class Chum Salmon fishing. In October you can fish for several species of salmon, Coho, Chum and this year Pink Salmon that return every second year (odd years only). Combine the 3 species of salmon and add a day of sturgeon fishing and you now have a fishing experience that you'll never forget.

Last but not least is the Chum salmon, Chum were once considered a commercial fish, but as more people started sport fishing for them, anglers soon realized that they are one of the hardest fighting fish there is pound for pound. We fish for Chum with spinners, float fish, and fly fishing for these brutes.

The Harrison, Vedder, Chehalis and Stave Rivers are well known for their large numbers of Chum. We mainly fly fish for Chum on the Stave River and use all three methods on the Harrison, Vedder and Chehalis. This fishery has become very popular with fly fishers from around the world, average size of Chum are 12 to 20 lbs with good numbers of fish over 20 lbs reaching as large as 30lbs. The best time is Oct 1st - November 15th.

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