Angling UK - Exotic Fishing Locations

The flight from Heathrow to Vancouver was around 10 hours. What the hell you're supposed to do for 10 long hours totally eludes me but at least I was now a non-smoker so it wasn't complete torture any more. In fact it wasn't too bad at all, nice Air Canada jumbo, no delays and even some leg room so definitely bearable but boring. Once I was through customs the fun started. Picked up a hire car and with very sparse instructions from Vic, ventured forth. Blimey, what a nightmare, alone in a car, driving on the wrong side of the road, in the middle of a busy major city where they don't believe in direction signs and completely lost !!. Spent a fair time seeing some of the sights of downtown Vancouver before remembering that North Americans are a lot more organised than we are when it comes to naming their roads. One of my possible escape routes involved turning East at 12th Street and I'd just passed 4th Street. Provided that the next road was 5th Street I'd almost cracked it. It was, and I had, now which way's East ?. Worked that one out once I'd decided that the sun probably still set in the West even though I was a few miles from home, and I was on my way. A couple of hours later and with no further excitement I'd found my home for the next week, and what a home it was !!. The Harrison Mills Country House is a stunning home from home owned by Fred & Betty Block, two of the nicest people that you could wish to meet. The house is beautiful, the meals huge and the views are stunning, all in all quite superb.

The Fraser River
The Fraser River is over 850 miles long....think about it, it's longer than this little island that we live on. There are 5 distinct species of Pacific Salmon and they all run up the Fraser. It is also home to the mighty Sturgeon, of which much more later. I was staying about 100km from where the Fraser empties into the sea, and the water that we were fishing was just about affected by the tide, it didn't flow back upstream but slowed to a crawl around high tide. Harrison Mills is where the Harrison River joins the Fraser. The Harrison River is only six miles long, joining Harrison Lake to the Fraser River, however Harrison Lake is almost 40 miles long, that's further than London to Brighton, another "impossible to take in" statistic. One last statistic for you to chew on, further upriver the Fraser narrows through Fraser Canyon and at one point, unsurprisingly called Hells Gate, the river narrows to a mere 35 metres wide and flow through that gap has been measured at 3.9 million gallons per second. You'll probably notice from the pictures that this is not exactly inner city fishing. It's about a thirty mile round road trip to get to the other bank, and you simply have to have access to a boat to have any chance of success. And we're not talking rowing boats here, the confluence of the Harrison and Fraser rivers is one of the scariest places I've seen, and the speed of the current on parts of the Fraser is simply unbelievable. No, we're talking jet boats, aluminium flat bottomed boats that can skim over gravel bars lurking inches below the surface of the river, steered by guys who have spent the best part of their lives fishing the Fraser and surrounding areas.

Salmon
As I mentioned earlier, there are 5 species of Pacific Salmon and they all run up the Fraser River to spawn. One species, the pink or "humpy" is the smallest, growing up to 6 or 7 lbs, and it only returns to the river on alternate odd numbered years. Of the others the Chinook is the biggest (40lbs or more), then the Chum (just over 20lbs), the Coho (up to about 15lbs) and finally the Sockeye (yes that's the one that John West pops into tins) which weighs in at around 10lbs top whack. Incidentally you're only allowed to fish for Sockeye for about one week per year, so it gets a bit hectic when it happens.

Each of the Salmon species arrives at a different time of the year and by the time that I arrived Sockeye was just about finished, Coho were just starting and there were a fair number of Chinook plus huge numbers of Chum in the river. In the past the Chum has been treated as the poor relation of the salmon world, it seems that they're not good eating although they have the reputation of being the best of all for smoking. They're known as "Dog" salmon because once they've been in freshwater for a while they grow a fearsome set of teeth (just visible on the lower jaw in my poorly lit picture, although a little clearer if you click on the picture to load the bigger image). One certain fact is that they don't deserve such a bad name, they're fearsome fighters, 100% pure muscle.

Sturgeon
The White Sturgeon is the largest freshwater fish in the world. Its main habitats are the Fraser River in Canada and the Columbia River a little further south just over the border in the United States. It's a strange, mysterious, prehistoric creature that would be loved by any angler. It is known to spend some time in saltwater, in fact there are theories that numbers of fish migrate to the sea each winter, returning in the spring when the Eulichan, a type of shad, moves into the rivers to spawn. In looks it's very similar to a freshwater version of the shark, but it has no teeth and a very strange mouth. As you can see from the pictures on the right, the fish has a bizarre mouth that extends down into a sort of tube when it's feeding. It's also scaleless with a set of armoured cartilage along the lateral line. It has very small eyes and uses a set of barbules to seek out its food of salmon roe, salmon bodies,worms etc. from the bottom of the muddy Fraser River. Until just a few years ago virtually nothing was known about the life of the Sturgeon. A group of enthusiasts, mostly guides on the Fraser, started a tagging program and with the help of a group of scientists they have pieced together an amazing picture of the lives of these mighty fish. They now know that the male sturgeon achieves sexual maturity at around 20 - 25 years of age, but that the female is not sexually mature until age 35 - 40. They have also discovered that the fish have a very slow growth rate of between 1" and 2" per year. These findings rather make a mockery of fishery rules for the Columbia system which allow the angler to kill one fish between 42" - 60" per day, with a maximum of 10 fish per year. Luckily, on the Fraser it's totally catch and release, thank goodness that somebody's got some sense !!.

The Fishing
Where do I start ?, I guess that day 1 is as good a place as any. Met up with guide Eric at a boat slipway just up the road from the guest house. Swift introductions and we were roaring along at about 40 mph up the Harrison River for a day of salmon fishing. Now you have to understand that this is not the snooty UK style "day on the Tweed", this is salmon fishing for the working man. Certainly there were some people fly fishing, but a lot more were spinning or float fishing. Eric set me up with a 10' rod, fixed spool reel holding maybe 12lb line, a very strange cylindrical float made out of foam and a large pink lead headed jig. The method was to chuck it out, let it trot down a little way then reel in and repeat. Yeah thinks I, I've been taken for a ride. Fourth trot down under goes the float and eventually in comes a Chum salmon around the 10lb mark. It was quickly released and with aching arm I recast. Two casts later and it's a repeat performance, a fish of about 12lb. Once more released (as was every other fish that I hooked during the week) and it was time for a rethink and a little rest. I'd been fishing for about 15 minutes and I'd been playing fish for 12 of them, it couldn't go on. I'd taken a telescopic carp rod with me plus a trusty centrepin so without further ado the end tackle was transferred to this new set up. This was much more fun, almost like "real" fishing and a number more fish were caught and released ending with the 18 pounder pictured left which led me a merry dance for quite a few minutes. As the day got brighter the fish became less willing to bite and thankfully my arm was given some respite with just occasional interruptions to land yet another hard fighting chum. Day 2 was pretty much an action replay of day 1, different guide (Greg) but same result, aching arms and a suntan.

Day 3 started a new chapter in my life, on that day I became a sturgeon fisherman. I think that I could happily spend the rest of my life fishing for Sturgeon, they cast a sort of spell on you. Back with Eric today and my first glimpse of the mighty Fraser River. We'd fished the Harrison on days 1 & 2 because the Fraser was high and dirty following a few days with temperatures in the mid twenties centigrade that had melted a load of early snow on the surrounding mountains. The Harrison had been fast but fairly clear and you could often see the bottom. The Fraser was charging along, quite brown and muddy and with huge swirls and vortices in the current. It was immensely powerful and scary, quite scary. We hurtled downstream for a few miles before stopping in an area of steady water. According to the echo sounder it was 36 feet deep, ideal for our friend Mr Sturgeon. Tackle wasn't like anything I'd used before, be it on freshwater or saltwater. The rod was a 7ft 20lb class boat rod teamed with a Shimano TLD20 multiplier. Line was 80lb Maxima (yes, you read it right !!) with a 100lb dacron leader tied to a 6/0 hook. We used 16 ounces of lead and the bait was a bunch of salmon roe inside a nylon bag, with the bait about the size of a tangerine. Two rods were cast out from the back of the boat and we sat to await our first bite. It didn't come from that spot or the next but at our third attempt we hooked and landed a fish about 3 feet long, probably around 40lbs. It took a couple more moves downriver before I managed to hook the biggest fish of the day, one of around 4ft 6ins, weighing 70 or 80lbs which jumped clear of the water 4 times before finally being brought to the boat and released. That first day we landed 5 sturgeon and lost 2 or 3 more when the hook came adrift. One of the most difficult parts of sturgeon fishing is timing the strike correctly. I've never known a fish play with the bait as much and it's really easy to strike too soon.

Day 4 was a repeat of day 3 another gloriously sunny day without a cloud in the sky, temperatures in the mid seventies, eagles soaring overhead, a seal poking its head up above the surface not 20 feet from the boat, and another 6 sturgeon landed and safely returned. As I said to Eric, "another shit day in British Columbia" !!.

This 30lb Chinook led me a merry dance

Biggest of the trip - around 80lbs

"Another shit day in British Columbia !"

Day 4 saw me out once again with Greg. We decided to try a half hours salmon fishing before trying for a Harrison River sturgeon. These are less plentiful than their Fraser cousins but could well be bigger. The salmon fishing consisted of flipping a little spoon up into some deep water alongside a cliff. Now I'd had several attempts at catching a fish on a spinner already, and hadn't had so much as a touch, so my confidence wasn't at an all time high but hey it was only half an hour. Was that a tap....recast......another tap.....strike.....bloody hell something's taking all the line off my reel. Up anchor, start the engine and follow the fish. Thirty minutes later and around half a mile downstream from where it was hooked I finally landed a Chinook about 30lbs pictured left. I was exhausted, sweating and a nervous wreck. Motor back to the same spot, 4 more casts and a repeat performance. This time I played it for around 15 minutes before the hook came out, what a relief....let's go sturgeon fishing.

We motored upstream to a big deep hole and chucked out the Sturgeon baits. Managed to lose one immediately after hooking it but no other interest. We did see a HUGE sturgeon jump about 20 yards away and another seal kept bobbing up but prospects weren't good, there were a lot of boats buzzing about and there are not many sturgeon holes on the Harrison so we decided to up anchor and sneak out to a little spot in the Fraser just a few hundred yards below the confluence with the Harrison. First spot nothing so we dropped down another 50 yards. In no time we were getting signs of fish activity. I was talking earlier about the tagging program that the Fraser guides had been involved in and today Greg had brought the tagging kit and scanner along. They have now got enough data on fish between 3 and 5ft long so only need to tag fish above or below that size. Naturally I was hoping that we would get one above....we didn't, instead I managed to catch a perfect miniature with a turned up nose, all of 24" long (picture above right). It was dutifully tagged and returned to its home and a little later I managed one of around 3 and a half feet that had already been tagged, so we measured and recorded the details for the scientists. The afternoon was rounded off perfectly by catching the fish pictured left, around 80lbs of sheer beauty. Day 5 was my final day and with a plane to catch I only had about 5 hours fishing. Another new guide, Chris, and once again we decided on Sturgeon. We started near the mouth of the Harrison, there was a lot of fog on the Fraser and you would not want to be on that river with poor visibility believe me. No bites for an hour but now the fog had lifted a bit so we roared off downstream. In the next 4 hours we landed 12 sturgeon, including 3 double hook ups with a fish on each rod. No monsters, the biggest around 4 feet, but great fishing and a perfect end to my week in Heaven.

I can't finish without praising Eric, Greg and Chris, the guides that showed me such great fishing. They were absolutely superb and seemed to have only one thing higher on their agenda than me, the client, and that was the welfare of the fish and the protection of the environment. They were never happier than when they could simply slip the hook out of a fish as it was brought alongside the boat. They would reluctantly hold up a fish so that I could take a photograph, but they made absolutely sure that the camera was ready before that fish was lifted from the water.

I remember on the very first morning of my trip looking round and saying to Eric "You do appreciate what you've got here don't you ?" to which came the reply "Oh yes, every single day !". If the future of fishing in B.C. is in the hands of those guys and their boss Vic then I can see nothing but good coming from it and the fishing is in safe hands.

In case you're wondering if I'm going back for another week next year, I'm afraid the answer's no.....I'm going for 2 weeks....maybe even 2 and a half !!. When you've listened to the tales of sturgeon landed and lost by these guys you realise what the attraction of this type of fishing is.....you just never know how big the next one's going to be !!.