One of the items that has always been on my bucket list is
fishing for Sturgeon in British
Columbia. A friend put me in touch with BC Sportfishing
(BCSF) in Harrison on the West Coast of Canada
and it was recommended that I chose an odd numbered year so that I could catch
pink salmon too, possibly on the fly. I have caught several salmon in the past
on baits as diverse as spinners, corn and spam, but had never one on a fly.
The destination was especially good because we were located
in a spa hotel which meant Sandy could tag along and enjoy the experience. She
booked the flights and discovered that if we flew from Exeter to Edinburgh and
then Edinburgh to Heathrow with a connecting flight to Vancouver the saving was
huge - £300 per person and we used that saving to spend some time with our son,
Lee, who lives in Edinburgh and was travelling with us.
So, Saturday 12th September finally arrived. We
checked in, booking our bags all the way through to Vancouver. The flight from Edinburgh
was short, just over an hour, but then we began the tedious leg of the journey
– London to Vancouver which took approximately 9 hours 20
minutes. Economy class is not great for me as I am just over 6’ 2” and weigh 17
stones. The British Airways steward suggested I book World Traveller Plus next
time.
On arriving at YVR (Vancouver Airport)
we were met by BCSF’s chauffeur at the airport who drove us for two hours to
the hotel. He gave us a running commentary about Vancouver so we were able to relax and enjoy
the journey.
The spa hotel was on the shoreline of Lake Harrison,
a pristine lake which varies from about 3-4’ at the end by the hotel to over
900 feet at the far end which we couldn’t even see. There are swimming pools heated
by natural hot springs, a gym, a bar with outdoor seating, a
restaurant overlooking the beautiful lake and mountains in the near distance, and a
fine dining restaurant within the hotel. The office of BCSF is located in the
hotel so that you can talk with friendly staff about your trip, find out about your guides,
pick-up-point, collect your permit and schedule for the week.
We didn’t eat that first evening – there is an 8 hour time difference so
we crashed out and were ready for breakfast at 7 am the next morning. This is
great – buffet presentation in the restaurant with omelettes freshly cooked by
a very chatty and precise chef!
As the stay went on we learned to eat quickly and be on the
jetty a little earlier than most so that we could get away to the best fishing spots
first.
Our guide on the first morning was Chris who was very
welcoming. We headed just a few yards down Harrison
Lake and turned into the Harrison River
which is clear and blue and flows roughly 11 miles into the Fraser River
which was highly coloured. The boat ride didn’t take long as Chris’s boat is
capable of 48 mph. However, it was breezy that day and this boat was a little
smaller than the others and flat bottomed and the ride was like a speedboat hitting
the water hard. It did mean that we reached our fishing spot quickly and we
couldn’t wait to start catching.
First stop was at Junction Pool to start fly fishing for
pink salmon, but Chris saw few moving so we headed up the Fraser until we saw
more fish moving and anchored up. The
cross wind was a little more fierce than we thought which was a problem for my
fly casting with the large weighted fly necessary to enable it to sink. I
had two salmon and lost the first when it tried to get to the anchor rope and I
pulled to hard on the line. The second fish was lost because I was too gentle
after losing the first. Lee managed a hen fish which we stripped for the eggs
to use as bait for the sturgeon. I tried
jig fishing, caught a cock fish and managed to lose 5 others!!! It was just one
of those days.
At just after midday we switched to sturgeon fishing. The
eggs were tied in small golf-ball sized packets using tights (panti-hose) to
keep them in place. These could be readily hooked.
After the first two stops we hadn’t had any takes as the wind
and current were fighting each other so Chris headed to a more sheltered spot
where there was a much stronger flow and our luck changed. We quickly had four sturgeon
(two each as we took it in turn). We then moved a few yards upstream to another
spot and had another four. The best went to Lee at 5’ 2”, my best was 4’
11”. Quite an end to the day, and a reward
for Chris’s perseverance.
All fish up to 5’ are lifted into a cradle on the boat where
they are scanned for micro-chips and the number, length and girth recorded. If
there isn’t a chip, the guide gently inserts one and records that number with
its vital statistics. All fish over 5’ are taken to the shore where they can
have the same data taken without removing them from the water, lessening the risk
of distress or damage to these fantastic fish. That’s when you get to take your
photographs provided that the fish isn’t lifted too far out of the river. What
a great first day.
Tired and happy, we returned to the jetty at about 4pm in
time to shower and sample the local retaurants. Dinner that night was at
Morgan’s on the Esplanade; looking out from the terrace over the lake, we
enjoyed probably the best meal of our stay.
The rest of the four days' fishing was with Jeff Sayewich in
his slightly larger boat.
The wind had dropped – all the skippers said that wind (not
gas!) was the angler’s biggest enemy on the river. The journey this time was so
smooth as we stopped at the confluence and anchored by some weed. You could see the salmon in the water, and
they travelled through in waves. Each time a wave went through and you cast,
you quickly got a hit. Thanks to Jeff’s guiding my luck had changed and I had 9
salmon including 5 females to be stripped for bait, the males were returned –
Lee had 5 males and lost a few as I had the previous day.
We had told Jeff we would like to catch a variety of species,
even down to the Pike Minnow (previously known as the squawfish, or because of
their numbers, lack of size and voracious appetite, the Canadians also refer to
them as “shitfish”!). As we were fly fishing, I hooked a different smaller fish
which proved to be the sought after (though not for long) Pike Minnow. Lee then
had two, one of which Jeff said was possibly the biggest he had seen in his eight
years as a guide.
As we fly fished, Jeff cast out a sturgeon rod and midway
through the session, Lee had the first sturgeon of the day.
Tiring, we decided to switch to sturgeon fishing further
upstream in the area that proved so difficult in the wind on the previous day. In
that afternoon we bagged 14 sturgeon, seven each with three double hook ups,
the last one being the best fish that day – 5’ 6” for me and a 4’11” for Lee.
This had us in stitches as it was like a co-ordinated dance routine on board
for two not-so-elegant dancers, as we endeavoured to keep the fish apart and
get them to the shore for a photograph.
That evening we were joined for dinner at the hotel by
Graham, Abby and Robin who are fishing friends; they were fly fishing on the
river at Chilliwack.
They regaled us with a tale of a sturgeon they had hooked which towed the boat
for 3 miles upstream; they couldn’t see how big it was but were amazed by its
strength and the 2.5 hour battle before it shed the hook and carried on its
journey.
Jeff proved to be a fabulous guide, joining in with the
good-humoured banter and rivalry between Lee and myself and the bonus was
having Sandy on
board for the next day's outing. She wasn’t fishing as she didn’t have a permit;
she just came along for the experience and afterwards said it was the best day
of the holiday. Jeff made her feel welcome and pointed out the wildlife; a seal
mother and pup, bald eagles, turkey vultures, buzzards and for the first time
ever, she saw a sturgeon and Lee’s biggest of the trip – 7’ 8” in length. After
a little tuition from Jeff on the use of his mobile phone (she’s a technophobe)
she managed to stop photographing her boobs and get some good ones of the
three of us with Lee’s fish! Great.
The next morning we were out at 8am again. Jeff suggested we
try for Chinook Salmon (sometimes called King Salmon) We anchored on a gravel
bar and cast out using a heavy lead. A spinner like a Devon Minnow but shorter
and wider is paternostered and as the Chinook swim by they are aggravated by
the lure and smash it. Just like
Atlantic Salmon, they don’t feed in fresh water and take purely from annoyance
and when they hit the lure you know exactly what you’ve got.
This is a much slower, more static technique and not for the
impatient. Lee had the first take
followed by a brief run before it shook the hook free. I should add that all the hooks used in the
river for whatever species are barbless and whilst this may make hooking with
the heavy leads easier, it also appears to help them shed the hook as they
shake their heads.
I had the next run and after a brief fight, got the fish to
shore alongside the boat where it threw the hook just as Jeff waded out into
the shallow water with the net. To say I was frustrated by the loss is an understatement,
but fortunately the rod went off again and as Lee was distracted, I grabbed it
and had a fabulous Chinook in pristine condition. This lovely looking fish is,
in my opinion, much prettier than the pinks.
It was nearly midday so Jeff suggested we try again in the
morning for Lee to catch one, and that we try the Harrison for sturgeon
that afternoon. Whilst the pinks weren’t running in any numbers, nobody had
fished it for a long while so he felt there might be a chance of a fish or
two. He said we would enjoy catching there, even though there were far
less numbers, as the water is clear and we can watch the fish fight all the way to
the surface.
As mentioned earlier, after nearly and hour, we had a light
bite and Lee struck into a really powerful sturgeon, the best of the trip so far.
After several minutes we saw it rise in the water just as Jeff has said, and we
took the fish to shore. It was 7’8” and really pretty. Jeff told us that it
would probably be the best fish of the trip – and Lee started ribbing me relentlessly from
that point on. Sandy
took the photographs and I was really happy for Lee but that was about to
change. More later.
Dinner that evening was in the local pub which has a good
bar menu at reasonable prices.
At Jeff’s suggestion, we started earlier the next morning so
we wolfed down our breakfast and were on the dock at about 7.15am. We took the boat back to the Chinook spot
from the previous day. The sport that morning proved even slower with
just one take on the rod I was next to, so I struck and the fish just took off
until its first run ended some way away, it then shook its head and out came
the hook. That was it, so we had one last crack at the sturgeon in the
afternoon. Lee started with a small one
which leapt four times and proved to be an average size fish of around 4’. There
was then a light tap and I struck, the fish ran a few yards and then launched
into the air, and we knew instantly that it was a good one. Jeff quickly pulled
in the rest of the tackle and drones used to stabilise the boat as I entered
into a lengthy physically demanding fight using the reel clutch at about the
maximum setting. It wasn’t the fastest fight I’ve had but it was just so
powerful that I had to use the harness to minimise the pain as the rod butt dug into my mid-riff. By the time I got
it to shore, the fight had lasted about half an hour. Every time the boat moved
forward, the flow through the gills seemed to invigorate the fish and off he
would go again. Finally, we reached the
shore to measure it and it was 7’11”, three inches bigger than Lee’s fish of
the day before. They say he who laughs last laughs longest and so it is proving
here – serves him right!!! Using the published weight/length table for the Fraser River
it equates to 265lbs and I felt every one of those down to the last ounce.
What a great way to end the holiday. You can see a video of the
first part of the fight and photographs of the fish on the River Reads Facebook
page.
I cannot praise the professionalism of BCSF too highly, but
particularly Jeff who helped us achieve everything we wanted to on the holiday.
We said at the outset, that our prime objective was to catch a sturgeon each,
ideally we would like a 100lb fish, and a salmon on the fly. If we could catch more it would be a bonus. We ended
up sharing 28 sturgeon in four afternoon sessions with bests of 235lb and 267lb
respectively, plus 6 salmon on the fly for Lee, and 9 on the fly and one
jigging for me plus the Chinook. We both had pike minnows, Lee having 2
specimen ones. However, the thing that delighted me most was the care taken by
Jeff in his handling of the fish and seeing the delight on his face at each
catch. It was very clear that he has the respect and love for the fish and that
makes him an exceptional skipper; we were very fortunate to share our
experience with him and to benefit from his knowledge of fishing those waters.
His skills added to our enjoyment of the entire trip and we can’t recommend him
highly enough to others who love their fishing and care about their catches.
If this feature has grabbed your interest and you would like
to have your own unique experience with BCSF (which is probably my best fishing
adventure to date) I suggest you make contact with www.bcsportfishinggroup.com and
I have no hesitation in recommending
that you ask for Jeff Sayewich as your guide. He’s a natural.
Also, if you have a partner you’d like to accompany you, I
can tell you that Sandy enjoyed the experience too; she sampled the pools, short walks, enjoyed the scenery and meeting the people and says she had one of
the best massages ever in the hotel’s spa, and to ask for Deborah.
Finally a picture of tomorrow’s monster.
