BC bows

[dfinn]

The long weekend seemed like a good excuse to get out of Whistler and head inland a little bit. I checked out some bike trails around Chillwack that I had never ridden and then headed a little further east to spend the day Sunday fishing. I'm not sure what the etiquette is on this so I won't say the name of the river in the text but it will be obvious from the pics. If you're in the area or traveling through, I highly recommend making a stop. This is a beautiful, remote, clear river that seems to see very little pressure. The fish were slamming dry flies all day long. I tried to fish nymphs and streamers just to switch things up but all they seemed to want to do was crush my mayfly imitations.

Sorry for the iphone pics and poor composition, I was fishing solo and it's a bit challenging to get a nice shot while holding the fish in one hand and the phone in the other.

decent views




a quick little hike from the car to the river


cuttie or rainbow? i'm pretty new to this still and wasn't sure








there's bull trout in there too. this old cooter was telling me that they come up from the lake and eat the rainbows. i had some big ones follow a couple of the fish I caught in as I was reeling them in. apparently the rainbow population is way down from where it was 10-15 years ago due to the bulls.




In my short time fishing this was easily the best day I've ever had. It seemed almost too easy at times. See a rise, get a reasonable decent presentation and dead drift in the same general area and whammy!

All day long the fish seemed to be feeding on the surface but I couldn't see any sort of a hatch. It sounds like this is most likely midges? I don't think I was using anything that would mimic that but they seemed perfectly happy with just about whatever I threw their way.

[Crystal_Mt_Dreamin]

I spent a TON of time on that river outside of the Burlington area as a kid and had no idea it flowed clear anywhere. Looks like some fun size trout in a beautiful location!

[neckdeep]

There's probably bulls up to 10 lbs in there. Dredge the green water pools with a huge streamer, 4 inch minimum. Also, when you see lots of smaller trout up taking dries near green water (like over a dropoff), be aware that the big bulls will move up to take the dinks from behind while they focus on the hatch. That is why the bulls were ghosting your fish; pack a 6wt and rig it up when you get a follow or two, those bulls were "bite ready". I participated in a hook and line bull trout survey/tagging with IDF&G on the tributaries to Dworshak reservoir. The biologists were thinking low light so they were on a dawn and dusk tagging program and doing chores/paperwork at midday and, overall, not doing too great fishwise. Anyhows, the first day I joined them, we were fishing at 6am and getting skunked for hours. Then the late morning caddis hatch took off and the dinks started rising, thats when big streamers and rapalas swung and lifted below the risers got immediate results. The biologists had been working the lake with nets or swapping out radio reciever batteries during the hatch or writing reports, etc. and had totally missed the activity period in the tributary inlets. Pattern identified, the next two days we slept in and just fished during the 5 hours of the hatch. Sometimes I was catching them faster than the guys could tag'em. Think big, I often had 14" bulls attacking a 5 inch offering. I got one 25-26" bull and can say they fight well with slashing side to side runs.

[thin cover]

Great TR, looks like a lot of fun. Swinging some streamers for those bulls seems like a good idea as well.

[dfinn]

I gave it a few tries after I saw that guy easily pull one out on the 2nd or 3rd cast. Maybe I was being a pussy but I was concerned my dinky little 5wt setup wouldn't handle it so well. To be honest, for me, the dry fly fishing was so unusually good that it was hard to give up on that. Seeing these guys not just sip the fly but many times fully leap out of the water and slam it was pretty damn exciting.

[BaNosser]

The lower section of that river is my home waters...



it's a little different river down here..

[steved]

Nice bows & pics dfinn.....throw those bulls back for the bears...

[Zedsdead]

...

cuttie or rainbow? i'm pretty new to this still and wasn't sure


....

Damn, that looks like fun. Those are 'bows for sure. Another good way to distinguish them is how they fight. 'Bows will "jump & shake", often tailwalking or jumping multiple times. Cutts usually don't jump, they're more "pull and run."

Sometimes 'bows & cutts will hybridize. Cutts are called "cutthroat" because of the red slashes under the lower jaw. No red slashes = definitely a 'bow. A hybridized "cuttbow" will have that pink band down it's side and faint red slashes under the jaw.

Caught a 23" bull on a different river and it was the laziest fish I've ever hooked. Let me haul it in and measure it like it was a sunken log. Was fishing an ultralight spinning rig w/4lb test and thought for sure it'd break off but it didn't fight.