I know you thought I had died or worse, stopped fishing, because it has been so long between Blogs. But really I was working!!! Doing the kind of research that nobody wants to do, but inevitably some brave soul (me) must. Yep, I have been fly fishing for salmon off the beaches for the last couple of months. I live on Vancouver Island in British Columbia and during the fall we are blessed with a myriad of fly fishing choices. Lots of lakes and rivers to explore but what I like is intercepting pink, coho and chum salmon as they migrate through the straight, within casting distance of the shore. I’ve been out virtually every day, sight casting to cruising salmon as they travel the beaches and begin staging before eventually heading up river. It’s saltwater fishing at its best, spotting fish, trying to figure out what they will take and being rewarded with beautiful bright silver specimens from four pounds (pinks) to fifteen pounds (coho and chums). It was a perfect fall, the best runs of salmon in thirty years combined with two months of no rain. That means thousands of fish up and down the coast but no water in the rivers to draw them in. A fly fisherman’s bonanza. With torrential rain hitting us on the weekend it looks like the season is over. The rivers have risen and the fish have left the ocean to complete the job they came for. The fishing was so good this year, I hope it is a sign that the runs are returning to historical levels. Time for me to put away the salmon gear and break out the bonefish, permit and tarpon equipment. For the next five months it is tropical fly fishing.
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