Fishing report for to March 9 to 16, 2009

Last weekend we made our annual family pilgrimage to the Fraser Valley Boat & Sportsman's Show and it was a good one. My history with these events goes back to the early 60's when my parents use to take me to Vancouver Sportsman's Show. I carried on that outdoorsman tradition by taking my wife to her first sportsman's show a week before our wedding; how's that for starting things right? Morgan my step daughter caught her first fish at that show and Dad (yes that's me) fumbled the ball, sending that fish back to its happy home. Some years later my younger daughter Joanna tied her first fly at the Fraser Valley Show. Over the seventeen years of attending Fraser Valley shows we as a family have hosted a youth fly fishing booth, taught fly tying, handled pythons, panned for gold, bought tackle, ate fudge, caught fish, made many friends, watched alligator wresting, observed birds of prey, watched dog training and saw a water skiing squirrel named Twiggy. You say you want to introduce your family to the great outdoors; well these sort of expositions are a great place to start. What, you didn't make it to the show? Not to worry, the BC Outdoor Adventure Show comes to the Tradex in two weeks. Maybe we will see you there.

Next week we will return to our study of our rich sport fishing history.

Our lower elevation lower mainland lakes are fishing fairly well. Remember the water is still quite cold so the fish are still on the sluggish side. For better success concentrate on the warmer water close to shore in the north easterly sections of your chosen lake, with: Chironomid, Bloodworm, Nations Black, Baggy Shrimp, Zulu, Micro Leach, Halfback, Big Black, or Dragonfly Nymph; trolled or retrieved dead slow.

The Fraser River backwaters and sloughs are fishing well for cutthroat and dolly varden. For cutthroat try: Eggo, Flesh Fly, Rolled Muddler, Tied Down Minnow, Clouser's Deep Minnow, Bucktail, Mickey Finn, Winter Stone, Coachman, American Coachman, Lioness, Zulu, Souboo, Big Black, Micro Leach, or Sixpack. For dolly varden try: large (#4 to #1) Flesh Fly, Eggo, Bucktail, Rolled Muddler, Zonker, Big Black, or Kaufmann's Black Stone.

The Vedder River is fair for rainbow, dolly varden, and steelhead. For rainbow try: Eggo, Kaufmann's Black Stone, Elk Hair Caddis, Tom Thumb, Zulu, Fire Ball, Irresistible, Adams, Renegade, Grasshopper, or Stimulator. For Steelhead try: Big Black, Flat Black, Squamish Poacher, Thor, Polar Shrimp, Popsicle, pink Eggo, Happy Hooker, or Kaufmann's Black Stone.

The Harrison is good for cutthroat, rainbow, and whitefish. For cutthroat try: Eggo, Rolled Muddler, Tied Down Minnow, Clouser's Deep Minnow, Bucktail, Winter Stone, Coachman, American Coachman, Fire Ball, Lioness, Zulu, Black Gnat, Souboo, or Sixpack. For whitefish try: small (size #16 to 12) Eggo, black Micro Leach, black Wooly Bugger, Winter Stone, or Flesh Fly.

The Chehalis River is slow to fair for rainbow, and steelhead.

The Stave River is fair for cutthroat, rainbow, and whitefish.

The Squamish River is slow for rainbow, cutthroat, and dolly varden.

Until the next time, "Keep your fly in the water".