Sport fishing column for March 1 to 8, 2010
On the day I was going to fold up the Terry Fox (Terry Fox secondary) Fly Fishers Club, I met J N. As had happened too many times, no-one had shown up for our weekly club meeting; when J N walked in and asked. "Is this where the fly fishing club meets?"

I told him it was; and explained how our club operated. After the rundown on the club, we sat and tied flies. I believe it was the fact that we were the only two in the room that allowed him to share how he came to our club. For the previous two years he had been at a, for lack of a better term, last chance school, where he had been sent for his violent behavior. He had as he told me anger issues and a history of violent outbursts, and was at Terry Fox on a trial basis. Our club, he told me would give him an alternative to passed deeds and peers. By the end of that meeting I had decided that the Terry Fox Fly Fishers would remain operation for as long as J N needed it.

As much as J N needed the club, the club needed J N. With in weeks of that meeting new members, solid committed members, walked into our weekly meetings. By the end of that year J N was our team captain, and a year later when we hosted the first Fraser Valley Middle and High School Fly Fishing Championship, he endured all the cat calls from the opposing teams without uttering a word. Later he would tell his youth worker, that with the confidence he had found in himself, he no longer needed to fight back, just fish and win. Which he did winning more prize categories than any of the other competitors.

Fish; it's amazing what they can teach you, and that's another reason why I am a fly fishing instructor.

The report

Our Lower mainland lakes are improving by the week and spring fishing is well under way. For wet (sinking) fly fishing try: Chironomid, Bloodworm, Big Black, Wooly bugger, Micro Leach, Baggy Shrimp, Coachman, Cased caddis, Zulu, or Doc Spratley. For dry (floating) fly fishing on sunny afternoons, try: Tom Thumb, Lady McConnel, Irresistible, Renegade, Black Gnat, Griffith Gnat, Royal Coachman, or Elk Hair Caddis.

The Fraser River back waters and sloughs are fishing well for cutthroat and rainbow. For cutthroat try: Flesh Fly, Eggo, Egg & Eye Alevin, Rolled Muddler, Mickey Finn, Tied Down Minnow, Professor, Lioness, Winter Stone, Coachman, Zulu, Chez Nymph, or Souboo. For rainbow try the above along with red Spratley, red Carey, Kaufmann Stone, Royal Coachman or Black Gnat.

The Stave River is good for cutthroat, rainbow, and whitefish. For whitefish try: small (#14 to#20) Eggo, Flesh Fly, Griffith Gnat, Stone Nymph, Chironomid, or Caddis Nymph.

The Harrison River is good for cutthroat.

The Chehalis River is slow to fair for steelhead, cutthroat and rainbow. For steelhead try: Squamish Poacher, Thor, GP, Popsicle, Big Black, Flat Black, polar Shrimp, Eggo, Steelhead Nightmare, Purple Peril, Holliman, Kaufmann Stone, or Steelhead Spratley.

The Vedder River is fair to good for steelhead, cutthroat, and rainbow.

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