Sport fishing column for May 23 to 30, 2011

To close my series on Vancouver Sport fishing personalities, I have chosen not to single out another person. Instead I have chosen to remember a passed fixture of Vancouver; The Interurban Railway.

Some might question what our original transit system has to do with sport fishing, but the fact is the Interurban was a major player in the past of our lower mainland sport fishery. In the time before RVs and Coleman coolers, the average BC lower mainlander relied on the BC Electric Railway's, Interurban line to get around. Following the lead of other rail systems with good fishing along their right of ways, the Interurban ran a fisherman's tram from Vancouver to Chilliwack and back on Sundays.

Photos of the tram that ran this route are rare and the accounts of those who rode it are scarce, but there are enough in our local museums to spark the imagination, as to what it was like when rivers like the Nicomekl were the stuff of fisherman's lore. As for more information than we can glean from these scant craps, we can do no more than wonder and as we ask the dust.

The report

Fishing on our lower mainland lakes looks good. For wet (sinking) fly fishing try: Chironomid, Bloodworm, Coachman, American Coachman, Professor, Wooly Bugger, Micro Leach, Sixpack, Dragonfly Nymph, Halfback, Doc Spratley, Baggy Shrimp, or Zulu. For dry (floating) fly action try: Tom Thumb, Irresistible, Black Gnat, Griffith Gnat, Royal Coachman, or Renegade. For Kokanee try: Red Abbis, Bloodworm, Red Spratley, San Juan Worm, Red Quill, or Double Trude.

Our lower mainland bass and panfish fisheries are good also. For Bass try: Wooly bugger, Big Black, Lizard, Clouser's Deep Minnow, Zonker, Tied Down Minnow, Bucktail, Dolly Whacker, or Crayfish, in sizes 4 to 1. For Crappie or Pumpkinseed try: Wooly Bugger, Big Black, Micro Leach, Bucktail, Tied Down Minnow, Dolly Whacker, or Clouser's Deep Minnow in sizes 12 to 8.

The ice is all but the highest elevation interior lakes. While it remains unseasonably cold those trophy trout are cooperating. For wet fly fishing try: Wooly Bugger, Micro Leach, Egg Sucking Leach, Chironomid, Bloodworm, Pumpkinhead, Dragonfly Nymph, Halfback Nymph, 52 Buick. Doc Spratley, Green Spratley, or Baggy Shrimp. For dry fly on warm afternoons try: Irresistible, Black Gnat, Griffith Gnat, Tom Thumb, Renegade, Double Hackled Peacock, Goddard Caddis, or Elk Hair Caddis.

All our lower mainland rivers are high and dangerous for fishing at present; and for this reason I will not be posting any reports or recommendations for fishing them until the waters return to safe levels.

Our fly fishing school is running Saturdays May 28 and June 4, at Hatch Matchr's Fly & Tackle in Maple Ridge, call 604-467-7118 or 1-604-820-4099 for further details.

You can find more at "The Reel Life Press" by Jeff Weltz