Weekly Fraser Valley Sport fishing column; Oct 20 to 27, 2014

?Until the second half of the 19th century, the majority of fishermen fished downstream. A memorable advocate of upstream fishing was W C Stewart, whose The Practical Angler (1875) was by way of being a manifesto for upstream fishing (The great error of fly-fishing as usually practiced ? is, that the angler fishes downstream, whereas he should fish up). Stewart?s message was by no means as novel as he seems to have thought, although there is no doubt that downstream casting was the common method, being on the whole a good deal simpler. It had decided disadvantages, as Stewart suggested with fine satiric scorn.? Passage taken from John Buckland?s book, The Flyfisher?s companion.

It has been one hundred and thirty nine years, since W C Stewart shared his simple truth with the world; yet you can walk on to any stream and still see countless anglers making the same mistake.

Many would say, ?What difference does it make? Besides it is so much easier to fish down steam, or to the side.?

First off; fish always face into the current and don?t have eyes in the back of their heads. At this point, you are most likely thinking, I know that. You would be right, most people do know that, yet, until this common mistake is pointed out, many people approach fish head on, and scare half of them away.

The other big advantage of approaching fish from behind has to do with sound. When you approach fish from the downstream side, the current washes all sound vibrations down behind you, instead of in front of you alerting fish of your approach.

Upstream presentations are not always possible, but when they are, they are definitely worth the extra effort.


The Report

Fishing on our lower mainland lakes is good. For wet (sinking) fly fishing try: Wooly Bugger, Zulu, Baggy Shrimp, Dragonfly Nymph, Doc Spratley, or Halfback. For dry (floating) fly fishing try: Griffith Gnat, Royal Coachman, Black Gnat, Irresistible, Renegade, or Elk hair Caddis.

The Fraser River is good for spring, coho, and chum. For spring try: Popsicle, Big Black, GP, Squamish Poacher, Eggo, Flat Black, Mat Red, or Kaufmann Stone. For coho try: Coho blue, Rolled Muddler, Eggo, Christmas Tree, Bite Me, or olive Wooly Bugger. For chum try: Christmas Tree, Eggo, Popsicle, Big black, Mat green, Mat red, Holliman, green, pink, or purple Wooly Bugger

The Vedder River is good for spring, coho, and chum.

The Harrison River is good for chum, spring, coho, rainbow, and cutthroat. For cutthroat try: Rolled Muddler, Hairs Ear, Elk Hair Caddis, Anderson Stone, Eggo, Golden Stone, Adams, or Irresistible.

The Thomson River is good for rainbow. For rainbow try: Kaufmann Golden stone, Joe?s Hopper, Tom Thumb, Irresistible, Elk Hair Caddis, or Rolled Muddler.