West Coast Fall
By Rory Glennie
Again, one does not need a calendar to know
what season it is out on the wet coast. Just
look around and you will see commercial fish
boats with Canada flags hoisted aloft upside
down in protest, and a gaggle of fishing boats
in "closed" waters defiantly plying their trade.
That means it is fall and the tensions over
allegedly racist fisheries regulations have
flared up. This seems to be a seasonal sport
where teams of different stripes vie for a
larger portion of a finite fish resource.
In all the seasons past has any of these teams
really won? Not really. Have the fish won? Not
really. There have been far too many long periods
when populations of salmon have been precariously
low, with only a few peaks of abundance. This year
it would appear we have one of those few peaks.
Such is the cycle of B.C.'s Pacific salmon.
I bumped into an old fly fishing buddy at the
hardware store the other day. He was aglow with
wild eyed reports of the initial burst of
silver-bright Pink salmon hitting the beaches
of East-central Vancouver Island. The day before
we had a "pink" rain – that annual day of heavy
showers during early August. It is that pink rain
which really turns on the beach fly fishing as
migrating Pink salmon nose ever closer to the
shore in search of their natal streams. My buddy
was out there, in it, for about ten hours straight.
He is a member of a growing cadre of hard core beach
fly casters who live for the moment when the first
pinks arrive.
Pinks are just about the perfect late summertime
quarry. They are willing biters, good scrappers,
great on the table, a minimum of gear is required
to pursue them effectively, and they're usually
present in sufficient numbers to give even the
most ham-fisted among us a decent crack at catching
one. And, they are the fuel of a strong recreational
angling based economic generator. If you missed the
fun this year, make plans to get out on the beaches
next. This is perfect "family vacation" type fishing
during a pleasant time of year. Beaches and families
just simply go together.
Hot on the tails of the pink salmon come the first
silver-bright coho. Many times the pinks and coho
overlap in run timing as the tail end of one blurs
into the head-on rush of the other. Usually the
first good rains in September urge coho towards
the beaches. Many of the same places with easy
access to public beaches where one casts to pinks
are the same ones fished for coho. Nile Creek,
Trent River, Black Creek, Oyster River, and
Campbell River are a few of the better known
locations, and all are within a few hours drive
from the cities of Parksville in the south,
Campbell River in the north, and Courtenay in
the middle.
As the weather cools down, the small lakes of
Vancouver Island follow suit. This signals the
beginning of the late season trout fishing.
While they're are not anything like the famous
"big fish" waters of Brian Chan's bailiwick,
their rainbows and cutthroats do have their
own special charm. Mostly rainbows and cutthroats
are the fish of these ponds. There are, a few
which are home to such exotics as brown trout.
One, Cameron Lake, which is the head pond of the
Little Qualicum River, offered up a brownie of
19 pounds earlier this year. Sadly, it wasn't
taken on a fly, but I speak of this catch simply
to illustrate the potential of some of these
intimate waters. There are also a handful of
little lakes, which have been receiving an
experimental fertilizer treatment for a few
years now, in order to boost the base food
productivity, which, to our delight, grows
bigger trout. As anywhere, not all waters are
created equal, so a bit of snooping around can
pay off handsomely. The Provincial Fisheries
Branch publishes a comprehensive stocking list
for Vancouver Island lakes which is quite useful
in trip planning.
As weather in the fall can be unpredictable, it
pays to be prepared for the unexpected and to take
in stride whatever occurs. But, all in all, fall
is a grand time to be out on the water. ~ Rory Glennie
We thank the
Canadian Fly Fisher for re-print permission!
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