The photo of the week shows Rob Vodola with a beautiful, wild Kalum River Steelhead landed on March 14th. At this time of year the males are usually brightly colored like this one and the females are more silvery with a single lateral red strip down the middle. This was the biggest fish of the day estimated to weigh between 12 and 15-pounds.
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Noel Gyger – Guided Fishing Adventures and Weekly Fishing Report
4012 Best Street, Terrace BC V8G 5R8, Canada
Tel/Fax: (250) 635-2568
Cell: (250) 631-2678
E-mail: noel@noelgyger.ca
Home Page: www.noelgyger.ca
Fishing Reports: www.noelgyger.ca/past-fishing-reports.htm
RECORD SALMON & STEELHEAD Spin or fly-fishing
RIVER, LAKE, STREAM or OCEAN!!!
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Home Page: www.noelgyger.ca
Noel Gyger - WEEKLY FISHING REPORT dated March 9 – March 16, 2008
(Number 62)
Dear Fishing Friends:
SUMMARY: The weather has been good all week (but snowing today) and I was finally able to get out fishing. My good friend Rob Vodola and I fished for Steelhead on the Kalum River on March 14. We fished only a half day but still managed to hook-up with seven beautiful Steelhead and landed four. They were two bright females, one bright male and one big dark male (see photo of the week). In our opinion this river has a good run of Steelhead. The water is still very low and extremely clean and I think the fish were spooking on large terminal tackle. This river is now open for guiding on March 15. Check below for another photo from our day of fishing and a little story.
The snow and ice are going fast but please be careful fishing around melting ice.
LIST OF "New" ITEMS POSTED ON THE WEBSITE THIS WEEK:
- Mar 4/08 one item posted on "Conservation" http://www.noelgyger.ca/conservation.htm
- Mar 8/08 one update #3 re Skeena "Quality Waters Strategy" http://www.noelgyger.ca/quality-waters.htm
NOW BOOKING FOR 2008 Let me know if I can be of service to book you with the "best" fishing guide and/or fishing lodges. There are NO extra charges to book through me, just a lot of free information and advice from a person with years and years of fishing and fish guiding experience. It is like hiring two guides for the price of one. I will promptly answer your questions and concerns. Cast here http://noelgyger.ca/special-guided.htm to read more of what I have to offer.
LAST MINUTE BOOKINGS: We still have a few spots open for the spring Steelhead fishing on the upper Kalum River in March and April. We guide from drift boats, rafts or jet boat and fish a five mile stretch that has 27 pools. We match however you like to fish using both fly and spin methods! On average and under good conditions each boat can expect to hook about six to a dozen fish per day. The most fish hooked from one boat was 27 on March 27, 1997. The lodge record 32-pound Steelhead was landed the first week in April. Good fishing should last until April 30 or until the water is too high from the spring melt-off.
Available dates are:
-- March 31 to April 6, 2008 - 6 spaces
-- April 6 to 12, 2008 - 4 spaces
-- April 20 to 26, 2008 - 2-4 spaces
At this point, we are offering a 10% discount off the 2008 rates as a promotion.
Chinook start showing up third week in April and first week in May and one may hook both Steelhead and Chinook in the same day. Talk about fun. It doesn't get any better than this!
Many people book three trips per year to our area; one trip in the spring (March-April-May), one trip in the summer (June-July-August) and one trip in the fall (September-October-November). They love having the same guide but fishing for different fish in different areas.
Be sure to check out my website at www.noelgyger.ca for news bulletins, mid week fishing updates, conservation, my history, quality waters strategy, special guided fishing trips, video clips, scenic river photos, wildlife photos and others, comments from past guests, informational articles, archived fishing reports from 1996 through 2002 and a sportfishing market place. I hope it meets with your entire satisfaction.
FISHING GUIDE REPORTS FOR THIS WEEK ARE FROM:
Craig Murray
Ron Wakita
CURRENT REPORT and summary for Skeena and Tributaries:
TYPE OF FISH CAUGHT: Steelhead and Trout
Thank you for using barbless hooks.
FISHING THIS WEEK: GOOD
LARGEST FISH OF THE WEEK: Specie: approx 15-pound Steelhead Where: Kalum River Angler: Rob Vodola
WEATHER: Periods of snow changing to periods of rain this afternoon. High plus 3. Region normal: Max. Temp. 8 degrees C. Min. Temp. -1 degrees C. Sunrise 7:46 AM Sunset 7:40 AM
WEATHER REPORTS VIA TELEPHONE: Environment Canada taped messages constantly updated, giving current conditions and three-day forecasts. Terrace 250-635-4192 Kitimat 250-632-7864 Prince Rupert 250-627-1155 Smithers 250-847-1958.
For current Terrace weather information please cast on:
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/cities/can/pages/CABC0292.htm?ref=wxbtnold
WATER CONDITIONS: The Skeena is very low and in good shape although sections of the river are frozen over. The Kalum (upper and lower) River is in good shape. Kitimat River is low and clean.
CURRENT WATER HEIGHTS FOR:
SKEENA RIVER:
http://scitech.pyr.ec.gc.ca/waterweb/fullgraph.asp?stnid=08EF001
KITIMAT RIVER:
http://scitech.pyr.ec.gc.ca/waterweb/fullgraph.asp?stnid=08FF002
SKEENA RIVER: The water is in good shape, low and clean but it is frozen over in a few areas. This is normal for this time of year. Soon the ice will be gone.
KALUM RIVER: The water, both upper and lower sections are in excellent shape and fishing for Steelhead is good. The water is very low, so one must be very careful if using a boat.
A little story about this fish: I caught this fish on a light spoon. It hit real hard and fought like heck. When Rob got it into the net for me we looked at the fish and we could not tell if it was a male or a female. It had a funny looking head, not the typical small mouth of a female or a large mouth of a male. We decided it must be a male…anyway…a fresh one at that. No wonder it fought so hard. Something else we noticed was it had a set of two (tied in tandem) single barbless hooks still in its mouth, the kind that the ocean fishermen use. This fish must have been hooked in the ocean and broke off but the hooks remained in its mouth along with about six inches of fishing line. The tandem hooks were tied with what looked like 40-pound test, so how this fish got away is a mystery. In the photo you can still see the scar marks from those hooks. We wondered if those hooks had anything to do with the shape of it's head? We have to admire the survival instinct of these fish. It is at least 140 miles to the ocean and here he is coming home to spawn.
This is a Classified River year round and can be guided from March 15 through October 15 only. The Steelhead record is 32-pounds. To see a photo of this fish cast to: http://noelgyger.ca/records/Record003.jpg The angler is Dennis Therrien.
ZYMOETZ (COPPER) RIVER: The upper section is closed to fishing as of December 31 but the lower section below the first canyon will stay open for winter Steelheaders to enjoy. The lower end is frozen over but is melting fast.
AREA RIVER RECORDS: Chinook Salmon: Skeena River, 92.5-pounds; Kalum River, 85-pounds; Kitimat River, 74-pounds; Steelhead: Skeena River, 45-pounds; Coho Salmon: Skeena River, 27-pounds.
CURRENT REPORT and summary for Northern Coastal Rivers:
Fishing Report from: Ron Wakita of Reliable Guide and Charters
KITIMAT RIVER: When I first started to write this report on Friday I intended to rave about the warm, sunny spring weather we have been having this past week. It is now Sunday morning and as I sit down to submit this report I look outside and we got another dusting of snow. Winter just does not want to end this year.
The access roads into the Sawmill and Humphrey's Creek have been plowed I believe by the Kitimat Hatchery.
There have been some cutthroat anglers out fishing but only a few fish to report.
There has been a couple of Steelhead reported to have been spooked out of the shallow water as the anglers were wading along the river. It is still early for Steelhead but it is nice to see signs of some early fish. The peak month for Steelhead on the Kitimat River is usually April.
DOUGLAS CHANNEL:
There have been more boaters this week getting out getting their first feed of crab of the season. Dungeness crab is a welcome treat for most boaters and is the incentive to get the boats out of winter storage and into the water.
The herring have started to migrate into the Kitimat Harbour to spawn. The majority of the herring spawning activity to date is in M.K Bay Marina on the east side of the harbour. They were first observed in large numbers in M.K Marina on Friday so I drove down to Moon Bay Marina on Saturday (March 15th) to see if there was any activity on the west side of the harbour. There was no herring activity on this side yet and the wind was creating some pretty big waves.
Consequently there were no boats out trolling to catch the winter springs that followed the herring into the harbour. There were some anglers in our tackle store gearing up with herring jigs to catch some herring. There was one angler who was going to try some live mooching right off the dock at the marina. This "Live mooching" technique involves catching a live herring, rigging the live herring with a tandem hook set up and a small weight and simply feed out enough line to allow the herring to swim around to attract a feeding chinook. You then put the mooching rod into a rod holder and wait for a feeder chinook to eat the herring. It is a pretty cool way to fish and it is only possible to fish with this method this time of year when the live herring are available. The other added feature of this method is that you can continue to catch herring while you are watching the mooching rod.
Cast to this link for Kitimat tide tables http://www.waterlevels.gc.ca/cgi-bin/tide-shc.cgi?queryType=showRegion&language=english®ion=1
CURRENT REPORT and summary for Central Coast/North Van Island Wilderness Rivers:
Fishing Report from: Nimmo Bay Resort
I'm through being your C H U M. I thought we were friends. But, now look at the predicament you got me into. I can't breathe and what looked like a tasty morsel I just bit into, had no flavor at all, and it was really tough. So much for the gourmet food you promised. We're finished and if I ever get back home, all my other fishin buddies will know that you're out for just one "Thing". I thought you really loved me and you even said you would respect me in the morning, for going along with this stupid idea of yours, Fishing!
Craig Murray, Owner
Nimmo Bay Resort (Est. 1980)
To Fly is Human ...To Hover, Divine
Note from Noel: This year in 2007, out of 10 Heli fishing and tour resorts and lodges from around the world, Nimmo Bay Resort was voted number one by the prestigious, New York based Forbes Traveler magazine. Congratulations Craig, Deborah and staff.
FISHING REGULATION WEBSITES:
2005/2007 BC tidal waters and freshwater Salmon fishing information:
http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/recfish
Effective April 1, 2005 to March 31, 2007
2006/2007 Freshwater Fishing Regulations Synopsis:
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/fish/regulations/intro.html
Effective April 1, 2006 to March 31, 2007
NOTE: For In-season Regulation Changes posted on the web check the above URL's
LODGE GUEST TESTIMONIALS:
To: Nicholas Dean Lodge: "Awesome place for fishing/photos – huge thanks. Will be back!" – Henry Gilbey, England
GUEST FISHING PHOTOS:
*** If any of you have special fishing photos, scenic river photos, wildlife photos or articles I would love to see them.
2007 TV SHOW SCHEDULE FOR SPORTFISHING BC with host Mark Pendlington
CHANNEL Friday Saturday Sunday
Sportsnet Pacific 6:30 AM PST
(9:30 AM EST)
Knowledge Network 1:30 PM PST
(4:30 PM EST) 1:30 PM PST
(4:30 PM EST) 11:30 PM PST
(2:30 PM EST)
A Channel 7:00 AM PST
(10:00 AM EST)
World Fishing Network Check local listings
CATCH & RELEASE FORMULA: Chinook: girth squared x length x 1.54 divided by 1000 (inches) Steelhead: girth squared x length x 1.33 divided by 1000 (inches)
MARKETPLACE (Sportfishing related items only please) Contact me anytime to list your items
Buy, sell, trade or swap your item or items by listing them here today
Your Ad will receive LOCAL, REGIONAL, NATIONAL and INTERNATIONAL exposure:
• Your Ad will be posted on my website
• Your Ad will be promoted in my Weekly Fishing Reports
• Your Ad will be posted on other websites who host my fishing reports
Examples of what to list: Boats and accessories, Motors, Vehicles, Air Craft, Rods, Reels, Tackle, Real Estate (i.e. fishing lodge), Rentals (Cabins Cottages), Lakeshore, Tourist accommodation, ATV, RV's, RV sites, Taxidermy, Books, Magazines, Videos, Photographs, Antiques, Artwork, Clothing, Employment, Trade/Swap and Wanted, Help Wanted, etc.
To view the items currently listed please cast to: http://www.noelgyger.ca/market-place.htm
To receive my WEEKLY FISHING REPORT and PHOTO via e-mail please send your name and e-mail address to: Noel Gyger noel@noelgyger.ca
GOOD LUCK and GOOD FISHING!
Yours sincerely,
Noel F. Gyger
Back to: http://noelgyger.ca/past-fishing-reports.htm
Home page: www.noelgyger.ca
