|
April 7, 2006
Steelhead Report, Skeena Region
Our latest guest at Upper Kalum, the man we call Hak, flew a long way to get the chance to have a BC Wild Steelhead slam one of his swung flies.
After a strong late March season, early April has proved to be a success for the fly angler. Hak tells me he is very lucky when it comes to catching fish, and his luck has run true. Day 1 Hak hooks into 4 Steelhead, day 2 Hak hooks into 3 Steelhead, Day 3 we fish the Kitimat River and it rained Cutthroat and Dolly Varden. We hooked into a fish each cast and it was the highlight of the day for sure, Haks last day he hooked 2 Steelhead.
This trip for Hak was as sweet as it can get landing a 34”, 36” and a 40” Steelhead that was dime bright. This particularly large fish was a pool to remember. When we entered the pool Hak made a few cast and I noticed from shore as his fly line made a few sharp moves like a fish was biting the fly, Hak looked at me, a bite! The next cast his line went stiff and we thought it was a snag. This same incident has happened twice this week with two clients. What appears to be a snag was a large Steelhead taking the fly and not moving out of the pool once hooked. In this case Hak decided to give his line a pull to retrieve the line off the rivers bottom of structure like we all have many times. We’ll this time the surface of the water exploded with a Steelhead hooked, we were both shocked and at the same time excited as Hak fought for many minutes to get this brute into the awaiting net, yahoo we landed it and off to the shoreline in a small eddy we decided to take a few pics and measurements. Hak described to me later that he could not grab the fish by the place in front of the tail as it was too thick to handle, and unfortunately this monster eluded us before a pic was taken. I can say that this 20lb Steelhead was as fresh as they come.
Water temperatures have increased to 40.8F to 43.6F during the day so the Steelhead are becoming more active. This warm weather has also increased the level of the rivers in Skeena country so once we see a stable level the pools will be full of holding Steelhead As you can tell from the attached pics the smile on Haks face says it all, see you next year Hak.
While we drift the rivers we are often privy to the wilderness and its secrets that amaze us. One early, quiet, calm morning we watched as three Deer not only drank but also frolicked in the gin clear water, a magnificent sight to witness up here in the BC North.
Our line-up of guests are arriving each day so stay tuned in for the next report, tight lines.
Tracey John Hittel
Kitimat BC Canada
250 632-9880
250 639-4277
|
