Salmon Fishing on Vancouver Island 2023 Season
Continuing the fly fishing adventures of Chris Tucker, chasing salmon and steelhead on Vancouver Island
Late August, 2023
I am back in Campbell River again for my annual Chinook trip. The plan was to fish Sunday/Monday, but I couldn’t resist wetting a line while I waited for the other two to drive up. The province currently has some severe forest fires and so it was a hazy and smoky day. Almost apocalyptic! Simply being outside for a few hours gave you a sore throat.
I managed to find a quieter spot on the river with some lovely fly water. The recent lack of rain meant that the river was running low and clear – this called for a needle tube fly! Sparsely dressed in black and red, and the hook turned up to avoid snagging any fish.
I ran the fly under some t11 sink tip and let it swing round at the bottom of the run. Tap. Tap. Thud.
Landed 5 fish in total with several lost. Some were real bars of silver despite being quite late in the season for pinks. Not a bad way to spend the morning.
Tomorrow it will be the chinook’s turn (I hope!)
Stay tuned
Day 2
We were on the river at 6.30am sharp as it was supposed to hit 29degrees that afternoon. With spring salmon our target, I put my 7wt switch rod away and rigged up the 9wt Spey. T14 sink tip would get the fly running along the rocky bottom where the fish (hopefully) lay. At the business end, I opted for a blue/red/yellow Spey shrimp on a needle tube and a size 2 hook.
See Tube Flies
On the third run down there was a thud on the line. I struck into a solid fish, but it wasn’t the spring I was hoping for. A school of fresh pinks were coming up and were in the mood to bite. Ordinarily I would have taken more time to appreciate a chrome salmon, but I was blinded by ambition.
The fish was promptly released and the fly sent back into the run. Thud. Another pink. Oh dear, had we come up to Campbell River too early for the springs? Moments later, a group of 15 snorkelers came through the run – tourists looking to swim with the salmon. My heart sank a little as I wondered if today wasn’t going to be our day.
I persevered for an hour in the hope that something would change. Suddenly, another thud. This time, the fish tore off line. This was no pink. After a fierce battle, the fish of around 25lbs came to the bank.
But I wasn’t done there. Later in the day, two more fish obliged – both also in the 25lb range.
What an amazing day it turned out to be. How can you beat three 25lb fish in one day? I was so content that I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the bank and taking in the moment .
Day 3
I still had a big grin from the previous day and so I honestly didn’t care what happened.
I hooked a fish early on that tore off downstream into rapids. Unfortunately, my backing knot wasn’t properly tested and I ended up losing my skagit head and running line! What an expensive mistake! I can only guess how big that fish was. I’ve seen some absolute monsters that I don’t think could be tamed easily on a fly rod. I helped another angler land a fish that he insisted was 30lbs. My fish from the previous day certainly came close to it, so maybe I under estimated it?!
I rigged up my rod again with the spey shrimp needle tube and head back out into the river. To my delight, I landed two more fish – one certainly bigger than yesterday’s biggest.
My fishing partner asked what fly I was using, and whether I had any more. He put on one of my green/black/yellow wee monkeys and promptly hooked into a large fish!
See Tying a Wee Monkey Needle Tube Fly
To cap it off, a local fishing journalist asked us to send him the pictures and our names. He plans to do an article!
October – Sooke River
Had a couple of hours spare this morning so drove out to the Sooke River. The river was very low with not much flow to it. Still waiting on that rain to come. I was about to turn back to the car when a lady on the bank motioned ‘shhhh’ and pointed at the far bank. A black bear was fast asleep on a fallen log. Spent a few minutes watching it with her before saying cheerio as there was clearly no good water to fish. She asked why I was leaving – ‘there’s plenty of fish up river and around the bend’
I walked up and sure enough there was a pool with a few other anglers poking around. The Sooke is known for chum salmon and so I brought out my intruder tubes.
In 4 hours I had 6 fish – the biggest was about 9lbs!
A great mornings fishing and I owed it to a sleeping bear.
For the next installment, see Vancouver Island Fly Fishing 2024