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Fishing : Pitt River Coho

For the third time I ventured to Vancouver, British Columbia in order to try and catch some trophy Salmon. Unlike the two previous occasions in 1999 and 2003 where Steelhead were the target, this time I was after the mighty Coho Salmon.

I arrived in a cold and wet Vancouver a day before we were due to be met by the boat to ferry us up the Pitt Rver to the lodge. We spent it stocking up our fly boxes and trying to gather as much local knowledge as possible. Once we had our selection of flies and fishing gear, we loaded up on food and beer for the forthcoming week in one of the self catering cabins at the lodge.

The boat trip up Pitt Lake was spectacular, travelling up the lake surrounded by snow capped mountiains and conifer forest is truly elixir for the soul. The perfect way to flush out all thoughts of work and prepare your mind for the task at hand... catching a Pitt River Coho.
The boat trip ended and we piled all our gear and food into an old schoolbus used for the 5km trip to the lodge. Once there, after we were welcomed by Lee and the dogs, we tumbled out the bus into our cabin to prepare for the weeks fishing ahead.

The next morming we awoke to a thick mist swirling through the trees and as we strolled the the forest towards the river we ensured that one of us was whistling at all times to scare away any bears that were out fattening up on Salmon before their winter hibernation. The river was at a great level, the snow melt had raised the level a bit and this high level gave the slamon a feelingof security to push higher up the river. We waded up the river, stopping a t all likely pools and runs and through we saw several large Coho we could not tempt them to take our flies. We did manage to catch several Bull Trout and Dolly Varden. The presence of these large resident fish make for excellent fishing for you never know whether you will hook into a 20lb Coho or a 6-8 lb Bull Trout - arguably the hardest fighting fish in these parts.

We had booked the services of one of the guides for a day of drift fishing , this was worth every cent we paid and I fully reccomend it to anyone who is contemplating a trip after slamon in these large Northern rivers. We spent the day drifting down the river and fishing all likely runs and under the guidance of Luke we managed to up our success rate and caught several bull trout and dollies. We spent a few very productive hours at one particular pool where we could see abiout 30 large Cohos holed up on he bottom of the pool. Although we were on a fly fishing trip, the temptation eventually proved too much for Sam and I and we switched to a spinning rod for several casts. Frustratingly, almost every cast resulted in a hook up with a 10lb Coho! With our appetite - and curiosity - satiated, we switched back to fly and continued down the river in search of fly hungry fish.

Late in the afternoon on our fourth day, I hooked into a huge Coho and after stripping about 50m of backing off my reel it ran out of pool, I thought I had it contained but the fish had other ideas... it simply turned and headed up the rapids at a speed that compared to the blindingly fast bonefish of Venezuela. On the way up the river my line snagged a felled tree and although I battled the fish through the tree for 5 minutes or so, the result was inevitable and after being into the fish for a good 15 minutes it self released. I was shaking from the power of it and was now full of adrenaline and needed - very badly - to get into and land a Coho.
I was not the only one to loose a fish that day, Tony had also managed to loose one and to end the day, I jumped and lost another sizable Coho.

After four days of fishing, although we had each lost a Coho, none of us had landed one on fly. Our last day dawned and greeted us with the usual mist and rain and as we headed - whistling - through the trees to our favourite pools, our hopes were high that we would be successful.

Tony and I found a school of about 15 large Salmon lying under overhanging trees against the far bank... the next step was to get a fly close enough to them to entice one of them into feeding. We waded deeper and deeper until we could get a fly to sweep downriver into their hole but time and again even though we thought we had it perfectly presented, it was rejected by the fish. Eventually I had a take but I had not mended the line correctly and before I could set the hook, the Salmon had thrown it... This was frustrating to say the least.

After a few more casts, I had another one on the fly and I was not letting this one get away! I played it up and down the pool for a good ten minutes and eventually slid it up on the gravel in the shallows were I could safely capture a few photos and then release it to continue on its course upriver to breed.

Sam also had success with a Coho on fly and Tony managed to hook and self release two more - next time Tony- this certainly made a great ending to our week at Pitt River Lodge and I for one will be back. Perhpas to sample the new lodge up river where Cuthroat and Rainbow Trout will be the target...