Roy's Dad stalking a salmon!
Roy and I headed over to Vancouver island to chase coho salmon during the first week in September. It was a memorable trip that included perfect weather, fabulous camping and fly fishing for not only coho, but springs, jack springs, pinks and dolly varden. Roy and I are do it yourself types so we coordinated with his dad and a few of his Vancouver Island buddies. We flew over to Comox and by supper time, we had camp set up north of Campbell River. I was worried that there would be lots of fly fishers. That was not the case although one day the river we fished, the river got busy and so we moved out to fish in the estuary of the river. The pink salmon were still heading up river in good numbers so we did fly fish for these hard fighting salmon! Every afternoon we fished in the estuary for coho! Coho are hard fighters that will take a rather small fly considering their size. Almost all of the coho that we caught, were sight fished. These fish will rip off 100 yards of line in a blink of an eye. They leap out of the water many times when hooked up.
A typical day had everything to do with what the tides were doing. At day break were fished in the river where we encountered pinks, springs and coho. By late morning, we headed back to camp for a late brunch, fly tying and a break. The afternoon fishing started as the tide was ebbing. The aggressive feeding coho would come into the estuary to feed and they would leave as the tide came down.
The evening camp fire had lots of fun stories and laughs. The only part we did not like was how fast the week flew by.
Coho
Roy and his Dad.
Roy with a 9 pound coho that gave Roy's arms a real workout!
A nice coho caught in the estuary.
Another great scrap with a coho.
This coho had me in my backing at least 6 different times before bring it to hand.
This spring salmon was a real surprise. I could see this monster and was surprised to get a hook up and actually land it!
