brands51

Active Member
Anyone hitting Billings spit or the river lately? I heard the fish are there, thought it might be interesting if we get a little report section going. Ill be out tomorrow.
 
Nothing wrong with tossing the white wolly bugger's and releasing some chum now?! Makes for some fun days out there.
 
Been there the last two weekends and there has been a few coho caught off the spit. Haven't seen any jerkers yet but they'll surely show up when the chum hoard shows up and are stacked on the beach. There's a few dummies that wade outup to their armpits and it's really quite entertaining. If everyone behaves it is a great opportunity for the many not privileged with a boat to catch a hatchery produced salmon. The great thing about a terminal fishery is that you know what stream the fish belong, unlike offshore where you might be catching the last of some endangered run.
 
I'll be a crazy bugger wading deep and fly fishing to avoid the big treble snag on my line. Chum or coho, they are a fun fight in shallow water on a light rod and they taste fine if silver and definitely when
smoked.
 
I love fishing for chum in the river with a light spey rod. Getting my kids into a 20lb chum in shallow water is such a great opportunity.
 
If you're looking to get into fly fishing, cabelas.ca is having a sale right now on lots of fly gear and waders. I ordered a fly rod and reel combo, never fished fresh water before so its going to be interesting...
 
Couldnt agree more @Franko Manini . I was out there thursday. The spit looked dead, so I parked out by the the bridge and walked to the mouth through some marsh, and waded out about 100m along a sandbar that was about a foot deep. It was the only way to get in range of the jumping school of coho. Fished from about 3-6, plenty of jumpers but little action. Hooked one small coho about 7 pounds, dime bright, and lost it on a fully airborn jump. Besides a few touches that was all. Went back out friday as I was in sooke anyways. It was eerie how dead it was, saw 1 jump in 30 minutes of fishing. No one else was out. Sure is frustrating with them having the lock jaw, but im not one for snagging.
 
I want to try to start to fly fishing. Where is good access to the spoke river? Thanks

Enter the river via philips road. Take a right at the bridge and go up Philips road and park at sunriver estates and walk the trail for about 20 mins. Youll see people fishing and salmon jumping :)
 
The report for Saturday was that it was slow until the end of the flood at two then it lit up at Billings Spit. Not many coho, but some. Orange was the colour. I hit billings spit at 10 yesterday morning and fished until 3. Should have stayed longer to catch the end of the flood. There was 3 guys there on arrival and about 15 when I left. 2 fish landed while I was there. I got a chum around 12lbs (on a pink mini squirt, in the mouth) and and the other was around 7lbs (snagged with a buzzbomb in the back). There are some coho jumping in the mix around 6-8lbs. The majority of fishers were using a buzzbomb and a single hook, others trying spinners, or orange/pink wool. I saw a boat anchored in the basin towards the trailer park where there were lots of jumpers and I think he may have picked up one or two as well.
 
I was out yesterday from 3-7. I picked up 1 chum at the spit that had its sea lice still on it and was lightly colored up, gonna try to smoke it. It hit an ironhead spoon with a slow retrieve tipped with purple woll. Lost a second one at my feet, didn't see where it was hooked but both were about 10lbs. Went up river to fly fish from 6-7, defiantly some swimming around but not many. Hooked into 2 chums and landed another about 10lbs that was ok condition wise. Nice evening but sad to witness the snag fest at billings.
 
Apparently one is allowed to keep foul hooked fish as long as they are not "intentionally" snagged. Apparently, so I was told, that heaving a 4" buzz bomb horizontally through 18 inches of water is not trying to "intentionally" snag a fish". I try to stay away from that place.
 
Fished the spit yesterday from 3-630ish with a couple buddies, great day out there. We landed 4 and kept 3 all bright chrome with sea lice, perfect for the smoker, and released a darker one and lost many more.
 

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