Well after being out on the Salt Friday and having a good day the wife decided Saturday was a good day to Deliver so 5:30 Am contractions start, get to the hospital at 7 AM and baby out by 7:16 am.  Fastest limit for us yet… haha.  Discharged 12 hours later to home.  Yahoo!   

My brother and dad were here for the weekend so got in a baby visit plus we decided to go out yesterday off the South Arm of the Fraser.  They had never fished for sockeye before and thought it would be a great once in a four year lifetime opportunity.

Left the house around 6 am and out on the water around 730 fishing.  To tell you the truth the first couple hours were the slowest part of our day.  We would see the odd fish caught as we zig zagged our way through boats and out to deeper water.  Then my 20 year old brother fell asleep and the deep rod released and line was pulling.  I grabbed the rod and he quickly woke up, took the rod from me and after a fight we had our first fish on the boat.  We circled around there and picked up a couple of more pretty quick.  Then tides were changing and some really heavy weed lines on the rips were forming and we notice when we got close we either got weeds on our lines or sockeye.  So then we just started trolling along this rip line.  Then it came to a Y in the rip and right in the corner the fish were stacked like crazy.  Every time we went through there we got a single or double header and quickly closed our limit of 12 and had lost another 6 or so.  No crazy triple or quads today so took a little longer but was fun.  We were running a little deeper today with balls as 77 and 70, two dummy flashers on each, lines at 67, 59, 60, 52.  Even went down to 80 feet for a couple fish.  All fish were caught trolling about 1.5 to 2.3 mph.  I care more about the angle of the line.  Like most guys say under 30 degrees for sox has been working for me.  We were out in 45o feet of water when we found that good school and caught all our fish over 400 feet deep to the north off Sandhead light.  We were using blue, chartreuse and green flashers with red, glow, uv and flash tape on them.  All seem to work equally well.  One key we seemed to notice was we add Mikes Krill Scent and at one point one side was getting all the action with two blue flashers.  We were re scenting every time so we pulled up the other side and put fresh scent on.  Then it was game on for both sides after that.  So little details may sometimes pay off when the bite is a little tougher.  Leader lengths were 22 to 26 inch.  I usually put different lengths on all at once.  Most fish on the custom googly eyed wild things I made or Pink hootchies.


Anyways my buddy had invited me out for Tuesday with him so might be back out there then!
IMG_5301 by Brandon Koperski, on Flickr
IMG_5338 by Brandon Koperski, on Flickr
IMG_5357 by Brandon Koperski, on FlickrIMG_5376 by Brandon Koperski, on Flickr
IMG_5378 by Brandon Koperski, on Flickr
IMG_5377 by Brandon Koperski, on
IMG_5382 by Brandon Koperski, on Flickr
IMG_5384 by Brandon Koperski, on Flickr
IMG_5414 by Brandon Koperski, on Flickr
IMG_5418 by Brandon Koperski, on Flickr
IMG_5420 by Brandon Koperski, on Flickr
IMG_5427 by Brandon Koperski, on Flickr
IMG_5428 by Brandon Koperski, on Flickr
IMG_5435 by Brandon Koperski, on Flickr
IMG_5439 by Brandon Koperski, on Flickr
IMG_5453 by Brandon Koperski, on Flickr
IMG_5543 by Brandon Koperski, on Flickr

The Fraser River Sockeye run has been opened to recreational and commercial harvest this year, 2018. My other boat is out of commission so I have been going out on my 16 foot aluminum Spectrum. It works fairly well out in this area, just have to watch out for the winds picking up and head in before it gets too messy out there. I fish four rods and stack dummy flasher below my rods. Check out my set up in the video. I go through everything in detail at the beginning. I am no expert by any means. This was from my third time out this year. Since then I have been out 6 more times and I think I have been getting better every time out with how to handle the fish on the line and even learning the sockeye flop. Thanks to all the help I got online. It really was a game changer for me out there.

The fishery is still open for now and there are still guys getting their limits of nice fish. So if you want to hit it come on down, because it doesn't happen for another four years.

I missed going out this year Brandon and like you say it may be another 4 years until we get another opening.

Yeah and now with the environmental groups pushing for Canada to take action for the Southern Resident Killer whales we may lose fishing all the way from Tofino all the way around to Vancouver.  What a shame that would be.  I don't think we are the problem causing these killer whales to not be reproducing. 

Yeah and now with the environmental groups pushing for Canada to take action for the Southern Resident Killer whales we may lose fishing all the way from Tofino all the way around to Vancouver.  What a shame that would be.  I don't think we are the problem causing these killer whales to not be reproducing.

I don't think they'll ever get away with closing that much ground, the law suits that would entail alone would cripple the government. They are having a tough time holding on to the stretch they took from Otter to Renfrew, never mind that whole corner of the island. But as outdoorsman if we've  learned anything it's never say never when it comes to restrictions being placed on us.

Great video, you need 3 more hands. Made me laugh when you where losing a few, "ah man lost another one".  Keep them coming Brandon.

Thanks, yeah I for sure need three more hands.  Its funny when Im out with more guys this doesn't happen.

Am I correct?

I thought sports fisherman were only responsible for 5 percent of salmon harvest out there.

Their excuse, we will call it is not so much how much the sport fishing is taking but where they are taking them from. They are concerned that the fisherman are disturbing the Orcas from feeding freely. We all know who is behind this, the same people that want to shut everything else down, it's bull shit and every sane person knows it, sane person that is.

Exactly!  Same people who believe after harvesting animals for thousands of years that this is no longer an ok thing to do and actually demonizing the activity stating that we are murderers.  These people are psychotic.

I went out with the pastor again after work on Tuesday and fish were jumping like crazy, ocean was calm and the sun was shining. Current was really blowing hard making fishing hard. Landed three sockeye and released a wild coho. Lost so many that weren't staying on long enough for us to even grab the rod. Still plenty of fish. The underwater footage is insane!!! Check this out. I'll be making a video with more footage. It's insane you'll love it. This video doesn't even show the mega school we passed. It looked like a solid ball of bait fish but it was all salmon.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn5heU8n...d=ksmxcjqluzfu

Hey Brandon, good job on working the school. Tell the commercial guy to go to hell, no different then a big game guide telling me I can't hunt my spot. Had that happen once and told him to pound sand, my uncle ran a guiding outfit and he always told me any hunter you meet is a hunter just like us, respect him.

Pressure Canning Sockeye Salmon with a hint of Garlic.  When I was out slaying the sockeye this fall people were asking me what I was doing with all the fish.  I know most of you guys already know this since you live in Salmon Central.  Well it turns out one way you can preserve your catch for years to come is by canning it.  With a pressure canner you can ensure that your catch will last on the shelf to be enjoyed at a later date.  Like the sockeye drought the next few years.  Well if you are interested in seeing me in the new kitchen this is your chance.  Enjoy, let me know what you think.  Do you want more or less of this kind of stuff?

Let me know if you have any tips.  I've only done this a handful of times myself.