Back from the Stamp today

[BlacktailStalker]

Water was high at first light, but not as high as it was!! Debris right up into the trees as far as I have seen it there, rain held off, water cleared up and dropped a good 2-3 feet. Lots of guys on the river for a wednesday, including 5 jet boats working every hole hard. Fortunately we are early risers and had the first 45 minutes of light to ourselves on the river and in that time I landed a nice chrome doe, who made 2 nice runs and a couple nice 3 foot high aerial shows for us, co-operated for a few pictures and I let her go. Beauty of it is she was wild. I missed one other take and my buddy snapped one off when it went out of the water and his drag on his level wind tightened up too much. I told him, get a single action !! When the river drops another few feet it will be prime, but not sure when that will be, pretty wet forecast it looks like...
My gear, Sage 3113 11' rod and Islander Steelheader, 2 BC orange Jensen egss with a tad of peach+pink wool.

[elkster]

Hey, Nice steelie. You actually hit the nicest day we've had here for quite awhile, plus the river has gone down a bit. That's probably why so many people out. We will need a few days of no rain before the level drops much. I'm still waiting and watching.

[meat hunter]

Nice fish! Apparently the Quatse in Port Hardy is producing quite well also.

[lip_ripper00]

beauty of a fish!! have never fished the Stamp for steelies,used to come over for the springs and coho.Heard it great, on my to do list.Do you by chance know if Arrowvale camp ground is still open? It's down by paper mill dam. thanks Steve

[BlacktailStalker]

Lip_Ripper00;

Arrowvale is still open but as to if you are asking if it's closed for the season, I do not know that. http://www.camping.bc.ca/contact.aspx
I love the Stamp, but it's hard to decide between there and the Gold as each river is almost an equal distance away from where I am !

[steel_ram]

I'd rather fish the Gold any day rather than the Stamp, assuming they're both "in shape". It's a way better outdoors experience, better qualityfish, and not as many jet boats.

Is tha Salmon still producing? Last time I fished it about five years ago it was kind of a boring slow meandering gravelly creek with lots of log jams, however we got several good sized fish and considering they didn't have current to use against us, fought extemely well.

[BlacktailStalker]

I was wondering about the Salmon river as well, never fished it but hear it is the Islands best kept secret and traditionally peaks later than all the other rivers. If it's slow sounds like a good river to probe with a fly... Yeah those jet boats are kind of annoying if you're on the bank and they stop and pull the fish right out of "your" hole.

[PGKris]

Sweet steelie

[steel_ram]

Yes the Salmon is late, and like a few rivers that brag bigger than average fish it has good fly water. It's funny, but I know a couple of "wild" rivers that I've only done well using Jam (row) or flies and nothing in between produces. Jam's banned in most places now.
Rivers like the Gold, Stamp and Cowichan I actually do better with the artificial.

Jet boats! I've actually gone for a bit of a dip thanks to them. Fishing High-water one day down on the Somass, I had waded out as deep as I could to clear the willows when a Boat came blasting by. The wake sent me on my way. The driver didn't even slow down as he watched me work my way back to the next landing. If one comes and anchors in front of me on a run that I'm already fishing, I'll keep casting like they're not there. oops! note: not all of them are jerks (just most)