Photo of the Week: April 28 2016: Ken Fleming is holding his first Kitimat River Steelhead
This Steelhead was caught using a Luhr Jensen Hot Shot 25 Metallic Pink. (more details below)
Introduction
Welcome back to Reliable Guide and Charters Kitimat River and Douglas Channel Fishing Report! A Huge Thank You to the many Fishing Report Subscribers for your Get Well Wishes and your positive comments.
I have learned from my ordeals that “Life is Short, Fish Lots”. If you can share the passion of fishing with people who are special to you, you will create some magic moments!
My Fishing Reports for the Kitimat River and the Douglas Channel will be intermittent at first but God Willing they will evolve back to circulating on a regular basis.
I hope you enjoy the Reports!
One of my magic moments with my Grandson, Zander and my daughter Julie (Julie took this picture)
Kitimat River
The Kitimat River was high but fishable during the beginning the of the week but dropped and cleaned considerably all week. The river is in excellent condition and the fishing has been decent.
With the mild winter and early spring, the Steelhead run on the Kitimat River appears to have started earlier this year. Accordingly many Steelhead are in spawning colours and quite a few have already spawned. There are some bright fresh Steelhead being caught in the lower Kitimat but they are definitely in the minority.
April 24th I had the pleasure of fishing with Todd Haynes of Nautical West Sportfishing. We were doing some personal fishing as well as some preclient research trips. . I call these “homework trips”. I believe it is crucial to being a good guide to do the “homework” prior to clients. We were fishing with our Spey Rods as well as our Float rods. We hooked 4 Steelhead and landed 2. It was an awesome day of fishing with a very good friend who is also in the Guide/Charter business. With our busy schedules, it is very rare that we get to fish with each other. Thanks for a great day, Buddy!
April 28th My good friend, Ken Fleming during an afternoon drift with in law, Steve caught his first Kitimat River Steelhead. Ken is an avid angler but confessed that this was his first Steelhead. Ken thoroughly enjoyed the battle and released this beauty back into Kiimat River. Congratulations Ken. Well done!
We were Hot Shotting with my Loomis HSR1023 Hot Shot Rods and Ambassadeur LC 6600 reels loaded with 15lb Big Game line. As mentioned in the Photo of the Week caption, we were using a Hot Shot 25 Metallic Pink. This set up is in, my humble opinion, the ultimate Hot Shotting combo for Hot for Steelhead. I absolutely love Hot Shotting for Steelhead especially with the right equipment and now so does Ken!
Hot Shotting is very a productive method to fish for Steelhead and is part of a personal challenge I have evolved over the past 30 years. It is called the “Triple Crown”. The challenge is to catch a Steelhead on a Hot Shot, another on a fly and the third on tackle all on the same drift. Please stay tuned to this report because this is the perfect time of year for the Triple Crown.
Douglas Channel
Many boaters have been out crabbing and there have been a few Chinook reported to have been caught in the Kitimat Harbour. I have not confirmed these Chinook but there is an early run of Kitimat River Chinook and everything appears to be early this year. I am already getting pretty excited for the upcoming Chinook season! I’m sure many other Chinook anglers are as well.
Good Health! and Good Fishing!
Ron Wakita
