Fishing the Fraser River, BC

The first day Marv went fishing was on his birthday, it was a big thrill

Our next door neighbours, Al and Sandy have a nice fishing boat and all the gear. They were good enough to take us out fishing. I only went once and didn't fish but I sure enjoyed the scenery and company. They both spent lots of hours teaching Marv the art of salmon fishing. He grew up in Cold Lake Alberta and had fished lots as a kid but this was a  brand new challenge. Al and Sandy untangled alot of line for him :)




It was quite a long opening for sockeye (in fact its still open) our freezer is well stocked. They also caught Spring, which I understand are the most fun to catch and pinks which are good for smoking. There was a 2 fish limit on the sockeye and once he got the hang of it they usually caught their limit with out too much difficulty. The Spring are a different story,, so many " how the fish got away stories",,, oh my I thought it would never end lol


Each day started with the alarm going off at 3:15, the day I went it was 2:45. We were second in line at the gate that day, the gates open at 5. Then its off to the boat launch and out to the fishing bar. Actually it was a bar,, Sandy had Kahlua for the coffee. At this point its still dark but the sun is starting to break through. 

Sunrise - worth waking up so early

It does not look that crowded but it was a times.

 Catching his first fish - this was an exciting moment and it certainly took a number of days of patient teacher from Al and untangling lots of line. I took up the job of teaching him to use "the law of attraction" and imagining each step of catching a fish and bringing it in....:) 

At this point they were still fishing from the boat because the water level was too high and there was not enough beach property available

 Eventually the river levels fell and the beach grew bigger each day.

 In this photo you can see how far the fish is pulled up onto the beach and Sandy helping . I was there that day and man that fish was definitively still heading back to the river.

 They caught their limit and Sandy shared some of her Kahlua 

 They have alot of fun together. They have lived beside us for hmmm at least 25 years and we didn't really know them except over the fence visits.

 Sandy teaching Marv how to prepare the fish to take home to me - cleaning and not looking so much like fish lol

This was a big day although most days were almost this good.

This was a happy day for Marv he caught two large Spring, I suppose that means he has graduated from Al's fishing school :)

I had a good shot of Sandy too but she offered me a bribe not to post it lol

While Marv was busy fishing, Bambi was busy and hatched 10 eggs. 100% hatch for the first time.

 And I was busy putting up tomatoes

People have different views of which fish is better Sockeye or Spring. So i cooked both in the exact same way and they we shut our eyes and gave each other the taste challenge. We both got it wrong 2 out of 3 times. They were both equally good and obviously they tasted the same to us :)

Earned his keep