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Winter Fishing in the Fraser Valley
December / January / February
Winter fishing in the Fraser Valley can be quite good. Unlike the rest of Canada, the SW corner of British Columbia is relatively mild. None of our waters freeze as temperatures rarely reach below 36 F, 0 C. The Vancouver / Fraser Valley has the warmest climate in Canada during winter. Our coldest months are December and January with temperatures beginning to warm by early to mid February. By late February early March, resident and migrating birds are beginning to build nests, our flowers are taking bloom unlike the rest of Canada where temperatures are still in the - 10 to - 30 range. During winter months we fish for Sturgeon, Trout and one of the more sought after game fish Steelhead. All 3 of these species are local to the area offering good to excellent opportunities. We fish local and some harder to reach rivers for trophy trout and steelhead.
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| STS Client John Askin w/ Sturgeon |
Sturgeon fishing is year round in the Fraser Valley area. Although winter is not the best time to fish for sturgeon, we do still catch good numbers of fish on most outings. Last season on our coldest day on the water we still managed to land 4 nice Sturgeons. Your success will depend on the several factors during the winter fishery; water temperature, tide influence and guides experience. The first two are pretty much out of our control, the 3rd is critical to your success. Why I mentioned "guides experience" is that we offer the only full time guide service in the entire Fraser Valley region. Fishing for us is a full time year round commitment unlike most other guide outfitters which fish seasonally. Winter fishing can be very difficult if you're not out on the water keeping in tune with the bite and movement of fish. Our team of professional guides are on the water all winter so you can be assured you're fishing the most productive water and getting the best opportunity possible.
Winter Steelhead fishing can be one of the most challenging that you will ever do. Yes the rewards are great when you're holding that silver sided bullet for the camera but each and every fish you land is a hard earned. Most of the rivers we fish in the winter are hike and wade rivers, what does this mean? Hike and wade means we do not use our large river jet boats or drift boats to fish. These rivers are easily accessed from shore offering the angler a wide variety of water to fish.
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| STS Client Doug Liu |
Steelhead will enter our local rivers from as early as December until late March / early April (see Spring for peak fishing). During December, January and February water temperatures are usually below 40 F making Steelhead fishing a challenge. Fish are bit slow to react so each and every cast must be precise. Putting your bait/fly or lure near the fish is essential to success. We do not recommend fly - fishing for steelhead during these months. (See Spring for best fly fishing opportunities).
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| A Beauty Cutthroat |
Trout fishing can be very good during winter months. We offer Jet boat trips on larger rivers like the Harrison and Fraser and hike and wade and raft trips on harder to reach remote rivers. Our Guided Trout fishing adventures is a FLY FISHING ONLY Fishery. Some of the harder to reach rivers can offer some incredible winter fishing for trout as large as 5 lbs. Your average size is more in the 10 - 14 inch range but good numbers of fish between 12 - 18 inches are present. (see Spring for peak fishing).
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