[Dana]

Hearing tales of woe out of Thompson country tonight. Apparently the counts are the lowest in years (23 out of 24 seasons of record I'm told, although I haven't confirmed this yet with biologists) and a good many anglers--most--are going fishless in Spences. Plus the crowds are unbelievable, as many anglers have left Skeena country earlier than normal due to poor weather and river conditions, making it "take a number time" on all the famous runs. So crowds combined with few fish makes for poor fishing if relative solitude and hooking steelhead are part of your definition of fishing. Looks like Thompson fish are suffering the same fate as Skykomish winter runs.

 

[FLYH20]

Poor Run

Yes Dana I have found the same thing. It looks like one of the worst years on the big T yet. I have been up twice so far this season and all though its early I have never seen such a poor showing of fish. The number of rods on the water for october is almost insane. Is this one more great river's rapid death? I also talked to a lot of gut chuckers who always seem to find few fish that hold deep in the river. They have also had no luck finding a fish.

 

[BeBop]

Dana, a good friend who is a very experienced Thompson rod saw three fish taken on the fly at the beginning of last week. They were taken in shallow slow moving water. He thought that the steelhead were pushed out of their normal runs because of the large numbers of big springs and sockeye in the river. Let's hope this is the case.

 

[doublespey]

It's Baaaadd!

Spend this weekend on the Thompson. Between myself and a very experienced Thompson regular, we tallied a big <zippo>.

And yes, even the bait guys are crying the blues.

The Fish Cop that roared up in his jetboat to check our licenses commented that, with all the rods on the river that Saturday, he'd only talked to one angler who'd caught a steelhead. Said at this point it was ranked 23rd (of 24) worst seasons so far.

When you factor in the hordes of anglers, it's not a pretty picture.

hasta,

DS

 

[nevada caster]

thompson fishing

I just got back from my first trip to BC. Fished the Thompson for a few days around Oct 15. Zip for me and most people fly fishing. Then spent a week or more on the Skeena and the fishing was fair, but it required sink tips and heavy leech patterns.
Returned to the Thompson for 3 days and landed three small fish. I talked to one person who heard of someone catching a big steelhead 2 or 3 days previous. COLD!!

I didn't run into any crowds anywhere. The most people that I saw was on a Sunday afternoon on the Copper.
Re the Copper, there is a detour around the slide. It is about 5 kiometers long and goes well up the mountain to the top of the slide area. We did see one regular car make it, but I wouldn't try it with any thing other than a 4 wheeler, especially when it is wet.

 

[BeBop]

I fished Friday afternoon through Sunday with nary a bite. I saw two fish landed on the fly, one at the head of the Graveyard and the other in the back channel of the Island run. The guy doing the creel count told me that the gear guys were doing considerably better around Lytton. I'm heading back up tomorrow for a couple of days. Hopefully there will be more fish in the Spences Bridge area.

 

[jetboatjimmy]

thompson

dana i doubt youll remember me but i sat with you tyler robbie and your japanese friend at the log cabin pub last friday,i have the 10150 sage and the airflo delta spey 10. you told me it was an ok combo.well after some casting guidance from you, tak. and tyler,and some coaxing to leave the bait in the truck,i caught my first thompson fish on the fly.nothing big agood 12 lber,nice fight ,but even a better take.so im going up again this weekend but only with a fly rod! i heard you talk about passing on the flyfishing heretage,or convincing guys to put down the bait! well the little time i had to talk to you fellows made all the difference,thanks to you guys!

 

[Dana]

good news!

glad to hear that your setup cast well and produced the magic that put a fish on the end of your line! I spent the weekend doing a lot more casting than fishing so I had little way of knowing if there were any of our finny friends out there in the currents!

It is a challenge to abandon tried-and-true methods on a tough river like the Thompson, for every fish is special, but for me every fly-caught steelhead is a lifelong memory, a treasure well worth the often long spaces in between hookups. :eyecrazy: