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Place - Babine River, British Columbia - 1 hour drive North from Smither's B.C.

We, Taylor my brother, my wife Tracy and I were fly fishing for Sockeye Salmon on the Babine river, just belows the fish counting Weir. Fishing was very good and we all limited out, with Tracy catching the largest at about 10 pounds after it was cleaned. Nice fish. They are dark, but very good eating, steaks fried with some Montreal Steak spice, or wrapped in tinfol, smeared with butter and with lemon slices along the side and BQ'd - especially in mid January or February.
This is Satruday morning, and I elected to take a few pictures, having limited out by 9AM Friday morning. We caught probably 60 or 70 altogether and released all but 12 of them, our 3 person limit. Didn't see any grizzlies this year, unfortunately. It's always fun to watch them fish - from the bridge or opposite side of the river, of course.

Brother Taylor into a nice fish.

Tracy's best:

Here's another one for Tracy - which almost tripped things up a bit. Funny!

Note the last picture, the flies I tied for Sockeye are small- #4's and #6's. The reason for this, is there are so many fish, most of them are "flossed" - they won't hit the larger flies, like Steelhead flies many anglers use. However, when using these small flies, many of them are actual "takes" - hooked in the top lip or bottom lip at the point of the jaw, or slides back and hooks in the hinge - happens often. mWith most people using larger #1's, 1-0's, 2-O's, ect, they foul hook the fish - most anywhere if the hook is sharp and sometimes very badly. fopuld hooked fish are by law, supposed to be released. The water current is such that a poorly hooked fish (caught other than in the head) is difficult to land, pulling on his side, or by the tail which points the fish downstream making it almost impossible to land.

It's a lot of fun - we finished off last year's salmon just last week. It was as good as a Sept. BQ's Sockeye.

In one of the pictures showing the weir, note the large white tent. Off to the right of the tent is a tractor trailer, which they are loading with Sockeye taken out of the counting pens - something like 5, 10, 20 or 30 thousand a year, shipped off to Vancouver for the Sushi restaurants. It's a Native fishery which employs a large number of Indians from the Fort Babine Band.

While there fishing, we stay at the Fort Babine Lodge, owned by the Fort Babine Band. Cost $100.00 per night, + HST (horrific sales tax) - ie: $12.00.

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Daryl

"a gun without hammers is like a Spaniel without ears" King George V

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