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This year I made it out the Stave River a little earlier than last year and was rewarded with fresher fish… go figure!? This year with more experience as a float fishing angler, these Chums didn’t have a chance. Most days were double digit mornings and I caught plenty of fresh fish for the smoker. The Chum Salmon fishery is so underrated to me, they are such a blast! These fish are aggressive and non-stop action, and again are great eating from the smoker.

The details from this post are from 3 trips to the Stave River: Oct 12, 31 & Nov 6 – 2015.

We floated purple/blue/pink jigs in both deep and shallow portions of the river. And always with Chum, we tipped them with fresh prawns. My dad picked up some fresh prawns from a fresh seafood store, and it over performed against the frozen prawns.

Floats: 25 gram

Mainline: 15 lb

Leader: 12 lb

Weights: Pencil lead

Jigs: Homemade Purple/Blue/Pink jigs (3/8 & 1/2 ounce jig heads)

Water Conditions: Stave River runs below the Ruskin Dam so the water height and visibility is often driven by Dam openings, and not always that impacted by heavy rains. Visibility here was bot

Weather: As this post is based over 3 different dates within October & early November, we had a mix of weather on those dates. The best fishing dates had lower light conditions and lower water levels. The last date was bright/sunny with a chill in the air, and the river had extremely high water conditions (after some massive storms coming through), this last date was terrible for fishing. We were skunked and didn’t see any Chum caught.

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