09/15/2026
Earlier this week, I finally had a chance to pop out and hop into my friend The Fishing Doctors Adventures' boat for a morning of salmon fishing just outside of the Fraser River mouth. This September fishery is often highly productive because several stocks of chinook salmon overlap in the area. The fish are actively bulking up some more before travelling up the Fraser, so the bite can be hot at times. The wind made this particular trip a little more challenging, but we still got it done. Both red and white chinook salmon were caught, and the hatchery coho salmon was a bonus that we didn’t really expect. The ticket was trolling anchovies around 50 feet below the surface.
The day didn’t end once we were off the boat, we wanted to preserve the trip, and our catches. With five salmon in the bag, we delivered them to St. Jean's Cannery & Smokehouse so they could be processed into a variety of products including smoked and canned salmon. St Jean’s is BC’s last working canneries, family owned since 1961. I have enjoyed their products for many years now, but never tried having my own catches processed so I’ve been looking forward to this.
The fish were dropped off at their Delta location, which is just a short drive from where we pulled out the boat in Ladner. We chose to have our white chinook salmon made into candied salmon and hot smoked salmon, as well as lox from our red chinook and coho salmon. I can’t wait to pick these up later this season, stay tuned for the YouTube episode!
If you are considering having your own catches processed by St Jean’s, you should check out http://sport.stjeans.com for more information.
