Chilliwack/Vedder Dolly Varden
Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the increase in the Dolly Varden population in the Chilliwack/Vedder system. In the last 5 to 10 years, I am catching more Dollies(when fall salmon fishing), every season. Some of these fish are large. I caught one last week that was 7 or 8 lbs. I was shocked when I brought it to my feet and observed it.

A friend took a couple of photos, and then we released it gently. It took off with a vengenge.
They are an exciting species to have in our fishery. It kind of reminded me of fishing in the Skagit, except I can legally catch them on bait here. The Chehalis seems to be following suit as well, but a bit slower.

I hope everyone else realizes how special these fish are and understands that they are catch and release only.

Any other Dolly Varden comments or stories would be appreciated. I wonder if people are becoming more ethical about the regs and maybe poaching is dropping?? Let me know what you think.

No not everyone realizes how special these fish are. Ran across an 'angler' the other evening who commented that he had just caught several keeper size dollies on the lower Pitt. It didn't dawn on me until later the full impact of what he was saying. Given his other comments during the course of our conversation, with his general lack of knowledge I pegged him as an ignorant angler not the poaching variety. Hard to say what is worse.

No dollie stories save for the well-known and oft repeated tale of the fish tagged at mile 20-something of the Squamish only to be re-captured a short time later near Sedro Wooley on the Skagit. Amazing! New meaning to the term cross-border shopper.

So this newbie is on the river and he catches this strange-looking fish. He's not sure what it is, so he pulls out his trusty Freshwater Fishing Regulations Synopsis, flips to the full-colour guide to Freshwater Fish of BC, and discovers that he has hooked a Dolly Varden.

Gee, he says to himself, I wonder if I can keep this Dolly Varden ? So he goes to the Regional Regulations. Nope. No mention of dollies in there. So he goes to the Definitions page. Nope. No entry for Dolly Varden.

Then, by complete accident, he notices that Dolly Vardens are mentioned under the definition of "char". So he quickly goes back to the regional regulations and discovers that wild char must be released.

Stunned, he turns to his catch and exclaims "Don't worry, Dolly, I'll save you !" But it's too late. Dolly has expired.

All because of a poorly-designed booklet.

Bobber, that really shouldn't be the case. The regs clearly state that all wild trout/char must be released from streams in region 2 south of the Jervis Inlet. I'm pretty sure everyone knows the Fraser is south of that. Its the angler's job to know what might be swimming where he or she fishes before they dip their line in the water.

I do see your point though. Some fishermen will kill first, read later.

I won't say where but last fall I took a couple of nice dollies - 2 to 4 lbs from a little valley stream I've fished for about 30 years. I don't remember ever seeing one there before. I think the no kill on wild trout/char is paying off for our river dollies.

Last January(2000) I was fishing the Chehalis River. I was targetting Steelhead,Cutthroat, and late Coho, late runs of silver bright Coho(sometimes) arrive in late December/early January.I spotted, what I thought, were either Coho or small Steelies. I saw four fish holding behind a few dark Coho,they looked to be about 3-5 lbs. in size and very bright. The first few fish I hooked were Coho, they were too dark for me, but, they still had a lot of spunk and they were fun. I started targetting these fish I had spotted and I finally hooked one, it flashed bright silver, so, I thought it was a 3 lbs Steelhead, the Chehalis gets quite a few return at this size every winter. After quite a battle (for a fish of it's size, Dollie's really pull hard!) I landed it and to my surprise it was a silver bright Dollie and in prime condition, no doubt fat from all the Coho eggs it had devoured in the past few weeks.I released this fish and got back into position and saw the remainding 3 fish in the same spot. Next cast turned another fish, he was on and off, but,on the next cast the hook stuck. Another Dollie was landed and released and it was just as beautiful as the first one except, it was about 4 pounds.As my memory serves me, I believe I hooked the other one but I can't remember if I landed it, 'so many fish, too little time!'These fish were all in prime condition, very bright and nicely spotted with those green and pink spots, they are very unique in appearance. This was a nice bonus on a cold and wet January afternoon... (Stave) Dave.

Dollies make for amazing stories, but nowhere are they as aggressive as the Skagit, at least in my experience.

I was driving home from a Manning Park family get-together on mid July afternoon-evening, and decided to stop off along the Skagit for a couple of casts and maybe toss a spoon or spinner for a nice rainbow. The Skagit-Summalo grove is probably the most fished and poached fishing hole in the whole system with fish here being more wary than anywhere else.

I had barely started my retrieve and was soon realing in a fiesty 14 inch rainbow. With in seconds it felt like this nice bow had grown 10 or 15 lbs. Then I noticed at the end of my line, a lot of splashing and my spinner going every direction. I kept reeling in and noticed a huge dolly ravaging this poor rainbow. I got my spinner to with in 5 feet from shore, and as I looked into the crystal clear water, I noticed the dolly trying to rip the spoon out of the little bow's mouth by repeatedly snapping at it's head. Here I realized this Dolly was between 30 an 36 inches in length and probably weighed well over 10 lbs, maybe 15lbs even.

Anyways, after reeling in my spinner right to shore, the Dolly let go, and all I had on the end of my line was a dead rainbow trout. This trout had most of it's throat ripped apart. 2 bites underneath that reminded me of Seal-bitten Sockeye. It was missing 1 of its lower side fins and had part of its gills ripped loose.

The funny part was a mother of a young boy had been watching this, she looked like she had the devils fright in her eyes when she saw the dolly and dead rainbow and then immediately removed her son from a side stream he had been playing in.

Okay, I've seen dollies just as aggressive as that before (well not quite that bad) but a few weeks ago on the Skagit I was fishing a pool within sight of the road and i spotted two big Dollies in it, one 5 lbs, the other maybe 7 or 8. Off comes the elk hair caddis, on goes a big flashy minnow pattern, no luck. After trying all my big flies from black woolybuggers to big popsicle leech steelhead flies, the fish didn't so much as flinch. I've had the exact same thing happen on the Skagit last september once, two big dollies in plain view not react at all to anything I put in front of them. Why do you think this would be? Spawning? Too much pressure? (Both spots were the first pools at different access points).

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