The Field Journal
People · Coastal Fisheries

Rod Hsu

Rodney Hsu's Fishing with Rod has been the plain-spoken, welcoming front door to British Columbia's coastal fisheries since 2001 — where a lot of Fraser Valley anglers first learned to read tidal water.

Not every fishing education starts on a fabled steelhead river. For a great many British Columbia anglers, it started with Rodney Hsu. His Fishing with Rod — running out of the Lower Mainland since 2001 and now one of Canada's most-watched sport-fishing channels — is the clear, unpretentious front door to the Fraser Valley's coastal fisheries: the tidal rivers and salmon runs that are close to home and open to anyone.

Reading tidal water

Hsu's real subject is access — the mechanics of fishing water that rises and falls with the tide, the small-water setups that keep beginners catching, and the timing of the coastal salmon runs that pour into the Lower Fraser, Vedder and Harrison each year. It is high-repetition, plain-language instruction, and it demystifies water that can look impossibly complicated from the bank.

▶ How to Set Up a Jig for Pink Salmon Fishing — Fishing with Rod

Whatever keeps you catching

A note in fairness: much of Hsu's most useful content is light-tackle spin and jig work rather than fly — a pink-salmon jig or a simple spincasting rig — and he never pretends otherwise. For learning how tidal fisheries actually work, it remains the clearest instruction going, whichever rod you pick up.

▶ Spincasting Rigs for Pink Salmon — Fishing with Rod

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Beyond our patch

The Fraser and Vedder salmon runs sit outside this journal's Kootenay home water — but if a coastal trip is on your calendar, this is the education to start with.

Known for

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Tidal-water tactics
Reading tide and current on the Lower Fraser & Vedder
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Accessible fisheries
Small-water setups anyone can reach and fish
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Inbound salmon runs
Timing and rigging for pink, coho and more
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A landmark channel
One of Canada's most-watched, since 2001

Sources & further reading: fishingwithrod.com. Videos © their respective creators, embedded from YouTube.