As always a very pleasant Sunday evening welcome to all of The Journal readers on FWR, your top fishing web page on the net.
With the rain pounding down off and on a good part of the day I thought I would just head out for the last 3 hours of the remaining daylight and see what was happening on the Vedder.The rain made me think maybe things would be changing a bit and get some fish biting a bit better. I decide to travel sans the rod, leaving that for Monday morning.
I load up a few buckets and garbage bags into the Leaf Mobile as I knew there not always are fish out there but there is always garbage dropped by too many careless fishers and others that should know better. It always amazes me how people that are out there supposedly to enjoy the great outdoors but are not respectful of the environment.
My first stop is to drop in at the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve to sign up for a shift on Tuesday as I have been negligent the last while always hard to find enough hosts these days. A good visit there with old friend Doug who was working the afternoon shift.
The next stop was the garbage bag I hung on a sign post at Hoogies, was glad to see a number of anglers were using it as it was close to full, slipped another one into place.
I then went to just above the Hydro Bridge and cleaned up some garbage and retrieved a toonie worth of bottles and tins as well. Notice lots of chum going through the mating ritual in a backwater area, with signs of a few redds being dug as well. Good I think, with some spawning activity now under way we should get the coho now, as few as they seem to be, hopefully it will get them in more of a biting mood. The slight color of the now rising water will also help I believe.
While out on the gravel bar looking at the mating chum I also found a buck and doe sockeye floating belly up.
I knew that the Cultus Lake FOC lab is interested in theses fish especially if they are from the endangered Cultus Lake stock. I did not want to move them without permission so I phoned a friend who works there to see if he is interested. He said yes, " the lab would like to check them out and see by checking the DNA if they were indeed Cultus sockeye". He says just to take a fin sample but as having no cutting tool I say, if he gives me permission I will just pop them in a garbage bag. "Go ahead he says". I did not want to do this without permission as if I was caught with them in my possesion I would be in worse trouble than someone retaining a snagged fish. Wouldn't that look good on The Journal.
I quickly slip them both in a black bag and as I leave I tell an angler fly fishing the pond what I was doing so he would not thing bad of me. "Thought you were just taking them for the garden" was his reply. I chuckle as I slip them into the back of the Leaf Mobile.
I decide to stop at another pullout to scamper after some more coffee cups etc. I am listening to the Lions game so I leave the radio on as I fill up another 5 gallon bucket. I also slip down to the river edge and recover 3 floats.
As I get back into the Leaf Mobile, turn the key I am greeted by a groan from her, darn must have a poor battery as 15 minutes of the radio going should not have killed it that quick.
Just then two walkers going by, see our distress and they said they would come down with their car and give us a welcome boost. Three anglers, one from FWR also stop to check if help is needed. I see they are set up for short floating and their day had only yielded one chinook jack, I think they said. It seems others are having the same problem as me.
I retrieve the cables from behind the seat and find then tangled up like a backlash from a level wind. 5 minutes later in the now pouring rain I untangle them and pop up the hood and put on the two cables. Just then a couple of anglers see our troubles and stop. Cables quickly attached with the LM purring back to life as quick as Sundin's shot for his 500 goal last night.
I thank the rescuers and head down to the Canal where I do some cleanup on the Abbotsford side of KWB also checking to see if there is a notice when the gates will be closed, none visible yet.
Next stop is the gravel bar on the other side for more cleanup, not many people there as the rain has driven them away, a lot different than the bluebird days they had had the last number of weeks. Now we will see what they are made of. Not that many fish showing as the sweet smell of the fresh rain to the salmon keen sense of smell will send them out of this holding runs where they have taking the brunt of way too much sweeping the last while.
Final stop is the Blue Cup for the last cleanup, anyway darkness is starting to form its cloak over the Canal.
Endless schools of very happy salmon are spashing over the shallows at the head of the run, now deepening with the slight rise of the water levels and the tidal effect from the ocean 100 Km or more below. They are certainly as pleased as I, to see the Fall rains now falling.
As I pick up the odd bit of garbage I find another dead sockeye, a buck, one eye has been gouged out by a gull. Well I think what is causing these deaths, is it the parvacapsula parasite that attacks the sockeye kidneys before it can spawn or it is some mishandling by some people. Whatever the cause it is that is too bad as each of these endangered sockeye is very important if this dwindling stock of sockeye are to survive. Of course we should not draw conclusion until the DNA comes in and says what stocks they are from. They could be the Chilliwack Lake run that I believe is not in such poor shape. Although saying that the Cultus return is not too bad this year at around 3600 being counted at the fence last week.
At the Blue Cup I run into the two chaps that gave the Leaf Mobile a breath of life, I talk to one and he says he is from FWR, I believe he said his name was Kingpin, he like me was suffering a bad coho streak. With darkness now upon us I gather up the sockeye and wind my way back to the Leaf Mobile. I pick up a coffee at Tims and then deliver my first three sockeye of the season to Dave from the FOC lab,
my trip to the Vedder now over.
Tomorrow I hope I will be rewarded with a coho from the Vedder for my contribution to science and for the few pounds of garbage off her shoreline. She certainly looked fishy tonight with the falling rain but I believe I have said that a few times before this season. Stay tunned for another adventure as another journal is only hours away, that is if the Maple Leaf Stealth Float finally goes down.
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Topic: An Afternoon Walk On The Vedder, The Journal For October 15 (Read 1626 times)