Well, the plan was to hit the Chehalis in anticipation of all the rain we would be having. The thought was that this should cause the water to rise and should push in a fresh bump of fish. I was supposed to meet Big Steel at 06:00 a.m. in front of the hatchery and we would go off in search of some fresh ho's. I got there early, about 5:50 a.m. So, I sat in my car and waited...and waited...and waited. At 6:30 I thought to myself (meanwhile, I napped a bit to kill the time), "Either he missed his alarm or he ain't coming. Might as well start fishing." So I made my way to the first proposed spot. One look at the river when I got there and I went, "Uh oh!" The river was high, really high and just short of being blown out. The water was getting really milky, light coffee in fact. I was working my way back to the car when a familiar Ford Exploder pulled in and a sheepish looking BS started mumbling something about his girlfriend resetting the clock because she thought the Chehalis was only a half hour away.
I used to wonder if Big Steel's initials of BS was a coincidence or not!
Anyways, we decide to fish the edge of the water but nada. Didn't even see a fish. Time to move on. We then decided to make our way to the Easter Seal run and as we headed out, we spotted a familiar blue truck. Yep, it was CG himself. Mr. Gadsen had just shown up and was planning to head down to the same spot so we walked on down together. To give those who are familiar with the Chehalis an idea of how much the water had gone up, the little creek you have to cross by the campgroiund was about thigh deep and rising. It seemed a lot of fisherfolk had the same idea about the Chehalis this morning as there were probably 15 guys fishing the stretch of water we were thinking of. There was some space at the very end of the run so we made our way there and started fishing. Long story short, nothing, nada, zilch. I believe BS hooked something and popped off but that was it. One coho jack was apparently taken and a few chum hooked but sadly that was it. CG decided to leave to go do some cutthroat fishing (he can tell you his story later) but we stayed on for awhile longer. When we finally left, who do we run into again by the roadway? Yep, you guessed it, CG. He told us a car had been broken into and that he was talking to the guys but they had just left. BS and I decided to go check out the hatchery after that. I haven't been there for a few years so I was quite surprised by how much things have changed. We decided to fish down from the hatchery and I hooked and landed a 12-13" rainbow (or steely smolt, you choose) and a hatchery that was released. We were after coho! BS got into some chum and I wandered away and found a promising spot. I even saw a coho break the surface and later a large coho or maybe small spring (judging from the spots along the back) move in and drift off. All I got however were chum. And quite a few in fact. Quite a nice change from last weekend when I couldn't hit hardly any fish. BS came to join me, hooked a fish, lost it and watched his float fly and get caught up in the trees. I won't repeat what he said, after all this is a family oriented fishing forum, but he did use some choice words.
He stopped after that and seemed content to watch the river, smoke and help release the odd chum I kept hooking. We decided to leave after that and went to Nicomen Slough. We tossed spoons for awhile. A gentleman above us hooked and kept a decent looking chum and released a foul hooked one. He then caught and landed a wild 12-13lb coho. It was a beauty of a fish and solid. BS helped with the release and I ended up redirecting it after BS had released it as it seemed to want to join us on land. More spoons tossed, a few chum hooked and lost and after getting soaked, we called it a day.
Author
Topic: Chehalis Nov 3 (Read 2301 times)