After seeing that the river had dropped a little bit overnight, I decided to head up at first light and hope that it was fishable. The drive to Chilliwack was a little discouraging since it was pouring most of the way, but luckily it was dry and cloudy once I arrived. I was surprised to be the first one in the parking lot at 6:45 on a Saturday-- I guess most people assumed that the river was blown out. I was pretty happy to see that although the river was pretty high, there was some visibility and it was definitely fishable. When it became light enough to see I started fishing a few spots in the lower river. The first 30 minutes only resulted in a chum so I moved onto a small side pool. I fished a seam with some roe and quickly managed to hook into and land a smallish wild coho. After having no hits on the roe in the next little while, I switched to blades. By this time all the regulars had arrived and were occupying their usual spots and were fishing using their usual methods. I was soon joined by 2 locals who were trying to get away from the snaggers -- they were not shy about voicing their displeasure with them. I guess they brought the fish with them as all 3 of us hooked into fish pretty quickly. I managed to hook 4 fish, releasing 2 more wild coho, both larger than the previous one. The other 2 guys landed several fish between them, including a very fresh, large wild male. I guess there are still new fish moving in. Things then died down, so I decided to head to a mid river spot that should not be crowded. At the new spot I saw many dark springs and chum surfacing, but no coho, or fishermen, to be seen. I fished anyways, making my way back down river as I did. After a couple of hours I had only managed to hook 1 fish that I lost -- I think it was a jack spring. I was almost ready to go home, but decided to use the rest of my roe since I only had a little left. A few minutes later, I began the "last cast ritual" which I'm sure many of you are familiar with. I was fishing roe in pocket water. To my surprise (on my very last cast
), my float shot down and I saw a good sized hatchery coho shoot to the surface. I carefully landed it and decided not to push my luck and called it a day.
Overall, a good day on the water -- some fish hooked, great weather (no rain, cloudy, not too cold) and below average crowds.
Author
Topic: Vedder Oct. 20 (Read 1802 times)