After reading about CohoOn!'s
success on hardware from a couple of days ago, I was motivated to give the Chilliwack another shot today. It has been almost one week since I last fished. October racked up 15 days of coho hunt, which was somewhat excessive. One simply can't get enough of the first light ritual when those big silvers are running.
When I first started coho salmon fishing over ten years ago, I strictly fished with spoons and spinners, which produced fantastic result. In the early part of this decade, a few locals showed me the effectiveness of that gooey substance. Since then, I have been hooked on it. I spent hours fine-tuning the curing process, so the tastiest goods are hung on the hook to entice those greedy coho. It's a messy job, some days the sticky pink fingers raise eye brows, but the longing of that sudden float dive feeds the addiction. Today, however, I decided to focus mainly on the hardware, since my faithful spoon has actually yielded more fish for me than roe.
I decided to work through a run in the mid river while Chris felt the lower river would bring him luck. We scheduled to meet at Cookies after the hunt, so I would have an opportunity to give a surprise to Chris.
I arrived at my spot way before sunrise. Once it was bright enough, I tossed that faithful spoon out and hoped for instant taps. I wasn't disappointed. Within a few casts, a fish grabbed it as the spoon fluttered down just after a cast. The fight indicated a coho salmon. Under dim light, I carefully brought it to shore. It was a bright hatchery buck, estimated to be around 6 to 8lb. A closer look discovered scales were missing on half of its body.
I decided to dispatch it anyway as it could have been the only fish of the day.
Having one on the bank just five minutes after starting had me very excited. Adrenaline was now pumping, I could barely hold onto the spinning rod. I made another cast and a hard take occurred halfway through the retrieve but it was missed.
A few casts later, another good hit! I, however, did not set the hook hard enough, and as expected the spoon flew back toward me once the big bright body splashed a few times on the surface.
It took only a few more minutes before the next fish went for the spoon. This time the line actually went slack slightly before tightening up fast, indicating that the fish may have nudged the spoon before biting it hard. The hookset was very precise this time. A very bright doe insisted to stay in the tailout for a long time before finally giving up. Once it was in the shallow, I could see the absence of the adipose fin. Instead of rushing into the water like previous trips, I took my time and eventually beached it. It was a rather long fish, I estimated it to be around 10lb.
With two fish on the beach, I now began thinking that I may reach my daily quota for once.
That thought quickly diminished when two more fish spat the spoon out when they surfaced. Both fish were just as bright, just as big as the previous landed fish.
I decided to change up and give the metal a rest. The baitcasting setup came out with that addictive gooey stuff.
A few drifts later produced a chum salmon. The phone rang, Chris wanted to check the fishing progress. He reported only one chum in the lower river.
I let him know my success. As the conversation went on, the float went for a dive again! I set the hook, screamed into the phone, "Fish!!" and watched as the coho salmon sprinted toward me. I scrambled to walk backward really fast, throwing the phone on the ground. Unfortunately, by the time the other hand reached the reel handle, the fish had rolled and set itself free.
I phoned back, "You just made me losing fish number three."
At lunch, I presented my surprise to Chris. Actually, it was a surprise from Daniel at DNE Fishing Tackle. Apparently there are only five of these limited edition Maple Leaf DNE balsa floats around.
Daniel has shown me some new balsa floats that they are introducing. The long ones look very nice.
After lunch, Nick "The Master", Chris and I decided to hit my honey hole again. Upon arrival, Nick decided to tackle this short fast slot, where he believed coho would be stacking up during the day. He was right, as usual. Within a few casts, a 10lb wild fish was caught and released. A few casts later, a chum was brought in and released. A few more casts, another wild coho came in! Meanwhile, Chris and I chatted and looked on, chuckled at times because somehow Nick was just hooking them left and right. By the end of the day, he was able to hook up seven coho in that 15 ft run, with four landed, but they were all wild.
My afternoon was unproductive. A few chum salmon gave me the run-around. Chris on the other hand, was fishing quite well with the new float attached to his line.
He managed to land his first Chilliwack River chinook salmon of the year. This was no ordinary chinook, just look at its colour.
New float equals instant success.
The Leaf is no longer skunked, kind of.
Water condition could not be better, at least for my fishing style. There are many chum salmon in the system now, which made coho fishing somewhat challenging at times. With some searching, you will be able to find some fresh coho salmon for sure. The season should be good for a couple more weeks. Good luck this weekend.
Author
Topic: Chilliwack River November 2nd, 2007 (Read 7082 times)