I've come to the conclusion that I am an excellent guide but a terrible fisherman.
Even though Tuesday's trip wasn't the best one in the book, I decided to return this morning mostly because Shane and I found some willing biters near the end of the last session. I agreed to meet with Chris at the hot spot and told Lucky to join us if Mary was willing to get up early.
I arrived at 6:20am, first one at the meeting place.
Put on waders, waited and the Leaf Mobil rolled in just after 6:30am. A few minutes later, Lucky and Mary arrived as well. Four of us geared up, trekked through the bush with Chris' flashlight and were ready for the first light bite.
The run was in prime shape as expected. It just looks like a classic holding spot for coho salmon. Chris and I got out roe out on the flow right away while Mary and Lucky messed around with their gear for a bit. They did not miss much, because we didn't get a bite at all during that time.
The four of us worked the run over and over again with a few of "misses". I was off to a great start by losing a Drennan, then another.
When the second escaped Drennan started drifting downstream, Chris was off with his usual spring down the river. At 66 (or 67? 68?), it amazes us to see him running across the flow at that speed. Anything for a Drennan I guess.
He got to waist deep water and we watched him reaching out to grab it. It looked like he had grabbed it, but it turned out that he lost it again after almost losing his balance. I guess staying dry is more important than a Drennan after all.
We kept getting these "bites" at one spot in two hours. Chris was convinced that it was a fish but finally one of us snagged up, then another, and another. Perhaps it was a branch. Later on I snagged up once again and managed to pull something out. It was a piece of salmon carcass.
That must be one big pile of salmon carcasses sitting down there...
Chris left to a meeting on Chilliwack River gravel extraction at 9am. The three of us continued fishing until Noon. The sun was shining, the stretch of river where we were at had no people, so it was pretty enjoyable even though the fish were not biting. I could see pink salmon moving into the run. Perhaps the odd coho would moving too? While Lucky and I were chatting away about all these unexplored fisheries that we still need to do, Mary kept fishing hard. At one point she had her float drifting into the shallow portion of the run, right in front of me and just had the float suspending at the same spot. Suddenly, a silvery fish grabbed the roe and I could see the flashes in front of me right away.
"Coho!", I said.
"Chinook!", Lucky said, because it looked rather big.
I took a closer look when it splashed on the surface and again I said with confidence, "Coho!"
Another look when it came up again, "Hatchery fish!"
Once we realized what it was, the pressure was on Mary. That wasn't a problem, she got it all under control and within a minute a solid fish was on the river bank.
This was the only bite of the morning.
The two guys had to go home with our heads down.
Good for Mary though, her first Vedder coho. Two firsts for my fishing companions in one week. Not a bad guiding record, but where is my coho???
I met up with Chris and the hatchery guys for lunch at Cookies. After that, it was off to the Lower River to film some pink salmon spawning. That was a bust, the video camera finally broke after producing all the videos that you see on the website in the last three years.
Next week!
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Topic: Chilliwack River, October 8th 2009 (Read 2961 times)