I got up bright and early this morning in time to clean some grouse and cure up some roe before heading to meet our minister from church who just loves to fish. Daybreak is just starting to break as the full moon is just starting to sink below Sumas Mountain. I hope the bright full moon has seen some coho move into the area we are fishing which on arrival I see the run I have chosen to fish is vacant of any anglers. This was the run I took a chum in yesterday and a chinook jack on Saturday.
As we cross the side stream pinks are everywhere as they have been the last while, the most I have ever seen in many years of fishing the Chilliwack Vedder River system. Good news for the next generation of pinks and the nutrients the carcasses will provide to the river and the fry that will emerge from the gravel in the Spring. As we reach the run I see it still has some color which I had just thought of this morning is probably caused by all the spawning activity of the thousands of pinks digging their redds before depositing their precious eggs in the hollowed out nurseries.
On my first cast I am buried but I have found a snag that I had forgot about as I had broken off on it the other day too. I retie but after about 30 minutes of fishing all we only get is a couple of foul hooked pinks. I will be glad when they have completed their spawning run which should be in 7 days or so as many have completed their spawning now as their decaying bodies litter the beach. I think the amount of pinks are causing the coho not to bite as well as they should being made nervous by the large masses of pink salmon moving around in all the good runs. Of course they are in the shallows as well, getting desperate to find an area to spawn and will be spawning and disturbing other redds in the process.
With no biting activity I decide to move up a run and in the process I find a drennan in a log jam, no ID on it once again.
As I reach the run a good number of coho and adult chinooks are breaking water but I have trouble getting a good drift because of a long cast required and the way the current is running. I cross to the other side but it is hard to see the float as the sun is now on the water.
however on the third cast the float dips ever so much in the slow drift, I set the hook and I am into my second coho of the season. I had broke the other off as I had a knot in my leader.
The fish fights well and as it gets closer I see it is a hatchery. I have to walk it down to the bar below as I am standing in a few feet of water. I think it is 8 or 9 pound doe but later that day after fishing we have lunch at Cookies Grill and we have lunch with buck who on looking at it says it is maybe a little over 6 pounds. I guess being my first of the year I had inflated the weight some.
I try for a bit more as the chinooks and coho continue to tease me but I have only one more chance so I decide to go back to the original run and all I get is another drennan that I have to chase downstream. I end the trip by breaking off on the same snag that I started the day. We end the trip with some good fellowship at Cookies where many fish tails are always exchanged.
Tomorrow is another day, at least I know where they are now and I will be there at first light as the full moon is sinking behind the mountains, signaling the start of another day on the flow.
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Topic: Chilliwack River, October 5th 2009 (Read 2411 times)