As always a very warm welcome to the readers of The Journal on a cool night in Chilliwack. Maybe I feel the cold as just have come from watching the Continental Cup Of Curling with all the top world curlers taking part. I was fortunate to receive tickets to all matches over the four days of the events. As well as the passes we got tickets for meals at each event. As I want to do some fishing during this time I have given some of the tickets to Lew.
Today I watched the women play
that included Keleibrink, Scott, Norberg, McCormick, Schoop and Ott. The North Americian Teams won 2 out of the 3 matches on draw 2 of the event.
Hats off to our own Terry Bodman the co chair of this top curling event.
I am typing this at the Chilliwack Library waiting for my wife to pick me up so it should be a short Journal this time.
With the Chilliwack Vedder blown out it gave me time to concentrate on cutthroat brood capture.
It is always fun to try and find these ghost like fish, one day they are at a certain spot then the next day they have moved on. They are of course feeding on chum eggs at this time of year as the spawner's get ready for their own spawning run in a few weeks while the numerous feeders are just having fun eating and robbing the single eggs off ones hook. As well white fish that can be numerous are always stripping you clean.
To date I have landed about 2 dozen cutthroat including about 4 spawner's. It is so nice being out on this type of fishing as there is no sweepers or for that matter many anglers of any type, fishing at its best.
The last few trips I had not done well and I was told the day before The Master and company had landed many including 11 spawner's for the Abbotsford hatchery brood capture program. This is the first year I have done brood capture for cutthroat after many years of doing steelhead.
So this trip I was fired up to try and get a spawner or two for Stevie O to come and pick up.
The day was wet and windy, miserable as it has been for some time of late, the hot dry days of Summer now distant memories.
As the Leaf Mobile purrs towards the chosen fishing spot droves of commuter traffic is going in the opposite direction. We arrive at the water and of course no one in sight except flocks of ducks settling into a field for there morning breakfast of corn. Swans are coming from their roosting spot, most likely from a Fraser River Bar. I have never seen so many swans, in 3 fields the other day there must of been 200.
It is not long before I am into my first fish of the day, a cutthroat of about 13 inches that I feel is a spawner so into the brood capture tube it goes. I am not as good as I should be on telling a feeder from a spawner in some cases. I miss a few fish and then connect into a nice fish that before it throws the hook I can see it is a spawner by its coloring and size.
No long after this loss I am into another, for a minute I thing it maybe is a coho as it is pulling nicely.
However after a brief battle as I get it near shore I see it is indeed a cutty shark, by the look of it maybe the biggest I have ever caught. I quickly slip it into the tube occupied by it smaller cousin, I am shaking with excitement as it is the biggest I have taken in 50 odd years of angling. I think it is 20 inches and over 2 pounds maybe 3 big ones.
With the fish bagged I phone Steve that I have fish for him to pick up, he says he will be up just after 1. I tie up the tube, hidden from view so I can head into town for a bit of a rest and do some shopping. I also visit a sportshop and tell them about the Fishing With Rod web site. I even bring it up on their computer for one of the customers to read. The owner reads it now also.
I meet Steve at the appointed time and we pop the 2 fish in the tank, I snap some picture and film some on video of my prize catch. She certainly will have lots of eggs to produce more cutthroat for the future. I may even have to pay her and her pond mates a visit one day maybe even during the
open house this Saturday, that if this years brood stock is made available for viewing. Regardless a good place to take the family. They may even have the fish pond going. As my time on the Library Computer is nearing the end of the allotted time I must end The Journal.
I heard from Stevie yesterday it measured 49cm which is just over 19 inches, the biggest out of the 31 captured for the program so far this year. The Master may have caught the most the day before but I caught the biggest.
Sorry to boast but everyone gets lucky sometime don't they.
Even the Canucks.
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Topic: The Journal For November 23, Searching For Cutthroat (Read 4835 times)