Made plans with my friend to go out today. He still has yet to catch a Steelhead and has been coming out every chance he has gotten. After hearing of Ryan's success yesterday we decided we would meet him at the "hot spot".
Rained very, very hard today in the Wack until about 11 am. I was assuming the river would be in rough shape because of the Tolmie Slide
. We get to the crossing and it indeed looks worse for wear. We drive up to the mid and I decide to go down to the water anyways, as the sun reflecting off of it can be decieving as far as visibility goes. Get down to the water and surprise, surprise, it's fishable
! Around 1.5 feet of visibility when we arrive. Fished it for a while (around 2 hours) with Ryan and nothing to show, so we say good-bye and head for the upper.
I have a certain spot in mind. Out of 16 trips (including today) we have only been skunked twice in this stretch of water
. I figure the fish I have been "tracking" all week should be there by now. We get above Allison and you could see the bottom of every run, which sucked because of course, the sun was just coming out from behind the clouds
. Got to the area at around 4 pm and started walking upriver so we could fish down (of course fishing on the way up).
I figure the fish will be sitting deep at head of runs. We fish the first run for a good 30 mins with nothing to show and head up to the top run which always seems to have a fish. I say we should fish the run just above it... as it is a lot deeper with chop. We start fishing and I hear someone yell. Look down to the next run and a guy is fighting a fish
.
Of course Jared gets pissed at me, and says we are never skipping a piece of water again
. I tell him to relax as we are on the opposite side of a fairly wide spot. We work our way down to a promising spot. I go to cast into it and miss cast as a gust of wind hits. SMACK! my colorado hits the water in the spot I intended to drift into... and what do you know, a huge flash and a fish takes off down river
Figures...
I tell Jared we should give the run a break and come back. We work down to the next run and then go back to the head about 20 mins later. I switch to a prawn and Jared stays on roe. Fish through the run again with no luck. I ask Jared if he wants to head back to the mid for a last light try and he agrees. We pack up our rods and start walking down to the car.
Jared decides to start walking and casting and pull a "Daniel" (I would always do it during Spring season and managed fish quite often). All of a sudden I hear an excited "DUDE!". I drop everything without looking and reach for the camera just knowing its a fish. I get the camera up and look up as beautiful chromer comes flying 3 feet out of the water, does a cart wheel and goes back down to the depths of the river... without the hook
. My friend is heartbroken, but I tell him it may come back.
I tell him to give the head a break and lets go to the next run for a bit. The run he hooked the fish in is huge, so I start arounf 40 feet down from where he hooked the fish with him below me. All of a sudden my float lays on it's side and slowly slides under, I set the hook and nothing but a missing prawn
..... Jared is sure its a fish and tells me to video tape him going through. I tape his float, 2 casts later and still nothing so we give up on that Idea.
I re-rig another prawn and the same thing happens. Remebering the last fish I let it hang under for 2 seconds and set the hook. HEADSHAKES! My friend watches the whole thing and just as he's about to say something the hook pops out
. We fish to the tailout and decide to go up 2 runs and work back down. Get to the next run... and my float dives agin, I set the hook quickly feel a quick spurt of weight and gone. My drennan flies back and shatters on the rocks
Jared fished the same spot while I re-rig. He works down and I stay in the same spot for another 10 or so mins with no success. Get back to the original run and no love there anymore so we came home as it was nearing dark.
Great end to a good day
Long story short.... My friend hooked his 1st fish of the season, finally (he better land one soon, needs to get me back all the roe he's been using
). I am now 3 for 19 on the season
And my favorite spot is now 14 for 16 on trips.
Water conditions were 2 feet and improving at tamahi.
Unlimited above Allison.
One other point of interest.... all the fish were hooked AS soon as the sun went off the water, almost like a switch went on.
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Topic: Chilliwack River, March 31st 2009: Finally hooked! (Read 1092 times)