As Rod and Mark only took part in one day of this excursion and were home one day before me I thought they would have given a report before me.
Maybe they ended up with sunstroke like me.
I will only give a very brief report as having to catch up on home duties before heading out on another trip shortly so I can offer up The Journal.
I decided to camp out two nights and get camp set up for Rod and Mark who would arrive early Thursday morning. I was running up river near dark Wednesday and I had just hit the water with nature offering up a lightning and thunder storm, what I won't do for the boys.
I looked easy picking being in a metal boat with the bar rods sticking up like lightning rods ready to attract enough voltage to run all the lights in BC for a day but I was not really concerned as the thunder claps followed the lighting flash by a few seconds meaning the lightning was some distance away.
I made the bar untoasted and quickly set up a lean to and slipped into the sleeping bag. As I was tired getting ready for the trip and playing four sessions of badminton in 3 days I had no trouble falling asleep even though I was not being serenaded by the most soothing of music one would ask for.
I awoke early the next day and the storm continued but it had diminished some.
I ready the Leaf Craft for the journey to pick up Rod and Mark as the meeting time was to be 5:15 but for some reason they were running late,something about bathroom breaks
but I would wait as Rodney had offered me a Tim Horton's coffee. They finally arrive and we load up tje Leaf Craft with their gear and head back to camp. The day is hot but the fishing is not and we only have two chances both on Rodney's rod, a bright sockeye, one of a very few a person will catch on bar gear during one life time. He also has another good hit that I am sure would have been a chinook of some size. Rodney takes a few breaks from bar fishing, pulls in his line and catches a few pike minnows. We do some filming for a clip he is putting together later.
A party of about 6 are BB above us and beach two sockeye.
The day is hot but a large tarp we had put up provides some relief and it is cooler than in the Valley. We see a plume of smoke across the river and we hear later it is a mushroom or chicken farm farm that was burning.
Rodney and Mark have enough by 5 and I take them back to the car. I have no success on my return to camp right up to 9 when I turn in but not before a dinner of venison caps off the day
Thunder and lightning again threatens and a brisk wind does not hinder falling asleep quickly. The night seems to pass in a flash and next thing I know it is 5 o'clock. Eight hours of sleep is the most for me in some time.
I quickly get the rod in the water hoping for another chance at a chinook with the last coming over a week ago.
I am joined by Dereke and Tanner who set up in Rodney's hot spot. I get a call from the Master who is in a party of 8 up river some. They had taken one onp Maple Leaf Bar, on Wednesday.
I am under the tarp when Dereke says "you have one, no he says it just a branch", he quickly adds. When I look the rod starts to jump more violently, that no branch as I race for the now lively Fraser King, I know it is a fish.
When I pick up the pole it is slack, has it slacked lined me? No, I feel no weight and as I reel in I see the weight has gone. It appears the bar weight has got hung up on a rock or a snag and with no give the hook had pulled out of the fish's mouth just when the 20 pound leader of the weight line had broken. I feel a bit dejected to say the least.
A little later Dereke gets his chance but like me it is gone when he reaches the rod. That is all the action we get except for young Tanner who lands a few pike minnows.
I gather up some lost sleep from the previous week and I am joined by Pistol Pete and another Dereke, its near 4. We trade stories over the next 4 hours or so and PP phones into 89. 5 The Hawk and gives a fishing report. Dereke's highlight was to discover what he thinks is some bear foot prints. He now keeps close to the tarp.
I now decide to head to the launch where Gord will pick me and The Leaf Craft up at 8:30. I am feeling poorly because of all the sun, certainly not the action of playing a fish.
I am feeling a bit dizzy and forgetful and as Dereke readies to push me off, he "says "are you not bringing in your bar rod"? I feel real foolish as I reel it in, the end of a different sort of trip. While I wait for Gord to pick us up I am interviewed by the FOC enumerator, I say "nothing today for 15 hours of fishing time". I ask "how many has she has counted in her shift"? She says "1 chinook from Grassy, 3 from Peg," "BB" I say, "yep" she answers I feel dizzy once again.