I love fishing in April...the freshet not there yet, the crowds gone...the weather just perfect, and still quite a few fish to be had if you time it right.
After a long time without fishing together (since fishing the Stamp in early February), my buddy Tadpole and I finally got a day together on the river.
We started at our usual haunts in the mid river and soon each of us chose 'his' own section to fish. I was probably 200 yards upstream from him on one run, while he was meticulously working another run downstream.
It didn't take too long for me to get into the first fish...it was a smallish (8-9 pound) hatchery doe (she was too coloured to keep and it was too early to stop fishing anyway). Sadly, I had left my backpack with my camera at the beginning of the run, so no picture of that one. So I quickly went to get my camera, put it in the pocket of my Kodiak jacket and went back to the exact same spot in the run where I hooked the doe. IronNoggin once told me, when you catch a female, keep fishing the same hole for another couple of minutes...the buck usually hangs around, too.
Truer words have never been spoken, as on the first cast in the same spot with the same presentation (Every Day's roe fly) a really large buck almost yanked the rod out of my hands. It must have been upset with me for sore-lipping his girl.
This was one serious fish that put my noodly Canadian Specialist rod through its paces. Fortunately, my custom rebuilt vintage Ambassadeur 5000c smoothly yielded line when needed while I worked on keeping the fish under control, and after about ten minutes of a spirited fight, this nice buck came to hand.
Nice hatchery fish with some distinct spawning makeup on - definitely not a candidate for the kitchen in my books. I know a lot of people that would have kept this fish, maybe I would have, too, several years ago, but these days I only keep chromers.
Here's a shot of the whole fish for whomever cares to calculate the weight. I put it at 16, but I may be off.
Those who know me, know my hands are BIG, and I couldn't wrap my fingers around its tail, not even with squishing it a bit. Here's a shot of the tail for those with a tail fetish ( I know soemone here loves tail shots - don't remember who...
After that fish there was nothing happening until I switched to natural colour plastic worm. On the first cast I had a nice fish on, but lost it after a few headshakes. Oh, well, it was time to check in with my buddy and see how he had done. And he had done pretty good! He had landed two and lost another two! Atta boy, Tadeo.
After a nice lunch (thanks buddy) we checked the lower river (Bergman area), but the fish failed to materialize. We did see proof of fish having been caught in the area earlier in the day, but nothing for us in the afternoon.
Long story short, it was a great way to break in the new license. I hope to head out for steelehead at least one more time before all that snow starts coming down from the mountain and then its stillwater time, baby! Can't wait to settle some scores with a couple of interior lakes -Tunkwa being the first on the list.
Just wish I had more time to fish this year, but sadly I don't.
At the end of the day and after saying goodbye to my buddy Tadpole, I got to enjoy a cold beer at DaveB's place (thanks for the wobbly pop, mister, and I hope you enjoy your 'new' reel
).
All in all, a great day on and off the river.
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Topic: Chilliwack River, April 9th 2012 (Read 3225 times)