Quite a long day, and I missed Survivor, and part of The Apprentice.
BUT, well worth it.
At 4:50am, LukeYVR parked his car at the front of my house as I was packing my lunch, Itosh arrived soon after. The three of us decided to spend the entire day on the Vedder to pick up what Trout Slayer had lost yesterday.
The idea was to be on the bank at first light, but someone got hungry so we had to stop at Tim Horton's.
Not to worry, we arrived around 6:30am, so there was still plenty of time to get a few tugs on the float.
We spent the first hour looking for runs that would hold the coho that we were looking for.
Water remains low and clear.
Finally Luke and I found a slot that seemed promising. One cast right below Luke, and my float was completely buried! Still somewhat rusty after two weeks of spoon fishing, I gently lifted the rod.
The line immediately peeled off the reel and I went from
to
. It was clearly a spring jack, as it stayed deep yet the kicks were strong. It came into the shallows as I slowly walked downstream, eventually beaching the fish. First fish into the cooler, at 8am.
The rest of the morning was pretty slow. Chris and Lew phoned up to discuss some items regarding this weekend's BC Rivers Day. While on the phone, Luke hooked into a coho jack and I screamed "FISH ON!" into the phone without thinking.
The fish quickly popped off the line as it splashed a few times on the surface.
After several more hours of observing, we then joined Chris for lunch at Cookies and listened to his UK adventure.
After lunch, we decided to spend a few hours of scouting around. Luke and I fished a bit while Itosh napped in the car.
Those big tasty lunches at Cookies can certainly make you sleepy.
Coolest thing I saw today, was this HUGE largescale sucker swimming slowly by my feet!
I managed to hook something that swam very fast and got off very quickly at around 4pm. We then decided to try our first spot where I pulled out the jack.
Once the sun went behind the mountain at 5pm, the bite was on! First was a tiny rainbow trout that itosh kindly released for me. A few drifts later, my float was pulled under fast and I precisely set the hook this time. A few heavy kicks, it was clearly a spring, but not too big. After several minutes of tugging, I was able to tail it myself. It was in pretty fine shape, but I decided to let it go just in case I got into a school of hatchery coho before sundown.
Sure enough, a few casts later, the float was once again buried! This time, a quick hookset brought the fish right to the surface! A few good leaps told me that it was a coho.
This fish then darted straight upstream, then darted downstream towards me!
As it went past me, it came straight back up, almost between my legs! Eventually, this speedy silver beached itself. First hatchery coho of the season, around 3lb.
Before the day ended, I managed to hook a pink and one more chinook that popped off when it surfaced. A few quick hits were missed, which will bring me back to the river again next week.
The ticket to the fish was freshly cured pink salmon roe from last week. The roe was drifted on a size 2 gammy hook, which was about 3 feet under a 11 gram Drennan float. Fish light, and at the right depth, will produce some clean strikes that you will not question twice before setting that hook.
Good luck to the weekend warriors, be sure to come out for Sunday's BC Rivers Day event! Itosh and LukeYVR will fill in the stories that I missed.
Few things to remember
- You need a freshwater fishing licence when fishing the Chilliwack River.
- You need to purchase a salmon conservation stamp if you intend to keep your salmon.
- Daily quota for pink salmon is four fish below the Vedder Crossing in Chilliwack River.
- Daily quota for hatchery coho salmon is four fish in Chilliwack River. Hatchery coho salmon have no adipose fin.
- Daily quota for chum salmon is one fish in Chilliwack River.
- Daily quota for chinook salmon is four fish in Chilliwack River, but only one maybe over 62cm.
- You may only keep four salmon (mixed species) in total per day.
- Only a single barbless hook is allowed.
- You must release any sockeye and wild coho carefully.
- Pink salmon have large oval spots on their back and tail. Sockeye salmon do not have spots. Chinook salmon have tiny black spots on its back and tail. Coho salmon have tiny black spots on its back and upper tail, and white gum.
- Please note that some sockeye salmon in the Chilliwack River also do not have an adipose fin.
- Complete Chilliwack River salmon regulations can be found on this page.
- Please phone DFO Chilliwack 604-702-2278 if you observe a violation.
- Make sure you have a good fillet knife to clean your catch and a cooler with ice to keep your it fresh.
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Topic: Chilliwack River September 22nd (Read 7347 times)