As always a very pleasant welcome to The Journal on FWR, your top spot for fishing information and stories on the web.
What a pleasure is was to get out on the Fraser today with 2:40 and his son.
As I had a dentist appointment first thing this morning and some other chores it was not until 1 that the Leaf Craft was in the water. The parking lot at Island 22 was not as busy as I thought it would be with the sockeye frenzy now in full swing.
We decided to try another bar other than the famous Maple Leaf Bars and headed to another bar that would be more friendly for a 3 year old to fish.
We found a nice spot below 10 or so bottom bouncers and I sent my barfishing gear out into the the flow, hoping for a chinook or a willing sockeye to attack the #0 red topped glow that had attracted its fair share of bluntnosed chinooks so far this season.
2:40 was experimenting with a smaller glow, fishing close in, hoping to find a secret method of making the hundreds of passing sockeye to take a swipe at it.
I know the sockeye were going by in good numbers as the people above were yarding them in every few minutes.
2:40 had my grandson rigged up with a small rod, also barfishing, with a small glow and some innards I had picked up off an angler yesterday.
What a delight it was to see him with a rod in his hands, my thoughts now flooding back to what seemed just like yesterday when 2:40 and his brother were doing the same thing.
It took a few minutes before the northern pike minnows and chub were attracted to the scent of the offal.
It was not long until Jamie got the hang of it and started reeling them in, some good sized pike minnows that were putting a nice arc in the small rod. Each bite and the sight of a fish brought shouts of joy to most likely the youngest angler fishing on the river today. After a quick pet of the coarse fish he was pleased to have his dad release the fish for him. I was enjoying capturing the action on video and some still shots.
He, like us had no interest in the sockeye that continued to be beached one after another above as shouts of joy was also being uttered by the BB gang. Some of the individuals continued to fish after they had retained there 2 sockeye.
One angler did pull out a bar rod looking for a chinook as he seemed to tire from all the sockeye he was catching.
The time 2:40 and Jamie had to fish went all to quickly but as we started to put things away 2:40's sockeye bar fishings pole's bell started to toll. As 2:40 grabs the rod I start to think, has he found a way to make a sockeye bite. As he reels in we see there is something there but it looks too small for a sockeye. As it gets closer we see it is our 8th fish of the day, our 6th pike minnow. That along with two chub Jamie had caught it gave us 8 fish in about 2 hours of fishing.
Sure they were not salmon but to this budding new angler it did not matter, they were fish to him. With guidance from his dad he was learing the ancient art of angling that was now being passed down from his dad as I had passed it on to 2:40 and had my dad to me, nearly 60 years ago.
As we now swing the Leaf Craft's nose in the direction of Island 22 with 2:40 at the controls aided by Jamie's small hands now feeling the Leaf Craft's steering wheel under power for the first time I look for more days like this in the years ahead. When Jamie, in a few years will answer the bell's toll with his first chinook, see his float disappear with a silver coho on the end, followed in a few years with the most majestic of all fish, the steelhead doing cartwheels down the Vedder River.
Until those days come we all must work as hard as we can to make sure we preserve our fish and the environment these wonderful creatures live in, for boys and girls like Jamie to enjoy the art of angling. At the same time these young people must be taught to treat our precious fish with respect that they most certainly deserve.
Author
Topic: We Got 8 Bar Fishing Today, August The 8th, A Short Journal (Read 4356 times)