Since all the Chilliwack River reports started flooding in last week, it was only a matter of time before I caved and made the first trip of the season too. The alarm was set at 5:00am but the mental alarm once again woke me up at 4:45am. It seems that the mental alarm is only operational on fishing days.
I arrived at the river just before 6:30am, Chris was no where to be found. I phoned, he answered and said he was still enjoying a muffin. I said that his definition of first light must be slightly different to mine.
Minutes later, he showed up in the Leaf Mobil. It must be nice to live just minutes from your favorite fishing hole.
No time to be wasted, we got our bait ready and off to the run. I was complaining how soft my pink roe was and Chris offered some of his cured products. I decided to stick with mine anyway, which was a wise decision.
A couple of misses by me started the action-packed day. Chris soon was into a jack chinook. This fish actually nibbled on the bait like a steelhead smolt before committing to the entire offering. Once landed, we found the hook to be deep down in its throat so he decided to keep it.
He then spent the next thirty minutes cleaning his fish, taking it back to the car, coming back with a huge garbage bag and started picking up garbage instead of fishing.
Meanwhile, I got into a silver fish at the end of the drift, which popped off at my feet. Where was my fish tailer? He was picking garbage.
A few minutes later he came back and I informed him about the loss. We both chuckled and at the same time my float went for another dip. He screamed, I set the hook, the fight was on. A few rolls made up suspected it to be a coho at the end of the line. Sure enough, a coho was identified once surfaced minutes later. I brought it in carefully while walking back to dry land. Meanwhile Chris stood in the water like a log, and the fish decided to go around him. I said, "Get out of the water you beek, you're gonna make me lose my first coho!"
He jumped out of there as if he was in action at the senior games last week. I saw the absence of the adipose fin, so slid the fish in and landed the first hatchery coho of the year from Chilliwack. This river has always been good to me on my first trip each year.
You can see the hooked nose is slightly pronounced, which is quite typical on a male coho salmon.
A few casts later, my mind started to wander. Standing above me, Chris started talking to me so I kept looking upstream while the float drifted below me. After a lengthy chat, my rod suddenly was pulled down and I was into another fish, but only for a few seconds before it too popped off.
"Now, do you want some of my bait?", I asked.
We decided to try another spot due to some disturbance at the first spot.
The second spot looked just as sweet. The run is shallow, the current is walking speed, there was plenty of cover on the surface. We did a few casts. Chris was into one fish briefly before we decided to visit Cookies with Lew for breakfast. A Chilliwack River fishing trip is not complete without a breakfast at Cookies Grill.
After the stomachs were filled, we were back at the second spot for more. It only took a few casts before I missed one, then another, then landed a jack chinook as Lew made his way to us.
This was followed by my pathetic performance. I had three hard takes in a row, two were missed, one was hooked but lost within seconds. Disgusting indeed, they were probably all coho salmon.
I rested the rod down after that episode. Chris had to rub it in by connecting with a wild coho salmon soon after. First of the season for him too.
This was followed by a 3lb hatchery coho that he kept before heading off to babysitting.
Lew then brought in a chrome jack chinook too. I finished the day off with another 3lb wild coho salmon. We then took off when Dion showed up.
If this weather trend continues, it looks like we'll be enjoying some good coho fishing in the next few weeks. Good luck all.
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Topic: Chilliwack River September 25th, 2007 (Read 7181 times)