Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[chris gadsden]

My day started early as had to deal with a conference call with the Leaf coaching staff after last nights loss in overtime to the Sens. They assured me things would change this evening.

After a few e-mails completed, river level at Vedder Crossing checked on the computer,( glad to see it had dropped a tad) gear loaded, bait slipped into the bait box and the Leaf Mobile is on the road, for the 5 minute drive to the Vedder.

Once again a little late arriving at the flow but my first view of the water shows a perfect colour, at the Bell Run, wonderful.

As I hitch on the bait box and heave the back pack on I gaze Eastward, boy the snow level is sure down on Mt. Cheam and Lady Peak, unusual for this time of year. As well their is a chill in the October 4th morning air it makes me think I am on a steelhead fishing trip. No Chris, thats nearly 3 months away, its coho season and it looks like a good one too, after picking up 5 last week. More than I had taken in the last two seasons if I remember it right. As well I have vision of some of the beauties I saw in the Chilliwack River Hatchery channel yesterday.

I wade a side stream still up some than when Rodney, Lew and I took fish in The Bell Run last week.
The Bell looks a little high so start down stream a bit and find a nice looking run, the Lower Bell.

O, the 2nd period has started, back in 30, as we go on the PP, 4 minutes.

[kingpin]

Could this be a repeat of last night? i think so

[kingpin]

ooooo tough break on the disallowed goal

[bbronswyk2000]

Yup no goal and than to add salt to that wound Fisher pummels Steen by body slamming him to the ice and rubs his face with his glove just to make sure he gets it LOL

[chris gadsden]

 Should be 3-2 Leafs, bad officiating.

 I slip on a nice piece of coho bait and on the third or fourth cast the Maple Leaf Thompson River Balsa float acts a bit strange, it does not go down but instint tells me strike, I do,a fish struggles weakly on the end of the 16 inch leader. It comes quickly within view. Its my first pink of the year  , it is a spawned out one too. Must have been annoyed with my bait getting too close to her redd that is laying somewhere near by. Her precious eggs now covered with a few inches of gravel, she and most likely her mate using their remaining strength to ward off any intruders,to protect their eggs, now starting their short life in the cool waters of the Vedder, both working to perpetuate there race. Hopefully forever I hope.
 
I carefully remove the hook, she slips from view, I honor her in my mind, feeling a little guilty that I have disrupted her.

A new bait is attached, I notice at the same time a good flock of ducks flying in formation above me, they look large and fat too. Gosh has the unusually cool weather pushed some northerns down already. Maybe one will find out on Saturday when the webfoot season opens, boy the seasons come around fast, before you know it will be steelhead season. Maybe its my age that times now passes so fast, time to enjoy every day one can.

Back to the season at hand, coho. A few more casts later the float acts strangely again, this time I pick up on it instead of striking. A bad move as a sizable fish most likely a chinook turns on its side flashing silver, maybe a good sized coho. I would not find out as it is gone, after the flash, darn, I will be ready next time.

The next time comes quickly, I am right on this time. The float does not go down but only quivers a bit, I strike and a nice coho is also flashing silver. Will it be a hatchery I wonder as I carefully play it. It finally surrenders, I guide it close to the shore, leaving it in the water as I look for the adipose, it not there, I slide it onto the gravel beach. It is indeed silver, a beautiful doe 5 pounds maybe a little more, my day is made.

I think I should phone Lew to join in on the action. I pull the cell phone out, it does not make much convincing, although he had some work planned but I am sure he would come, work can wait when you are retired.

Third period now, back later to completed The Journal, that is if the Leafs win.

[Fish Assassin]

My day started early as had to deal with a conference call with the Leaf coaching staff after last nights loss in overtime to the Sens. They assured me things would change this evening.

They only lost 3-2. Guess the Laugh's coaching staff was right after all ! Have faith Chris. I predict the Laughs will win at least 20 games this season.

[Fish Assassin]

Third period now, back later to completed The Journal, that is if the Leafs win.

Guess we're not going to see the rest of The Journal.

[Rieber]

I can't help think that the Leafs will make the playoffs and win their first round this year. I don't cheer for the Leafs but I think they'll do pretty good this year.

[chris gadsden]

I can't help think that the Leafs will make the playoffs and win their first round this year. I don't cheer for the Leafs but I think they'll do pretty good this year.

Nice comments, so I will continue The Journal shortly.

[kingpin]

are you going out tomorrow chris?

[steelieman]

While we are at it, I think the Leafs will win the next 3 Stanley Cup. Now, we need part three of your fishing adventure today.

Just kidding Chris!!!!

[chris gadsden]

Part three as requested. and welcome to The Journal on FWR, your top fishing web site for fishing information, videos and stories in the Pacific NorthWest

While I wait for Lew, I miss 4 fish in a row and then barb one as well. Looks like the fish are moving through, you will have some action for a few minutes then nothing. The water is cleaning nicely as the morning progress', I have the run to myself, traffic passes by me, heading for different parts of the river all with high hopes of battling a Pacific salmon.

A fellow appears over the dyke and is coming towards me. He then veers to his left and starts to wade towards another gravel bar that is between the two sections of the river. I can see it is way too swift to cross. I guess this chap had waded this section easily before the recent jump in the water levels. I watch and think he will turn back but no he keeps going. I know trouble is not far away so I start to wave at him, signalling wildly to him with my arms, towards the shore. Thankfully he turns, towards the safety of the shore and he reaches firm ground. I figure he was a dozen steps away from being swept down and maybe eternity.

He does not come down my way but calmly starts fishing above me. I go back to fishing, glad that I had succeeded in stopping a tragedy in the making.

Finally Lew arrives and I show him where I had been hitting the fish, I visit with him as he fishes and it is not long until he is into a fish that turns out to be a very fresh doe pink that he releases. It is not long after that Lew is into another fish, it jumps a few times completely clearing the water, I click a few frames. We are hoping the fish is another coho but by the way it is fighting we know it is a chinook jack, a nice bright chunky fish. Lew says he will release it but after a little urging from me he decides to retain it. Even though they have a strong smell they are good table fare and even better smoked.

We each have a few more chances and I barb another. Lew gives me a bad time for still using the Maple Leaf Thompson River Balsa float saying that is the reason I am missing so many fish, "too hard to pull it down" he quips of the large piece of battle worn wood. Badly chipped from bouncing off the rocks of the Thompson River during a series of trips up that way during the Summer, fishing for jacks.

So I decide to put on a Maple Leaf Drennan but it does not help as I miss another. We watch tandem gravel trucks hauling away a pile of gravel that was stockpiled last year, gravel to satisfied the booming construction industry. To me it is such a shame gravel is taken from this river system, disturbing the fish's home. Anything I ever read about is that gravel extraction it is bad for fish habitat.

I sit on the Solicitor General's Riding Association Board and I related my concerns at our meeting on Tuesday. Of course the public believes taking gravel out is a way to prevent floods especially on the Fraser River, I must do more research on this so I can learn more if that is indeed true.

It is close to 11 now, time to take a break, besides Lew has a lunch engagement at 12. We part, happy that in three fishing trips we have each taken a fish each time.

I then head up river for a drive and see many cars parked at the Tamahi Rapids so I slip in for a look.
Most are doing there thing, lining fish, they do not even cast but have pulled out a bit of line and just toss it out there. Some strike at the end of every drift.

As I reach near the top of the line a fellow is into a fish that is a nice coho, about 8 pounds, it hits the beach in seconds and is pounced on like a cat does to a mouse.

The fish is so lively, after not being played the chap has a hard time subduing it, it slips from his grasp a few times before it is pinned down.

It joins 2 other lovely coho on a rope and dragged into a small pocket of water that is flowing. The person goes back to his spot. I go over for a closer look and see that 2 of the coho are still alive, grasping for air which is causing them distress, a rope through their mouth and gills. Disgusting, it make me want to weep, this is the second time I have seen this rope trick, are they trying to highgrade or what. The fellow then snags a male pink in the back, no wonder the way he is working the water. It too hits the beach in a hurry before being send back into the water. I ask the fellow to please dispatch these other fish, as I ask the cell phone rings, it is Terry asking me to go for lunch. I say yes to get me away from this disgraceful scene of what some call angling. I know I should not visit such places.The chap must have wondered who I was talking to and finally dispatch the poor creatures, to end their suffering.

I leave the scene and on the way to join Terry at Cookies I see a FOC truck checking anglers down river a bit. Hopefully they will be checking Tamahi, I know they are working undercover too. An enjoyable lunch with Terry eases the pain some.

After lunch I go back to The Bell for a few more minutes and have one fish chase my bait as I reel in but it misses the hook,the fish does not give me a second chance. An angler above me then lands a nice coho while
two other fellows throwing a fly line each are snagging pinks off their redds in the shallows, I am too tired to walk up river to discuss things with them. One would think fly chuckers would not be doing such things.

I head to the Leaf Mobile now sad for what I saw today on three fronts but happy to fish with a good fishing partner, dine with another and able to take home a nice coho. I guess that evens things up some and tomorrow is another day on the river, another adventure and another Journal.

O, there was another bad thing that happened today, the Leafs lost but they like some of the persons at Tamahi who were not giving the fish a sporting chance likewise were the two ref's in Ottawa this evening.

[chris gadsden]

 Fishing with 2:40 Kingpin.

[bentrod]

Chris, thanks for the post.  While I am not a hydro-geomorphologist, I know several and speak with them often about gravel mining.  Your hunch about flood control is correct.  Gravel mining is not the best way to control floods.  IMHO, it is a crime against nature and is a sure fire way to set up more catastrophic events in the future.  I'm running out of time and need to get to work.  Thanks again for the posts and I might write more about this later if the threads go that way. 

[BwiBwi]

Hydrology of a river is really complicated.  To say gravel mining is good or bad for controlling flood without a thorough investigation and long term data collection of an entire river system, is irresponsible.