Knowing that the river is in shape and this period is limited once again by the expected rainfall, Luke and I made another trip out this morning. We were joined by Marco on the way there. Our first light start was not as good as expected. We fished through a mid river run where Luke and I did well last Friday, with only one jack spring to show by Luke. After flogging through it for two hours, Chris and I updated each other on the phone as usual. Once he said, "The bites are happening on every cast now.", we were on the move.
We showed up 15 minutes later at a lower river run where he had been fishing. Although no fish were on the beach, Chris reported numerous hook-ups and losses.
Luke started fishing beside him by floating big pieces of roe through the productive slot. Immediately he was also into some fish but the fights were very brief. Somehow hooks were popping out with ease. Perhaps it was the fast current, or the anglers were simply too eager.
I fished through a faster section above them with the spoon. Pretty soon a coho salmon grabbed it hard on the retrieve. The 8lb-or-so fish flopped and darted in the fast current before I brought it into the shallows. Meanwhile, Chris started looking for his camera. By this point I had spotted the absence of the adipose fin.
Just when I thought this was finished as I was about to beach it, the hook once again popped out!
I turned around, Chris was still looking for the camera, unaware of what had just happened. He turned around with the camera, only to find me standing there like a lost duck. "What happened?", he asked. "What do you think?", I replied.
The bites continued as Chris and Luke were into some more fish but the hook continued to fly back over his head into the branches. I hate to say it, but it was rather comical from my point of view.
After wandering away for awhile, Marco joined us once again and got into a jack spring right away. He topped that off with a rather disgusting looking pink salmon, which I had to unhook.
Seeing that roe was working well, I switched back to the float setup. I first connected with a large male chum salmon right away, followed by a incredibly chrome jack spring. Riverman then showed up, nice meeting you.
We all fished together for a bit longer, before my float dipped once, which I missed. It dipped one more time right after, when I set the hook hard. The deep dives in the strong current made me think that it was yet another jack spring. As it got closer, we were pleasantly surprise to see a 5lb chrome hatchery coho. This time I beached it smoothly, but still had a hard time to get a hold of the flopping silver. It took one person holding a bonker, one person blocking the fish's path back to the drink, one person (me) to grab the fish, and one person documenting it on camera before the first hatchery coho salmon was officially landed at 11:00am.
The rest of the day was pretty slow. We fished the mid river once again with only one chum to show. Our last attempt back in the lower river made Luke's day.
He landed a wild coho salmon that was estimated to be around 4lb, and a very fresh jack spring measured 55cm in length.
Water clarity was reasonable, but water was rising. If rain holds off and temperature stays low, the river should still be very fishable tomorrow. Good luck to all and enjoy this great coho salmon season.
Thanks to Chris for snapping this photo today.
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Topic: Chilliwack Oct. 10th - (Read 6200 times)