Jazzbass, very nice. The precise float dive is like a drug, it keeps us repeating this strange ritual every October - Getting up two hours before sunrise, racing to the river bank in the dark and staring at a orange/pink/green dot in the mist. That sudden dive and silver flashes directly underneath it can really be explained as a high, which is pretty hard to explain to someone who has never done it before.
The fight and catch are also very appealing, but the take would be considered as the highlight of my trip.
The change of float size is a good move. It took me many tries to find the float size, shape that I fish best in a particular location.
We were also out on the flow yesterday. Nick, Chris and I met up at 6:30am at the chosen spot. We joked and got ready in the dark. Chris put four skeins of fresh roe in my cooler, so I would keep coming back for more (see? the source of this addiction).
We made our way down to the river, we still had at least 15 minutes of darkness to go. Chum and pink salmon were already splashing around at times.
Once it was light enough, three floats began drifting through the run. The first light was not meant to be, as none of us had a good take in over 30 minutes. Nick began wandering off to a nearby spot. Soon after he left, Chris was into a silver jack chinook salmon. That grabbed Nick's attention, so he made his way back down as the nearby run was no longer good after the river rise. Some surfacings could be seen in our run, it looked like new fish had started to move in. Both Chris and Nick's floats were buried numerous times in the next hour, but they fish were either missed or lost. Meanwhile, after seeing no action, my float finally went for a dive, except I was staring at the two guys. By the time I looked back, the float was completely submerged, but I still wasn't pulling. It still didn't register in my sleepy brain. When it finally did a couple of seconds later, I gave it a good yank but only to see the float flying over my head.
Lew showed up soon after. Since we were missing and losing fish, I decided to start filming the video that we were supposed to do. The talk was brief and clear as usual, both Chris and Nick are natural speakers so it usually only requires one take to get everything done. As I was filming Nick tying a new hook, Chris suddenly got himself a nice fish on the line. "A coho!", he said. The camera was now focusing on a new subject. The bright fish leaped several times, indicating that it was indeed a coho salmon. Nick grabbed the catch and release net that I brought along. With one scoop in knee-deep water, our first coho of the day was in the net. It was a beautiful wild fish, around 5 or 6lb. Once we had a good look, Nick let it go, or it let itself go from his hands.
After this brief excitement, we decided it was time to visit Cookies Grill. We got back to our cars, only to find one of my rear tires flat.
This was the second time I got a flat tire on the Chilliwack River. A nail was firmly embedded in the tire. Chris took out his trusty pump and we had it back up so we could make it to Kal Tires next to diner. The guys at Kal Tire was awesome! The tire was fixed, pressure was checked in the other three, brakes were also checked, and I was told that there was not a charge for it!
We were ready to go after brunch.
We decided to give a spot in mid river where we had some good luck two weeks ago. Lew apparently had a coho salmon on the line after one cast, but it was lost. We worked through the run for at least one hour before Nick was into a couple of jack chinooks, followed by two very fresh wild coho salmon. He continued to land a couple more jack chinooks. I managed to land a wild coho salmon as well. It seemed all the hatchery coho salmon have been picked off from the lower river.
With a few more fish hooked and lost, the three guys left while I decided to fish alone until dark. The last hour saw a few more bright coho salmon surfacing at times, but I only had one chum salmon to show.
Water clarity was fantastic at first light, but it degraded to 1ft after lunch, but improved again by sun down. The river should be fishable today if no further landslides occured overnight. Water level was also very good. If this condition is maintained, then the rest of this coho salmon season should still be good.
Author
Topic: Chilliwack River October 15th, 2007 (Read 2669 times)