Well after losing 3 of my favourite lures last week to the spawning warrior dogs in the Vedder, I decided to switch to a stronger line this week and give that a shot. I’ve been fishing with 12 lb test and it feels sometimes that I can’t use any muscle when I’ve got a chum on and I’d like to have my lure back. I did land one 20lb chum after a 2-hour fight on 12 lb test, but 2 hours of prime fishing time was lost.
So I got up this morning bright and early, 5 am (lunacy according to my good friend CohoOn), and the weather sucked just like the weatherman said. I decided to head out anyway. After a crazy week at work I had my mind set on this one day of fishing to relax.
I got to the Vedder around 7 and it was still pitch black and foggy so I just put my waders on and sat down to listen to the sounds of the river passing by. I saw some guys parking their truck on the way there so I figured I’m not the only owl on the prowl.
The river was pretty low and it wasn’t too cold so I figured it wasn’t going to be too bad at all. Usually when the river is low I can get into my spots easier.
After half an hour of trying my first spot there was nothing there. I kind of felt a bite but as the daylight came I realized those couple of bites were really rocks on the bottom.
I moved on to the #2 spot and my lure didn’t even hit the water yet and boom!
Fish on!
It felt small so I thought it must be a coho and it was. A 5 lb hatchery.
After a brief fight and a couple of more casts into the same pool I decided I was going to move on. This was it for this pool.
I snuck up on my next spot after being freaked out by spawning Klingons in the shallows and one cast, two casts, three casts, boom! Fish on! I could see my lure maybe 10 feet away from me and then suddenly it disappeared. I thought it hit the bottom but no, it was gulped by a 6-7 lb wild coho. So after a short tug of war I land and release it. After that I get a chum and sure enough it felt much better to have a heavier line so I can land it fast with my lure still attached to my line. I moved on to the next spot and saw a bunch of chums rising and figured that couldn’t be good. But I cast and I cast and boom! Fish on again. It turns out to be a hatchery coho about 7 lbs. Ok I like that. Then I catch one small trout barely bigger than my hook sharpener. You know, 3 inches.
So back and forth between 3 spots and at one point I felt no bites so I chatted with nice couple fishing at one of the spots. Turns out we are from the same country, small world.
I like the times when the bite is off; you get to meet other fishermen. Otherwise everyone is just preoccupied with fishing.
Spent another hour at this place and caught 1 chum and lost 1 coho.
Well by now, I’m frozen, I’m hungry and I’m wet so I decide to hit the road. I have few more spots on the way to the car anyway. On the way back I get another one at the same spot where I caught the first one. First cast, fish on! Kind of predictable and boring
.
Well the summary of the day would be 3 coho and all my lures are still in my possession. Me happy !!
Today’s recipe was the #4 silver Blue Fox.
I’m pretty happy with my first salmon season thanks to good folks like CohoOn,
jetboatjim and, of course, fishingwithrod.com.
I’ve got no room in the freezer and I ran out of Food Saver bags. Bummer!
Next challenge, steelhead.