What an eye-opening trip!
A coworker, upon learning that I was a fisherman, convinced me I had to take him out fishing for salmon. He's from New Zealand, and upon coming to Canada had always wanted to hook into (or at least see) some Pacific Salmon. We coordinated our schedules so that we managed to secure a free weekend for both of us - Friday Oct 24 to Saturday Oct 25.
I had all my stuff packed up for both of us on Thursday night (fortunately I'd just bought a new pair of waders and boots, so I had enough for us both). The night prior to leaving involved very little sleeping - partly b/c I was picking Doug up so early, and partly because I was too excited to sleep.
I pulled up in front of his apartment downtown, after narrowly missing 2 different homeless people crossing the road randomly with shopping carts piled with various items.
Doug was ready and raring to go - both of us were happy to be taking the day off! We hit the road, and were soon rolling eastward along hwy 1. Doug couldn't believe the amount of traffic heading the other way into Vancouver at 5:30am. "Nothing like that in Aukland", he remarked.
By 6:45 or so, we were parked in front of our first spot of the trip, changing into our waders and boots. All geared up, we headed down to the flow, and were pleasantly surprised by the small number of people fishing the river where we planned to start. Gotta love fishing on weekdays! I started off with a spinner, and I put a large spoon on Doug's line. Doug was quite giddy to see salmon rolling in front of him every minute or so - "they're everywhere!" He said in wonder.
His casting was quickly learned, having been an angler back home in NZ before coming here. It took him only a few minutes to refine his cast enough to get a good shot out there each time.
25 minutes in, I felt a nudge, so I sped up my reeling and bang, fish on! The coho jack had smashed my spinner right at my feet, and started spinning like crazy right in front of me. Doug, elated at seeing his first salmon, came running over, and I managed to land the 2-3 pounder. I noticed that they adipose fin was missing, and I pointed this out to Doug - "you can keep hatchery fish," I told him. "What do you think, buddy? Should we keep it?" "No, let it go - we'll get another" he said. I slipped the little coho back into the water, and it took off immediately.
Doug saw some more fish rolling up a little farther, so he moved up there. We kept casting, and about 45 minutes later, I hear him yell, "ooooooh! I got one!" I looked up to see his rod well-bowed towards the water, and a large amount of splashing in front of him. I set down my rod, and went running up to help him land it. As I got closer, I noticed that he had good control of the fish, so I took a few pics of him battling his first every pacific salmon.
As he got the fish closer, I saw a good flash - coho! I had been fairly certain that's what he had by the fight, but the flash confirmed it. He finally led the fish up into the shallows, and I managed to tail it for him, after some fumbling.
I pointed out that this fish was also a hatchery coho - "Bonk it!" he cried in happiness. So we did!
The chrome buck came ashore.
After that, I showed him how to clean it, and I headed back over to my spot. Cast, cast, cast - wait, was that a bite? Who knows... cast, cast cast, nothing. Finally I switched from a spinner to a croc, and first cast - BANG! Fish on!
My brand new ultralight bent well over as this fish took off across the river. I giggled like a school girl, and knew right away it was a coho. I'd never landed an adult coho on the Vedder in my many years fishing it, so I was pretty excited. Doug came scrambling over, and after about 10 minutes, tailed it expertly. This too, was a hatchery buck, and was almost as chrome as Doug's, so we added it to our previous fish on the shore.
Finally, I'd landed my first adult coho on the Vedder!
I managed to hook one more coho jack after that, but then decided it was time to show Doug the rest of the river. We spent the next few hours driving to and hiking to various spots. Doug couldnt believe how beautiful it was... "This is exactly what I pictured Canada to be like when I decided to come here... EXACTLY like how I pictured it!!!" He exclaimed.
I think sometimes we take for granted how lucky we are... I certainly had my eyes opened that day to the amazing area we live in.
The rest of the day passed mostly uneventfully, though late afternoon saw me hook a LARGE spring higher upriver. It was still very silver, and took off racing down river after a 5 minute tussle in the pool I'd hooked her in. Doug came over to help me wade across a quick-moving side flow, and I managed to land the fish a ways downriver. Once again, Doug tailed the fish expertly.
A few quick snaps, and I let her go - no way I was lugging nearly 40 pounds of chinook salmon 25 minutes back to my car. LOL
That night, we stayed at the Vedder River Inn. The accommodations were clean and plenty nice enough for two outdoorsmen. We had some drinks at the Jolly Miller Pub across the street, and ended up visiting one other pub that night before we called 'er a wrap. The next morning my alarm went and through a VERY thick headcloud, we managed to drag our sorry a$$es out of bed. We went back to where we'd started the previous day, but this time there were way more people - welcome to Saturday on the Chilliwack.
After a while, we'd had enough of the crowd, so we went back upriver and fished a few different runs. With nothing to show for our efforts, I told Doug I wanted to take him to the hatchery. Let me tell you, that guy couldn't have been more excited to see the salmon packed into that channel had I told him he'd just won a new house and Jessica Alba was his personal housemaid. The look of wonder on his face was worth every bit of that hangover, and I think the trip to the hatchery was the highlight of his time fishing with me - even surpassing his first catch.
Eventually we decided to call it a day, and made the long drive back to the big smoke. All in all, the trip was amazing. We both have salmon in the fridge now, and every time I think about the trip I hear Doug murmering, "My god, it's just like the salmon you see in the rivers on the discovery channel!"
Cheers,
Tex
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Topic: Chilliwack River, October 24th & 25th 2008: A trip with a Kiwi! (Read 2585 times)