It takes a sweet wife to let her husband fish on Valentine Day. Well, that is my Valentine gift for sure. What a nice day to get out to enjoy a winter's day, fish or no fish. Headed out to the lower river early morning in search of some new fish. Recently the water was reported low and clear, so I imagine the fish would be stuck in the lower river and get hammered. Well, there were not many fishermen there. I guess most fishermen just could'nt get pass their wives or girlfriends to fish on Valentine Day.
Spent a few hours wondering around lower river, trying every thing in my steelhead arsenals but to no avail, and I was not alone. Haven't seen any fish got hooked and no one that I talked to even saw any action. At this point, my old steelhead hunting instinct took over. If there are no or very little action in the lower river, why bother searching a lone fish in a big stretch of water, competing with all the rods in the lower runs & pools. Pocket water fishing was always my favourite way to hunt a steelhead. It is only because the river is now quite low and there are quite a few bottle necks in the lower river preventing faster migration up to the mid-upper section where there are more pocket waters, and hatchery steelies have a hard time making it up far enough into my favourite area. But with so few action below, what the heck. Up up and away I went to the fast water.
Arriving to one of my favourite spots, I saw no car there. great. Worked in the nice slicks and pocket waters in front on me, but no taker. Glanced over to the other shore. There was a nice pocket behind a smaller boulder. But the problem is there is a shallow gravel ledge in the middle of the river, created by the last flood. If I hook a fish, I have to make the fish go down river, make a U turn, then I have the chance of landing it. I was hesitant to even try it because it is a long cast to get across and hook set may be weak. What the heck, at least no one is on the other side, and there may be a steelie there because this is a pocket between two rapids and fish have to rest somehow and that boulder pocket looks to be the only spot it can hide on the other side.
So first cast landed atop the boulder. I drag the float to work on the edge closer to me. Dropped the rod ready for a long hook set. But there was nothing there. So I fired ther 2nd shot to work on the other edge of the boulder, only a few feet from the other shore. WHAM, the float disappeared. With my dropped rod, I was ready for the long hook set and instantly I felt the weight and the awesome fight of a heavier fish. It shot up. Wow, probably 14 lb fish. It gave some powerful headshakes and did non-stop cartwheels & sommersaults. I had to play it very gently due to some of the powerful tugs the fish was giving me. But in order to bug the fish so it would go down steam to do the U turn, I had to give it frequent jerks to scare or bug the fish, so it would head down river away from my actions. Finally, it went down far enough to clear the shallow ledge, and tiring quite a bit, I was now applying more pressure to pull it over the shallow but crossable section of the ledge and it then was on my side of the river. I slowly reeled in to lead the fish up towards me. My heart was racing with excitement when it finally got close enough. I was mentally prepared to accept that it might be a wild fish this far up river. But lo & behold, to my surprise, it turns out it is a hatchery. Took my digital scale out to weigh it, 14lb 14 oz doe. Wow, what a sweet Valentine gift. Me & my sweet wife will have candle light steelie dinner.
Good luck to all you guys in the derby tomorrow. There are not a lot of fish now, but they are there. Water visibility is great in lower river, 4-5 ft. Where I got my fish in the fast water was about 2-3 ft. Still good. I got the fish with a ghost shrimp imitation baited with shrimp meat just to get some scent in the more coloured water.
above is poor quality pic from my old cell phone. So I took another shot at home with the digital camera.
This is where I hooked my Valentine steelie. See the shallow ledge and the boulder across?
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Topic: Chilliwack River, February 14th 2009: Sweet Valentine gift (Read 2749 times)