Yesterday I was very dissapointed to get down to the river I wanted to fish to see is around 3 feet higher than when I was there last with Rhino. It was flowing very high and fast and only had around 3 feet of visibility, I still tried fishing but to no avail. So last night I decided to come up with a backup plan for Sunday. I put a star on a bunch of places, found out distances and was ready for today.
I checked the graph this morning to see the river had dropped 8 inches. I get there and the graph reading was confirmed, and the water was ALOT nicer with about 5 feet of visibility and ALOT more places to fly fish. I start off in an unusual spot as I see a coho roll there right away, but after 30 mins of trying I decide to head down to my favourite run.
I get down there and about 5 casts in I get a solid hit, short strike. I think it was a cutty but I will never be sure. I get halfway down the run and I finally get a solid hit. Before this I had also caught 2 branches that felt the same but this time there were headshakes and a big run. About 30 seconds later I am surprised to see what the fish looks like. It still put up a great fight but I would have liked to see a chromer anyways
I keep fishing the run and try to get to the area me and Rhino fished just last Tuesday. Impossible to reach as I could barley cross the tailout. Places that were islands last Tuesday were now knee deep and fast. I am hoping that by Wednesday the river will be back to normal as the freezing level keep dropping. It is now close to 2 and after 3 hours of fishing with only 1 result I decide to go check out some new areas.
I decide to first check out a suspension bridge that I was interested in. Once I get there I take my waders off as I think it will only be a good hike. Boy was I wrong, I get there and there are some amazing runs with no one around. All I managed to see however were a couple bear tracks and a dead chum. May go back on Tuesday and give it a try with flesh patterns for trout or maybe try for some coho.
After this I decide to take the long drive to Englishman River Falls. I get there and find out it’s pay parking, thankfully I have 2 dollars in change in my ash tray. I first stop at the upper falls, quite impressive. It dumps into a very narrow gorge, amazing to think all that water come out of a little slot in the cliff not 10 feet wide just below the waterfall (wonder how deep it is).
After this I hike down to the lower fall. Just below the lower fall (which isn’t even really a waterfall right now anyways with low water) there is a huge pool. I see a couple coho rising in there and even see some milling around down in the tailout, a few look to be in good shape as well. I take a look around, of course its closed to fishing (sign posted on a tree).
I decide to take a small 30 min hike up above the upper falls. I start to wonder if there would be any fish above that impressive drop as there are some very nice looking runs up here. The trail is very nice and the scenery is beautiful. After this I go back to my car and stop at a Timmies for dinner to finish off a pretty cool day.
I’m thinking the coho are almost done out here. Its amazing that less than 2 weeks ago it was chromers none stop and now all I have seen are tomatos. Tuesday I only have 1 class early morning and Wednesday off so I will probably hit this river on one of those days and maybe try out the Cowichan one day as well. After that no fishing till I’m back home late December, time to get into the books so I pass all my classes.
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Topic: Vancouver Island, November 8th 2009 (Read 2196 times)