It has been a month since I last visited the Vedder and I gave it a go today knowing some good fishing is still to be had. I arrived at 7:30am, just after it was light enough to fish. There was actually traffic on the way to Chilliwack today.
I started in the lower river first. With no one in sight and fish rolling in front of me, it was looking good. Some were indeed coho, it was pretty easy to spot them as they were bright silver. I missed a couple of bites immediately. The takes were rather soft even with a spoon, which took me by surprise. I was ready for the next one. The hook-set was firm and I landed it with ease. It was a wild buck, roughly around 7 or 8lb. Back to the water it went quickly without a photo as I didn't like the lighting too much.
The next fish I hooked splashed all over the place and popped off right away.
Not long after, third fish was hooked and landed like the first one. It was another silver fish that was around the same size as the first, but wild again. I took a quick snap with the point and shoot camera while struggling to tail it in the water and set it free right after the shot.
The fourth fish was hooked very briefly. All four fish were caught before 9:30am, when the bite suddenly turned off.
I then joined Chris for a healthy meal at MacDonald's.
We then headed to mid river to float some roe. I managed to miss a fish and hook two more coho. First one I lost, while the second one was landed quite easily. At that time, Chris was in the woods nearby picking garbage as usual. I looked at the first, it seemed to be a misclip but I was not entirely sure. I phoned Chris to come and take a look while holding the fish in the water. While waiting for him, I decided to take some self pics with the fish by using the timer on the camera as I always do. I took a shot or two, then the fish suddenly wiggled out of my hands while sitting in the water. Off it went back to the run. Not to worry I thought, because it was most likely a wild anyway and I got my photos. I reviewed the photos, none of them turned out.
Chris also hooked a coho jack, which was lost before I could get a good photo of it. The camera is cursed.
Chris and I fished until 3pm then rescued some cutthroat trout in the ditch by the road. After that, I returned to the lower river to catch the evening bite. They were not rolling like they were earlier, but still there. At 5ish, I finally hooked another one. It surfaced and was the nicest looking fish of the day. A very silver buck, around 10lb, but I could not see whether it was a wild or hatchery marked fish. I fought it carefully, but after 30 seconds or so, it also popped off the hook. The words came out of my mouth at that point were not pretty.
There were a few more bites after that but nothing too exciting. I fished until dark, hoping for that hatchery marked fish but the cooler came home empty.
Oh well, seven coho salmon hooked in one day of fishing is not bad I guess, but can't say the same about the landing percentage.
Oh yeah, I hit a lamp post when I backed the car up when leaving a spot today. No, I was not sleepy, I was just being a Chinese driver from Richmond.
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Topic: Chilliwack River, November 4th, 2010 (Read 2063 times)