This morning I waited until it warmed up some before heading out to try to break my recent steelhead slump.
I got a call from Lew who was just coming off the river, he asked me to join him for coffee at Vedder Crossing. We had just started to enjoy our coffee when I got a call from the alarm company that the alarm had been set off at home. So I quickly returned home but found no activity had taken place.
I finally was on the river by about 1:30 and headed to where I wanted to start but I saw a fellow working towards the run, I left it to him. I was fishing pro cured shrimp today to see if it would change my bad luck for this season. I was just starting to fish the first run when I see the angler that was heading to the run I was going to fish doing some swinging action. Darn he has landed a fish. Maybe it would have been mine if the alarm had not gone off. I laugh as I see him trying to cover up the blood to disguise where he had taken his fish. I will slip up there near the end of the day to see if the now departed fish has a companion there, waiting for me.
I fish the Soccer Run as it looks so nice , there has to be a fish there I say to myself. I work from the top to the tail out a couple of times and half way through the run on the second trip through the float submerges , I set the hook but to no avail as the gear comes back sans the shrimp. That has to be a fish I think as I put on another bait, will it give me a second chance?
I make a few more casts through the same line, thinking the float will go down at any time but it does not. Maybe it did not like the taste of the shrimp. Its getting cold now as the end of the day is about 30 minutes away and the wind does not help much, the guides are icing up too. My bare hands are freezing so I give the fish a rest as I warm them up some. As I warm up I find a nice filleting knife caught up in a log jam. Against my better judgement I slip the unsheathed knife in my back back.
Warmed up a little I decide to try a roe bag for a bit for a change of the menu and then when that has no results I go back to the shrimp but I find no interest from my quarry. I decide to try the run where I saw the fish taken so I start walking upstream. I run into another angler working down, I stop for a chat. He said he has just come back from the Stamp and he says fishing was good there. I tell him about the fish I missed and said to him maybe you can get him,I tell him where in the run I missed it.
I reach the last run of the day and see the steelhead blood stain as the fellow did a poor job of trying to hide it. I make a few casts but find no one home so I head for home. As I trudge down the Rotary Trail thinking of another missed opportunity I hit a patch of ice and go crashing to the ground, in a heap, A person passing by asks if I am OK and I say fine, just a bit embarrassed. As I gain my feet I then think of that long filleting knife in the pack, I know I should not have put it there but I was lucky that I fell the right way and did not received the sharp point of the knife in my back.
I reach the Leaf Mobile no worst for wear and welcome a warm bath at home along with a nice steak dinner. I also listen to Alexandra Morton on CBC for an hour talking about the fish farm issue and how we must protect out wild salmon.
It was then off to badminton where the day improved some as I won a few game and then got home in time to see the Leafs wrap up another win. I guess the day was not too bad after all but a steelhead would have been nice but we must remember they are a fish of 1,000 casts for some of us but darn I think I am close to 2,000 now, maybe next time, we must remember when in a slump, after each cast you are one cast closer to a bit of chrome.
Author
Topic: Chilliwack River, January 10th 2011 (Read 2569 times)