My buddy's been ragging on me all year about the fantastic steelie fishing on the Vedder/Chilliiwack, he's told me that he now has tailed 23 fish, hatchery and wilds and released them all. Well, I called him Saturday night and told him I'd meet him at 6:30 sunday morning. He said that he would show me the spot where he caught most of his fish and that he'd even let me have first drift, nice guy eh!. Well, we get there and walk to the river...no one in sight... looking good for perhaps my first of the year on my first trip.
We fish through the run and nothing....he says I'm going to next run...I say that I'm going to give that slow water on the other side a couple more casts...jensen egg and peach wool. My cast hits the water and it wasn't two seconds later the water explodes and it's smiley time. He came running back up to me and a few minutes later he tails a very nice wild buck about 12lbs. Quick pic and back he goes just as six guys come round the corner up towards us. We exchanged hello's but kept our success to ourselves.
We decide to walk furthur downriver to a spot with lots of white water and boulders..he tells me that he has hooked a few here as well so we slowly work our way down thru the rocks and I'm casting and stepping, looking down at where I'm walking so that I don't take a tumble and get soaked and I feel a heavy weight and look up to see my float is down but it feels like a rock..there's no movement. Damn, I'm snagged..so I give it a few whips of the rod to try and free it up and all of a sudden this steelie takes to the air and rips downriver and it's on my line. My buddy watches it rip by him and jump...he yells to me that it is a bullet and really fat.
This one is also a wild buck but 15lb. So, to sum up my first trip of the year...me: two steelies my buddy:one steelie lost. We quit at 1pm as I simply couldn't drag my 58 year old body (My buddy is in his 20's, and he caught his very first steel with me when he was in his teens )over any more rocks but I left the river with a big smile on my face...needless to say, I may give it another go..soon!!
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Topic: Chilliwack River, March 6th 2011 (Read 1100 times)