So I came back home for thanksgiving as always this weekend.
Started making plans at 10pm Friday night to go out with a buddy. Didn't have a ride to the river, and haven't fished the Vedder yet so I was relying on him. He picks me up at 6 am and we head to Timmies. After some talking we decide to go to the backside of a run he though was going to be good. We get to the spot and as thought it was a gong show with no parking and cars everywhere. We start walking to the run and see a nice backwash while walking in. Right away I see a fish jump and say that we need to try and fish it. After around 30 mins of nothing but a couple pecs, we decide to go down river to the run.
We get there and I was surprised to see EVERYONE short floating! What an awesome surprise I think. I have my new shimano spin caster rod and reel with me, start setting up and all these guys start giving me evil eye. Whatever I say to myself and start spin casting my spoon. I work all the way to the tailout and find a small backwash. Fish everything and get nothing at all. After 2 hours we decide that we are going to leave since we haven't hit any or seen any.
On our way back I decide we need to check out that backwash again. After 30 mins of casting spoons to no avail we are about to leave. I decide to try one last thing. I cast right up against the logs and let the spoon sink to the bottom. I jig it up and let it flutter, reel in and do the same thing. 3rd jig spoon gets slammed. Now question is did I accidentally snag it or did it really bite? Fish come in, beauty chrome wild and the spoon was right in the nose.
I continue to do this for the next 3 hours. I am into 16 fish, many of which are just a few headshakes and a roll before popping off, due to poor hook sets since they hit while the spoon was dropping. I had 8 solid fights, resulting in 4 nice fish landed, some big ones in the mix. Had 4 fish break me off because of their size. So that concluded my Saturday... now off to Sunday.
I meet with another buddy at 6:30 am. Quick stop at McDonald's this time (saw Chris Gadson through the window, I think he stole some of my luck) and off we went. We get to the backwash and there are definitely not as many fish in there this time. After an hour of trying and switching spoons constantly I finally get a hook up. For sure a coho as I see it rolling with my spoon, and then it pops off. Frustrated I keep casting, 4 casts later another big hit. The fish goes ballistic, 3 huge jumps before beaching itself on the last jump. I get a quick look at it and immediately get it off the sand that it had jumped onto and back into the water. A nice Cultus sockeye of about 6 pounds was now lying in the shallows for a quick photo op. This is my second one in the last 2 years taken on spoons in backwaters.
Another hour goes by with nothing so I try something really different. I have an ultra light rod, which can cast very light lures. I decide to put on a blue colorado, size 2 by itself. I cast it and let it sink for a solid 30 seconds before doing a very slow retrieve. Instantly I am into a coho, then another. I land the first one and buddy takes some pics, the second one gets off. Now he switches to a small silver colorado and is into one 5 casts later. He breaks off on this large fish as it wraps him around a log. I managed 1 more coho and a big buck pink to the beach before losing my only blue colorado to another fish that takes me around a snag. After that it totally died off so we decide to go exploring.
Quick stop at Freds and A&W for lunch and off we go to the lower. What a gong show. We fish a small backwash and get nothing. On the way out amongst the pinks I see a coho, it quickly takes off into shallow water under a stump. I am curious and walk up to the stump, 5 coho shoot out in less than 2 feet of water in the end of a backwash that is no more than 3 feet wide. Hmmmm makes me wonder. We take a trek to the train bridge ad pilings. I hook one more coho in the pilings before foul hooking a pink. This makes me fed up so I call it a day. As we are walking back to the truck we watch the mess at the train bridge. I took an 8 minute video of what was going on. What a disgrace, doesn't make me miss the Vedder at all and makes me love the island more.
We get back to the truck and my buddy's truck door is WIDE OPEN. I ask him what's going on. Turns out he somehow forgot to close his truck door and left both our windows down. His centre pin, somehow after 4 hours of being gone, and spin caster are STILL in the back seat. Can't believe that after all I've been hearing of theft. Guess he got super lucky.
Anyways, 20 coho in 2 days chucking spoons. Awesome time with friends and had some good dinners. Have a good season on the Vedder guys. Back to coho fishing off the beaches and in my fav rivers out here!
Cheers,
Dan
PS pics to follow soon
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Topic: Chilliwack River, October 8th & 9th 2011: Awesome Trip back home (Read 3082 times)