Well, I decided to head out on Tuesday morning for my first attempt at hookin up with a steelie on the Chilliwack. I didn't get to the rive until about 9:30 am. Went to one parking lot and met 5 fishers who had been working the runs in that area for a couple of hours but touched nothing so I went down stream to another run. There were two steelheaders working the top end of the run so I tried the bottom end and tailout. Nothing there after about 40 minutes of flogging it so I moved up a little more on the bottom half of the run. Put on a Jensen egg with a small piece of wool. The water was clear with just a tint of colour. I assesses the area and thought to myself that if I were a steelie coming up out of the run below through the rapids and into this run I would rest in the moving water just on the inside edge of the deeper water. So, I make a decent cast above the spot where I anticipated that a steelie could be lurking. The float had not moved more that 3 feet when down it went and started running up stream. I set the hook and feel the surge of the fish. At first I thought I had a dolly on by the way it was playing me. It slowly swam over to me and I put a little pressure on it waiting for it to make its move.
Sure enough it makes a flying leap out of the air and races across the run, followed by four more leaps of silver into the air. This is no dolly. Nice looking steelie. After a number of dashes up and down the run I slowly maneover the ghost closer to me so I can take a look....Hatchery or Wild. It is Hatchery! Oh my goodness....I have to take this baby with respect and be careful. My appraised guess at its weight is around 6 lbs. The steel finally quiets down so I can gently bring it up on the beach. Landed!! What a pretty buck. This is my first hatchery steelie in two years. I have caught 22 Wild in a row. Off I go to Fred's to weight the buck. The boys there start mocking me as I bring the catch in for weighing: "Wow, there must be a lot of steelhead in the river for Rod to catch one. Hey, where did you buy that little baby?" Not a lot of respect!!! 6.7 lbs and I am on the board. This was my best Christmas present to date. Maybe this is the beginning of a change in the luck of the draw with a more balanced catch ratio of H to W this year. I do enjoy a bbq'd or smoked steel.
Now I am ready for Monday's Boxing Day Derby. Merry Christmas to all.
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Topic: Chilliwack River, December 20th 2011: First Steelie of the season (Read 2515 times)