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After losing 8 out of the last 10 hooked this month along with numerous misses I was hoping a new week would change things around. I had recently ditched the Owner hooks and was back to Gammies, hoping that would change things in my favour some.
As I left home I said to my wife if she had something out for supper as I know she had grown impatience waiting for me to bring a fish home after I kept the last hatchery one day short of a month.
A slight drizzle was falling as I reached the river to fish my usual circuit of runs. I was please to find the river in excellent shape. As well no other anglers were in sight, a fact I now am noticing during the week days as the season nears its end I am seeing less anglers on the flow.
In the first run I fish it does take me long to make contact with a steelhead but it, like the other 8 of 10 I have hooked and lost this month continues to lower my batting average as it boils to the top and gains its freedom very quickly.
I fish the run for a bit longer but no other iron head is willing to give me a chance to redeem myself, I then move on, to 4 other runs that have produced fish for me this year. The runs look perfect to me but not to the fish apparently as no one is home at the time I work through them.
I return to the run I started at and lost the fish but also to no avail so I decide to head for coffee after 90 minutes of fishing time.
On the way out I get a call from Lew who asks about the day so far and tell him another loss. We decide to meet for coffee in about 20 minutes. As I walk along the Rotary Trail I meet Terry who is out for a walk today instead of fishing. He tells me one was caught above where we are standing and more were caught there yesterday.
Terry continues his walk and I continue my walk out. As I reach the run where Terry told me a fish was taken this morning I see one of the two anglers there with a fish on that is landed and released.
I decide I have a few minutes before I am to meet Lew so decide to throw a few casts. I am not on the best side to fish this run because of a steep bank and rip rap. What the heck might as try as I doubt I will hook a fish anyway, I have had my chance for today. I make maybe a dozen casts and get hooked on a rock near the shore that I have to move down to the shore line to free the hang up.
I donot what makes me make another cast but I throw out to the middle of the run and to my surprise the Maple Leaf Drennan disappears, I set the hook knowing I am way off the bottom. I have made contact with a moving object, yes a steelhead.
My first thought of course will this fish get off too like so many for me all season as I have said many times. This is a terrible place to play a fish and if it takes off downstream I cannot follow as a line of willows will prevent that. I am glad Nick at Chilliwack Dart and Tackle had put on some new line with the Avon topped up nicely with a nearly full drum. I also have increased my pound test of line up to 12 pound after breaking 3 fish off this year with lighter mainline and leader.
The fish cooperates and does not run too far downstream and it is not long after that I determine it is a hatchery and with no fish for the table in a month it will be going home with me, if I land it that is. As I said this was a poor area in which to land a fish so I make sure I tire it out before I slip it onto a bit of a shelf of the rip rap. It lays there long enough for me to slip my fingers behind the hen’s gill plate and pack it up the bank; finally I have broken my losing streak which was sitting at 5 in a row. Did the Gammies do the trick in landing this 10 to 11 pound fish or was it just the law of averages?
A picnic table is close by so I can sit down to record on my license my 6th steelhead of the season that I have retained. I phone Lew to inform him I will now be a bit late meeting him for coffee. With this done I hustle off to meet Lew who is patiently waiting, to hear another fish story too.
Dave also stops by and we chat not about fish farms but about the cut backs of the fertilization projects on the Chilliwack Vedder River and other rivers in the Lower Mainland. Dave has written a letter to the editor in the Chilliwack Progress and he has talked to members of this forum about this as I have. We also have heard from FOC so a meeting should be happening soon and things may look favourable to continuing these projects if funds can be obtained and help from concerned anglers. (Thanks to those to date that have stepped forward from this forum offering money and help) A big thanks to Dave for getting this out to us.
As we get ready to leave, Lew to fish and Dave to tie up rods, Terry who I met on trail before I hooked the fish stops by and said “do you own a blue Nokia cell phone”? “Yesssss I do” I say. “Well I think you left it on the picnic table along with your gloves, I left it there as I thought the person would be back for it” he says.
What I beak I say to myself as I jump into the Leaf Mobile and head back to the river to see if it was still there. I guess I was in such a hurry to meet Lew I forgot to pick it up after phoning him and marking my license.
I imagine it was there for an hour and then maybe 15 minutes since Terry last saw it. When I arrive the table is bare, darn. Well after returning many cell phones I have found over the years I hope the person that picked it up is honest. I head to find a pay phone to call my number but on the way out I see two walkers and ask if they had seen my phone on their walk but no they had not. I ask if they had a cell phone and if I could use it, they said sure. We dial my number and on the first ring I am pleased to hear, “hello”. I say “I guess you found my phone”. What a silly question. He tells me he is just down the road so in no time we meet up and my phone is back in my possession, whew. I thank him very much, should have given him a tip but was so happy to get it back I did not think of it at the time.
The end of another journal where I lost a fish, landed one, lost my cell phone got it back, made for another interesting day in ones fishing life.
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Topic: Chilliwack River, March 26th 2012 (Read 3038 times)