After scouting around the river a couple of times last week, I finally decided to give it a serious go this morning at first light for some coho salmon action. The river condition has been great in my opinion, enough water to bring lots of fish in. I arrived at the spot I picked ten minutes before it was bright enough to see anything. Two other gentlemen arrived around the same time. I began with the Gibbs Croc spoon to see if there were a few followers in the tailout. No biters went for it after a dozen casts. The angler across from me missed a float dive and as I kept my eyes on him on the following cast, the float disappeared again at the same spot and this time the fish did not get away. It was a wild coho salmon which he promptly released.
Seeing roe was getting some action, I quickly switched over. It didn't take long for my float to disappear too. The first one I missed. Second one happened at the end of the drift and it didn't get away. The kicks and turns indicated a coho salmon and the silver flashes confirmed it as it approached shore. As always, I began fearing that first fish would come off and of course it did! Not to be discouraged, I sent another piece of roe out again and that float disappeared almost right away. This time the fish stayed deep down, it was a chinook salmon, which thankfully got off after a minute or so. A few drifts later, the float dipped lightly several times as it floated downstream. After about five dips, I gently lifted the rod up and of course there was a coho at the end of the line! This fish stayed on briefly before coming off due to the poor hook-set. The next fish again came shortly after. This time it was a chinook jack which was landed easily. After dispatching the fish, the bite suddenly turned off at 7:30am.
The bite stayed off for 30 minutes and just when I was about to pack it in, the float dove down again but I was slow on the hook-set. On the following drift, the float disappeared again at the same spot and this time the fish didn't get away. It was a coho salmon that put up a lively fight. I could see the adipose fin as it got closer so it was sent back quickly in ankle deep water. The second wave of bite lastly shortly. The float only disappeared one more time after the wild coho so I ended the short morning outing.
There were definitely more fish travelling through than what I saw last week, but still challenging as the bites only happened briefly so not really worth a trip out from Vancouver in my opinion. Coho salmon didn't really show themselves in the water, which was not surprising. Chinook salmon seemed to be pretty abundant. Some chum salmon could be seen mixed in there too. Good luck!
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Topic: Chilliwack River, October 1st 2014 (Read 2656 times)