Sad to report but another Vedder River steelhead angling legend has passed on. Creighton Bradley, Brad to most all who knew him, died Nov 12. Brad was a logger all his life, mostly in the Chilliwack River Valley but also up north in the Fort Nelson area during winter freeze up when snow in the Chilliwack area curtailed logging. I was a young steelheader in the mid 60’s –early 70’s and Brad, along with his fishing buddies Jim Little, Rudy Franks, George Friskey, Mel Mckeachran, and Harry Kelly were idols of mine, as they were among the best steelheader’s on this river at that time.
This was the time of Silex reels, glass rods, full length Pioneer rain jackets, black boot laced hip waders and a bait box full of illegal, boraxed chum roe.
I have 2 special memories of Brad … first a day on the Camp Run, my favourite piece of water on this river, Army base side, when I saw him hook 3 steelhead on single salmon eggs, the real ones that used to come in small jars; and the second, perhaps in the mid 70’s he and I were fishing in the middle river area, directly opposite Jim Little’s place, when he hooked a really big steelhead; I was above him in the run and watched for a while as he fought the fish .. I took another cast or two and hooked and landed a fish of about 12 lbs .. I tagged and released it (we were spaghetti tagging steelhead then), and realized Brad was still fighting his fish, at least 15 minutes later. I came up to him well downstream and he said this was the biggest steelhead he had ever hooked .. he figured well over 20 lbs but he couldn't follow it further and we watched his Superba empty of line and finally the fish broke off.
His words were… well, if you knew Brad, you'd know what he said
RIP my friend, and thanks for the lessons.
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Topic: Another Vedder River legend passes (Read 4386 times)