After the overnight heavy rain, I was rather worried about what the water level and clarity would be like before heading out. The hydrograph was unavailable, but judging by the amount of rainfall coming down in the last 24 hours, I guessed that most likely it did not rise much.
On our way to the river, heavy rain came down as we drove through Surrey and Langley. It wasn't looking good at all.
Once we got to Chilliwack, it didn't rain as much thankfully, but the wind sure picked up.
Luke and I arrived at the river bank around 6:20am. Due to the clouds, it didn't get light until 6:40am or so, so we sat around and waited a bit.
Once it was light enough, the drifts began. After five casts, I had a tiny smolt at the end of my line.
For some reason, a school of them were milling about and pecking on my roe during each drift, not a good sign.
Ten minutes after we started, the float was pulled down hard at the beginning of one drift. A miss, as I wasn't prepared for that.
I quickly baited again, recasted, another hit, and another miss!
Ok, too bad, but good signs. Third try, this time the drift took longer before the float was pulled down again, fish on!
A dancing coho at the end of the line took me downstream. A few minutes later, a chrome hatchery 8lb doe was on the beach.
Soon after that, another hatchery doe around the same size on the beach. I signalled to Luke to move up to where I was as he just loves to wander off.... I must smell or something...
Once he moved up, I lost two more as the coho shakes were better than my fishing skills apparently.
Lots of hits, and still misses.... This all lasted for about 45 minutes and then it went dead.
Not too worry though, as past experience shows that on cloudy days such as today, the bites would start again throughout the day. The next wave of bites happened around 9am, then again around 11am. Luke hooked more fish than me but lost more than me, he managed to beach a hatchery doe around the same size, a happy guy indeed! What amazed me was he took short floating to the extreme....
He was fishing in 6 to 7 feet water with a 2 to 3 feet float depth, leader was about 1 foot....
Another thing he did differently, and strangely, was to have this gigantic chunk of roe on his hook... I jokingly said he was going to hook a seagull soon... So anyways, what happened? He had two chrome springs coming up to enguilf the roe....
Both fish broke him off however...
At around 11am, I managed to beach my third and final hatchery fish, a buck around 10lb.
The bite went on and off until 1pm when the sun came out. The bites from 9am til 1pm were light and fast, we missed many due to sloppy hook-sets.
Today's roe was fresh coho and chum roe that were procured with double hot red once again. I doubt it made a difference though as the fish were really on the bite. We could have simply been lucky to hit a school of fish as many others above us or downstream from us did not do as well.
The only complaint today was the walk back to the car, which was painful with over 30lb of coho to carry.
Ok, the important stuff. Water level did not rise much. Water clarity was better, it was no longer crystal clear, instead it had a nice green colour to it.
After the fishing, I attended the Help Habitat Fundraising meeting to discuss the final planning. That went on quite a bit as usual, and I left Luke in the car who ended up sleeping under the warm sun.
The fundraising will be successful for sure and a fun gathering to attend to help a good cause.
A good day indeed. Good luck to all this weekend as it will be a good one if weather cooperates.
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Topic: Chilliwack River, October 6th 2004 (Read 6035 times)