Headed out to the Squamish a bit late today as we heard there was a deadly accident that closed the highway at Britania Beach. Traffic on the highway was to be closed till 10:00am. Arrived at the Squamish at around 11:00 am which isn't bad as high tide wasn't till 4:00 pm...so we would be fishing an incoming tide. Wandered around a bit and found some cover water where I could SEE several fairly clean chums, and a couple of coho (I think...as they did not have those tell tale white fins). Floated everything I had past them but to no avail. They just were not interested in anything so I moved along. Saw two wild coho released today, beautiful fish that were ocean brite. One fell for a cast spinner and the other for a blade under a float. Numerous chum were taken, however most of the guys had nothing to show for their efforts...there are fish there, just not in big numbers. Several fish were also foul hooked. Oh, and hey, here is a tip...the chum (if that is what you are after) are in close...you don't need to wade out to the middle of the river or toss your offering to the other side. Wanting to get into one of those coho, I switched to a brass blade. Holding back a bit against the current I threw a couple of casts and allowed the blade and float to swing in the current. On about the 3rd drift the float plunged downward, and with my mind still on those previous beauties I was ready and set the hook hard. Since starting shortfloating, I catch bottom way less often, and thus any float action is acted upon. This was met with a brite flash out in the flow, followed by a couple of mighty head shakes...FISH ON! This was an energetic fish as it screemed line off my pin only to turn and swim right at me. Guys around me were yelling "It's a big coho!", and I thought it was also due to the brite flashes we were getting as the fish streaked back and forth. I began to think that I had foul hooked the fish because of the number of runs it took and the long time it took to tire the fish....but eventually I tired the fish and was able to bring it closer for a good look. As it neared, I became aware of those white tipped fins...CHUM!...but one bright and energetic Chum!...and fairly hooked. Once in the shallow water, I could make out the start of that chum coloring...the purple stripes. Being in very good shape I dispached the female and placed her on the bank. This fish was weird though, it was very brite when I bonked it....turned dark shortly after being bonked, but turned almost silver again after being dead for a while!?!?!? I've had fish change color back and forth before but never so dramatically...from bright, to boot, and back to bright?!?! The fish produced some beautiful roe, that I knew some day would be putting me into some nice coho or steelhead....NOT...as I was looking around for a bag for the roe, I placed the precious skeins up on a rock.....I know, I know...STUPID, it took about 1 second for two passing gulls to swoop down and each gobble up a skein of my roe....I couldn't believe it, and you wouldn't either if you had seen the size of these skiens, and the size of those birds....I don't think either gull will need to eat for a week!!! and both had some difficulty getting airborn after I hurled some choice absenities at them.
Never did connect with a coho all day, and that was my only chum....maybe next week!?!?!?
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Topic: Squamish (Oct 23) (Read 3790 times)