Well done Blueback and I heard congratulations are in order to your family on another front as well.
Chapter 2
I meet Nick and Don later than I had planned at Cookies Rest., due to the fact the security guy took longer than he was supposed to at the house. How does that happen and right in the middle of the day when we should be out on the river not stuck at home. After all we have not been able to fish the Vedder the last few days.
Anyway, I hear of all the action once again from Nick and Don over an excellent slice of Granny Smith pie at Cookies, nothing better than pie and coffee together except maybe a hatchery steelhead.
I hear the run down of every detail of the 3 fish Nick had landed and the two lost and the numerous bites. Don also missed one in the short time he was out before they took the lunch break.
Anyway I decided to do some exploring after our gathering as I felt the "new hot spot" would be crawling with anglers after all the action there in the morning and I love seeking new spots after a high water. So finally I am back on the river after the forced 3 hour break
Don and Nick also teamed up to do some "looking around as well.
I run into Lew and tell him there has been some fish today but he has leave to chase down his fishing partner who had headed towards Fulcum Country. Lew first takes a picture of me with my new Maple Leaf bait rag Terry gave me, hope it brings me some better luck.
The area I am at has only one fresh set of man made tracks implanted in the virgin sand and I fish a good run before I am joined by another angler throwing a rubber worm but I am content to stick to my roe sacks. The visibility is sitting still around 14 inches, not ideal to me but the high water does create some nice little slots and riffles in the 2 to 3 foot range, plenty for the steelhead to lay in with the security of the coloured water above them.
I move along quickly checking for that ideal spot and also I want to check as much of the river as possible in the remaining 3 hours I have left, while still fumming about the 3 hour delay I had.
On the way up river I see an angler holding up a fish and Nicks tells me from opposite from where I am now fishing it was around 16, very nice.
I have to cross several sandy areas that are like quick sand after the sand has been pushed into soft sand bars by the recent surging water of the Chilliwack. A couple of times I sink above my knee, tough to pull out of at times. I have seen worse so you have to tread carefully in such areas.
I run into Lew who has rescued Don C. from above the crossing. Don likes to fish FC.
Lew and I seem to have good luck when we meet unarranged on the river with one of us connecting several times over the years. When we are in a slump we always tell each other "one cast closer to your next fish"
We both arrive at the nicest spot I had seen in my afternoon trek, a riffle in the previously mentioned 2 to 3 foot range, I shorten up a bit after a few casts that had been a bit deep. On the first cast after the adjustment, balsa float down, my strike once again leaves something to be desired but I am dealt a couple of head shakes, a bit of a boil and the my record moves to 3 for 13.
Lew and I can not entice it to come back and he throws a blade at it as well but to no avail as the steelhead has learned a lesson very fast.
I then head up stream and locate another couple of dandy spots but they were vacant of fish in the biting mood while I fished them. As I work my way down back to where I had lost the fish I see Joe on the right bank. He tells me on my inquiry of how he did to day, he answers back "six", I then ask how many landed, We don't want to talk about that he adds with a laught. So others are having trouble like me to land them too it seems. He also says he was into six more the day before, some fisherman that Joe. Here I have been into only 13 all season and he has 12 in two days.
Is it that Joe is a commercial fisherman that helps I wonder but Nick is not one just top rods that think more like a fish than me I decide as I bid Joe a goodbye from afar.
Lew and Don offer me a ride back to my car but I have left one of the brood capture tubes down river a bit so I have to retrieve before I leave so I have to decline. I have a few more minutes to fish anyway but as the rain starts to fall I prepare to call it a day. A small trout or dolly splashs right at my feet almost if it was signalling to me to leave the run to it for the evening as it is feeding time for it and for that matter me too. These small trout come out near dark from their hiding spots as they know the diving ducks and meganziners that search for them during the daylight hours have left for their night resting spots.
I trude once again throught the side channels trying to avoid the quick sand that is making my legs very tired after all I have walked a few miles today. Now I wish I had excepted Lew and Don's offer of a ride as it takes me 15 minutes to walk back to the Leaf Mobile.
As I strip off all my fishing gear I pour a cup of coffee from the thermos, still steaming.
I relaxe a bit, sipping, enjoying the coffee as it sooths my parched throat from alll the walking I have just completed, thinking of the day now past, the day ahead as the rain is now pounding down on the hood of the truck. I hope not too much to colour the water more than iy was today. All this combined with the roar of the river in the distant background is sweet music to this anglers ears as night now has enveloped the surrounding woods, paradise!!
As the LM purrs to life, the radio traffic reports on 1130 break me from my thoughts of a good day even though fishless. The traffic report gal talks of the traffic "slow downs on Highway Number 1 East bound from 176th to 200th and beyond she says", how lucky I felt to be free of that.
I arrive home for a short nap, supper and then to badminton in Abbotsford, a full day needless to say.
Tomorrow will bring another adventure in Rainbow Country hopefully without the rain part. Fish to 9 am, then coffee with the CVRCC directors before we cleanup our area on the river as we will be too busy on Saturday to do our section. Then hopefully back to the river, looking for the first hatchery of the year or maybe I will get it before 9,
life is sure great.
I see it is now 12:33 as it is bed time, 7 hours from the first cast of a new day on the Vedder River
Author
Topic: The Master Is Certainly A Master, Vedder Jan. 26 (Read 3894 times)