Slept in this morning till around 10AM. Thought, what the hell I'll try the river again since my wife and kids had plans to go out today anyway.
I picked up my buddy at around 11:30AM. We stopped at the Sasquatch to have burgers before fishing. The river was in nice shape, but pretty clear. We started above the bridge by the root tree and worked our way down to the bridge. Not a sniff. We then tried to go into the C hole, but there was a guy in there when we got there. So we headed down to the Easter Seal run on the Bible Camp (now the native treatment facility) side of the river. (NOTE: It is private property to go through that way, so make sure you get permission if you go through their property, and watch out for the dog) There were two other anglers at the Easter Seal but on the opposite side of the river.
The water looked great on the side we were on. It had a nice dark drop off and perfect speed for holding fish.
We started at the head and worked our way down. About 5 minutes later my float buries while slowly moving down the inside seam in about 3 feet of water. I was fishing steelhead roe. I set the hook fast and hard, and immediately felt the head shakes of a good sized fish. I looked up river and told my buddy that I had a fish on.
The fish was head shaking violently and headed out in the fast water for a nice run.
I had a feeling I was fighting a Coho because of the rolling and bottom hugging it was doing.
After a few runs, I got the fish in close enough to see it. Sure enough it was a big hatchery buck Coho, in pretty good shape too. I'd say it was around 10 lbs or so.
Man, the adrenaline was going good there for a moment. Very anticlimatic. I quickly released the fish and we continued fishing down to the tail of the run where it heads in to the trees.
I took a little hike and tried a couple spots down river but with no luck.
When I came back up river to meet my buddy we decided to try the Pump house before dark. We fished there for about an hour but didn't get anything. The water came up about a foot in the last two hours or so, but still looked nice.
It was drizzling on and off through out the afternoon, and started to rain pretty good an hour before dark.
Fishing was done, and it was time to catch the last period and a half of the Canucks game, and the USA/Canada World Junior game at the Squatch. After a couple of bevies, some appys, and some hockey it was time to head home. GO CANADA GO!!!!
There was not too much pressure on the river today. On the areas we fished we only saw around 5 guys total, and didn't see any Steelhead taken, although we talked with one fellow who said he thought he saw someone putting one into his truck at the Bridge??
All in all a nice time spent on a nice river.
Tight lines.
ATS
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Topic: Chehalis Dec 31.05 (Read 3498 times)