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[Sinaran]

so sorry to hear that..
now i am wondering if any of the fish we caught there's been feeding on the human flesh... 
fish safely and wade out in a proper equipments, fellow fishermen. 

r.i.p.

[Addicted To Steel]

It is very easy to get carried away when fighting a steelhead. I know I have done some stupid stuff, and so have some of my friends.

One word of advice I can offer from my own experience is to: MAKE SURE YOU WEAR A WADING BELT tightly around your mid section when fishing.
Even if you do not cross, or take chances, then at least you will have one on if you have to save some one like Searun 17 did.

I have taken a couple of trips down the river over the years with my waders full of water on one of them.  I did not have a belt on, and I thought for sure I was going to die. The only thing that saved me was a gravel bar on the corner of a bend in the river. I was on the Vedder by the Old Ranger run years ago, I tried crossing and my feet went out from under me. In an instant my waders were full of water, and I could not control where I was going. The water was high and I was scared out of my mind. It took so much energy to try to move around with all of that water that I was exhausted withing a couple of minutes. I was trying to get my waders off when I hit the gravel bar. If the shallow section wasn't there I don't think I would be here to talk about it. On another time, the same sort of thing happened while crossing the Chehalis, but I had a belt on. The difference the belt made was unbelievable. I could control my legs and upper body much much better.

On another trip, me and two other friends were in a Zodiac drifting the Kispiox river up north. We came onto a whitewater stretch we were not familiar with. Our boat was heading right for a bunch of ugly rapids, and several protruding boulders. Our boat was thrown up hard against a boulder and it was being smashed by whitewater from the side. My friend on the right side of the boat was thrown clear over the side, and the only thing that stopped him from disappearing was the large boulder next to the boat where he was pinned. He had one hand on the side of the boat, and most of his body was being pinned between the boat and the boulder. He was half way under the water.  He had a tight belt on, with waders, but no life jacket In an instant, my other friend and I were hanging over the side trying to pull my buddy in. He is 265 lbs, and 6'1" so you can imagine how hard it was especially since he was pinned, and the top part of his waders were full of water. The look of fear on my best friends eyes is something I will never forget, and don't ever want to see again.  I thought we might loose him, but I was going to do what ever it took to get him out.

As the boat shifted a bit, we managed to get one of his legs, and one arm up on the side. He was kind of straddled on the boat with one leg still pinned against the rock.
As the boat got violently swung around, his leg was free, and we hauled him in the boat.

We had to run the next few stretches of the river with only one oar, but luckily we were past the dangerous whitewater stretch.

The moral of the story-If he did not have a belt on, he would be gone. And, of course the life jacket thing is embarrassing and didn't help matters much.

I don't know if this young fella who past on was a fisherman or not, but I thought I would add these experience's  in case it helps make some fishermen a little safer on the river.

My deepest condolances to the family.

Take care all.

[cohokid]

yes i always wear a belt on the river.

[Big Steel]

I to have had a couple of close calls while fighting Steelhead!!  Was never worried, but thing can happen!!  Now, I just don't wade something if it looks like there is a chance there could be trouble.  One was on the derby day a couple of years ago, I was fighting this steely and went in, well slipped in and had to hold onto a tree with on hand and fight the fish with the other.  Meanwhile Searun was standing there yelling at me to get out of the water, ready to help if he had to!!  Thanks for that Searun, but I got my footing, was able to get me shoe laces untangled from the roots on the tree, crawll up the bank completely winded and continue to fight the Steelhead!!  Things can happen, so be very careful!!  I got the pic, but one wrong step, and I could have been in trouble!!  But it was Derby day, so I had to land the fish!!

[Fish Assassin]

I felled from the Cable Pool onto the cement stairs chasing a steelhead. Extremely fortunate that I suffered a severe sprain rather than a broken ankle.

[cohokid]

I fell into the cap on the keith road side while leaving my spot to help Cord land his fish, it was in a spot wih no current, and my neoprone waders got quite a bit of water in them. Cord couldn't stop laughing and he lost his fish from it, serves him right for not helping me . Anyways if I had fallen somewhere else it could have been an ugly situation.

HAHHAAH everytime i think of that i laf so HARD but your like cord ill help you then bam your gone. LOl that could have been scary tho.

[sliverbullet]

geez alot of people have witnessed some close calls im sure glad i havnt had anything like taht happen to me RIP to all the fellow fishermen who have been unlucky and have been swept away from the deadly current of our rivers

[allwaysfishin]

ya like the time i got helicopter medivaced off of the vedder campground beach..... river got me good. needed my heart shocked a few times to bring me back.... blind for several hours after recovery..... i was messed up , wading with no waders, and IN LOW water summer conditions. i prolly don't need to say any more than that.

[THE_ROE_SLINGER]

wow close call

[troutbreath]

From todays Sun


CHILLIWACK - Upper Fraser Valley Regional RCMP have identified the body of a man found by the Vedder River on Dec. 30 as that of Ambrose Roberts. Roberts 40 had been missing since Oct, 6 1997, when hw was last seen fishing on the banks of the Chilliwack River.


Seven years and he finally turns up? I have seen a dog dig in the sand and retrieve a salmon that was slowly fossilizing. The smell was bad enough to swear you off of saurkraut for life

[rob.l]

Chiliwack times
Body found after 8 years



By Darren McDonald

Ambrose Roberts was a talented musician, playing drums, guitar and saxophone in a band with one of his five brothers. He also loved fishing, an activity which ultimately took his life.

Roberts disappeared almost eight and a half years ago: on Oct. 6, 1997. He was net fishing on the Chilliwack River-making money for his family, which included 12 siblings and two children of his own, now both in their 20s.

Ambrose, then 40, asked his brother Lawrence to join him that fateful fall day near the Soowahlie reserve, but Lawrence needed to wake early to work in Abbotsford.

"I haven't fished since he went missing," Lawrence said Thursday-the day after police identified his brother's body, found Dec. 30, 2005 in the Vedder River near the Blue Heron Nature Reserve.

"It was my way of coping with everything."

When Ambrose disappeared, the Roberts family spent $1,400 a day for professional divers to search the river's murky bottom. They tried unsuccessfully for a week and a half. Lawrence's wife Jennifer acted as one of three psychics who also looked for Ambrose.

"For the family it's more of a relief," she said following yesterday's discovery. Lawrence agreed, saying some had given up hope of ever finding the admired musician, carver and painter.

"It's closure finally after all these years," he said, remembering that the river was running high and fast when Ambrose went missing.

"As fast as I've seen it," Lawrence recalled, "but he was a strong swimmer and said he could swim it if he had to."

Ambrose was found with his shoes still on, so he probably wasn't trying to cross the high water. His net was discovered shortly after his disappearance. It was full of fish.

"He might have slipped," Jennifer said.

"We'll never know."
Popular and smart (having graduated from Sardis secondary at the age of 16), Ambrose always left a big impression. Lawrence, three years younger, said his brother had the admiration of all who knew him.

"He had a lot of friends. Even in high school the teachers expected me to be good at art, because he was so good. I was always kind of living in his shadow I guess."

According to Const. Steve Hiscoe, Ambrose's body was preserved well enough for investigators to perform an autopsy. There was no indication of foul play. He was identified through dental records, because the body was badly decomposed.

published on 01/20/2006

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

8+ YEARS??
Is that possible?......
You'd think there wouldnt be anything left...

[cohokid]

ewww thats sick, at least the family knows what has happend to him and its not gonna be a mystery for the rest of there lifes.

[THE_ROE_SLINGER]

wow

[Fish Assassin]

I hope the family finds closure after so many years.

[Pantharen]

Chiliwack times
Body found after 8 years

8+ YEARS??
Is that possible?......
You'd think there wouldnt be anything left...

The Wack is just cold enough year round to preserve a body, specially if it was submerged in a jam, or gotten pushed into deep mud. It is possible.

edit: Stupidity at it's highest, when I was about 14 me and my buddies decided to steal some of my uncles homemade rum, and head down to the Englishman River (Parksville VI) and do some drinking, well we were below John's place drunk and feeling no pain. We decided to steal his neighbours canoe, and take it down to the ocean. The river was low that winter, and we spent most of the night walking in the river instead of riding in the boat. We made it to the ocean, but all 4 of us were shivering uncontrollably, it was way past my curfew and I was gonna be in deep sh**, but instead of going home, I crashed in John's shed. I almost died from hypothermia, thankfully John's dad saw me go into the shed, and came out and marched me into the house and called my Dad. After I long hot bath, dad just sat there and glared at me, I dont think I had ever seen him so mad (or worried)...