Started off at daylight on the upper Vedder with my friend Dean. The water was pretty high, with some heavy flow, but still fishable.
We fished a few runs with no success then moved on to find some back eddies and hiding spots where the Steelies could get out of the heavy stuff and hide. We got to one of our old favorite spots to fish some water that most fisherman don't like.
Namely, a nice big back eddy with a little bit of cleaner water comming into it from a little tributary creek. After catching a few coho ( two of them fairly clean
) in this spot, we decided to give it a break for a little while then try it again to see if a fresh fish might move in. My buddy Dean headed down river, and I went back to the back eddy a little while later after letting it rest for a bit.
I tossed it in the boil and let the Drennan circled the eddy, and then get kicked out down river toward the little creek where I swung the juicy roe sack toward the shore and out of the fast heavy flow and into the slower stuff. ( Thank's for the roe sacks Dean!! -He used my magic thread so I asked him for a donation of six of his sacks in return
. They looked very nice for the high water, mine were a little small and not as bright
The float buried, and the Steely hammered the sack so hard there was not time or any need for a hook set. Immediately the Steely ripped down river in the heavy flow. All I seen was a chrome flash when the fish came to the surface for a second so I didn't know if it was wild, hatchery, buck or a doe.
I had no choice but to jump over several large boulders to follow the fish. On one of my landings, a boulder moved, and I smashed my knee on the boulder.
There were so many trees and overhangs along the shore line that I had no choice but to go in the water up to my waist to follow the Steelhead down river. I was thinking the fish was quite big, but I also knew that the heavy water flow was having a big affect on the pull of the Steely. There was no stopping this fish!! It didn't jump at all, it just hugged the bottom and screamed down river.
My buddy Dean was about 150 yards down river, so I knew I would be getting to him soon. I was doing everything I could to keep the fish on by wading down river up to my chest now and straddling boulders along the way. Several times I had to put my rod right down against the water to avoid all of the overhangs.
I could not believe the hook had not come out yet after all that!!
I had gone about 150 yards now with the fish about 40 yards down river from me the whole way. As I saw Dean heading up river toward me I quickly glanced down to my reel because I knew I didn't have too much main on the pin ( too lazy to get a refill
) I probably only had 30 more yards left on it before I would be into my backing.
I'm thinking- what the heck, is this fish really big, or is it the big flow of the water??
Dean sees me heading down river up to my chest in water, and with my rod bucking like crazy. I'm thinking it is a big wild one for sure. Dean immediately comes up to me and takes my heavy fishing vest off my back and puts it up in the trees. (I was exhausted because I have a big tummy
) Then he heads back to the waters edge to break branches off ahead of me so that my line and rod don't get tangled. NOW THAT'S ONE GOOD FRIEND!!!
As he is doing that, his glasses fall off into the river, and now I am really worried. If he loses his glasses because of helping me get this fish I'll feel really bad.
. Thankfully, Dean reaches down and grabs the glasses before they are lost for good.
We follow this crazy fish down river for another hundred yards!!!!!! At one spot I had to go around this huge boulder in the water wear I was on my tippy toes and water was flowing freely into my waders. Thank god for the belt!!!
At this time Dean was down river from me trying to find the fish as I was trying to gain on it before it headed to some big white water below.
Dean found the fish under the Drennan trying to hide under a big boulder before the whitewater. Thankfully the Steely was now very tired and it didn't want to go into the whitewater as much as we didn't want it to either.
I finally caught up to it as it rested under the boulder, and I eased it out and up.
It was a hatchery buck.
I would normally release this fish, but it was a very long fight and the hook was completely through the thick bone of it's upper mouth. It went in the inner side of the mouth and completely out by it's nose; right through bone!! CAN'T BEAT THOSE OWNERS!!!!!!!!! I knew this fish would not recover if released so Dean tailed it nicely to shore where it was quickly bonked.
SUPPER TIME!!!
To our surprise it was not as big as we figured it for. It was only a very strong 9 lb Steely, given help by some ugly fast flowing water.
A very memorable Steelhead for sure!!!
That was all the luck the Vedder decided to give us this morning. Thank you fish God's!!
.
Dean fished for a little bit after I got my fish, but didn't find anything so we decided to head over to the Chehalis where we would try to find some brood stock for the hatchery.
When we got there we still had a few hours left to fish before dark so we went in the canyon to try a couple of spots which had been good to us over the years. We fished a few holes in between 6 and 10 mile but did not have any success there except for a few colored Coho taken on roe and roe sacks.
While at 6 mile we ran into a fellow who had some horrible news about the Chehalis river which I will post in the Discussion section of the forum. Please read it.Tight Lines!!
ATS.
Author
Topic: jAN 8-HATCHERY CHROME ON THE VEDDER, THEN VERY BAD NEWS ON THE CHEHALIS (Read 8746 times)