Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Fish Assassin]

May he rest in peace

[CohoMan]

Rest in peace Gwyn..

[Rodney]

Sorry to receive the bad news. Gwyn has always been so willing to share when out fishing with him and he has also been very active in the fishing community when it comes to volunteering. We've fished together many times. The trips together in 2008's early coho season was especially memorable. Here it is again:

Since the forecast has called for heavy rainfall in the next several days, we decided to make a trip out on Thursday as well. Typically we have done rather well on the Chilliwack River just prior or during the first heavy rainfall around late September/early October. Unlike last year, there wasn't much expectation on what we wanted to catch. The coho salmon return is not expected to be significant just as what we had experienced in 2005. Nevertheless, catches of a few chinook and chum salmon would still be considered a good trip.

We Had a later start, arrived at our spot at 7:30am. Gwyn and Chris were already working the run. They reported no catches except one adult chinook salmon that Gwyn had beached. Water clarity looked ideal, one couldn't have asked for better condition than this during this time of the year. Fish were rolling left and right in front of us, but most appeared to be chum salmon.



After drifting through the run several times, one fish couldn't resist a big chunk of roe at the end of Nina's line. A silvery roll after the hookset showed that it was a jack coho salmon, but a brief slack on the line allowed it to swim away quickly.

Bites were absent for the next couple of hours except a stubborn chinook salmon that Gwyn had connected with. This fish refused to come in for around 15 minutes. In the end, persistence by the angler won the battle as the fish was towed into the shallows. The fish was slightly coloured. Gwyn sent the fish back into the run after a quick photo session.











By this point Chris had moved to a different run and reported some missed bites when we talked on the phone. He suspected that they were smolts or trout, but I was skeptical as smolts or trout usually go off the bites by this time of the year. Nina and I decided to make our way down to his run and found out ourselves. Upon our arrival, Chris reported that they were salmon after all, as he had just hooked several and broke them off. I began drifting through while Chris took a break. I rebaited, looped a big chunk of roe on. Chris disapproved the size of the bait. "Bait is too big.", he said. The float took a dive just as he finished the remark. It was a small adult chinook, which took me downstream for a bit but popped off the hook as it entered the shallow.

As I rigged up again, Chris was back on his feet with big bait on his hook too. It only took a couple of casts before his float also took a dip. A bigger chinook emerged and shot for the rapids downstream. He beached it quite easily after just several minutes of fight. The fish, estimated to be around 15lb, was released quickly as no one was willing to carry it back to the car.

After some more misses and a couple more hook-ups, the bites died off at 11:00am. 9:00am to 10:00am seems to be the biting period lately, while first light has not produced well. We packed it up and headed to Cookies Grill to end another Vedder venture. No coho salmon were harrassed.

[Bassonator]

So sorry for your loss and to Gwyn Ill quote what I said to my Dad when he passed, "tight Lines and Straight Shooting"

[Athezone]

So sorry to hear about your friend Chris. My condolences.

[dennyman]

Sorry to hear about this fellow's passing. My condolences to his family and friends during this extremely difficult time.

[alwaysfishn]

I've met Gwyn several times on the river as well. Sorry to see him gone.

[blueback]

Sorry to hear of Gwyn's passing. Met him on the river a few times, good guy. Best wishes to his family in this difficult time.

[Dave]

I’m having a hard time with this recent death of a really good man and really good friend. We locals all knew he had respiratory problems and needed to carry an oxygen bottle which he did while fishing or hunting or attending environmental advocacy meetings or retirement ceremonies for people he respected or counting spawners or distributing salmon carcasses or picking up other people’s garbage, and he knew the very active life he led would soon end as he was considered not eligible for his only hope, a double lung transplant.  But this is just too fast.

Gywn left a legacy of giving back to what he believed in and I wish now I had spent more time with him.  Good on you Chris for visiting him on his death bed; I know he and Diane appreciated it.

Life is short folks.  Make the best of it.

[chris gadsden]

Thanks to all who have posted, I have passed on to Diane, Gwyn's wife that many from this forum have posted your condolances here. I will send this link to her at a later date and I will keep you posted when the Celebration of Life will be held, I believe later in September, after the 10th.

[testo84]

RIP

[greybark]

   Gwyn`s  Chwk Fish and Game Association and his Vedder River associates will truly miss him .
Our thoughts go out to Gwyn`s family .

[chris gadsden]

   Gwyn`s  Chwk Fish and Game Association and his Vedder River associates will truly miss him .
Our thoughts go out to Gwyn`s family .

If you have any pictures from away back, please let me know.

[rhino]

Gwyn passed away at 2:30 this afternoon, I am sure the thoughts of us all from this forum will be with his family at this difficult time.

Chris,
I m very sorry for your loss.This is a very difficult time to pass and I hope all but good memories are left. Laura and I send our condolences to you and his family.

[Nicole]

Oh man, this is terrible news, I am shocked and very sad to hear this...

Chris I am so sorry for your loss, I can't believe he's gone

I will never forget all of the things that he taught us, the lessons were many.

Gwyn was the undisputed king of roe curing; he had incredible technique that produced stuff I haven't seen duplicated anywhere.

-Nicole