With my cold I caught while on my trip to England getting better I thought it was time to venture out on the Vedder before September is gone. Even with the river blown out I know a spot where a small clear stream enters the river. It can give the river a little clarity and if the river is at the right level it can yield some fish.
To back track a bit, I went to check the river in the canal area early in the morning and found it still very muddy so I decided to delay my trip to late afternoon so I could give a updated water condition just before dark. Instead of fishing I picked up 125 floats from a log jam including three perfect Drennan floats lost by some unnamed angler.
Also included in the other 122 were a balsa float and two cork floats, a good haul to say the least.
Also got around $7 worth of tins and bottles. The jam was also littered with dozens of thongs (the ones you wear on your feet). I often wonder how so many are lost along the river.
With a few chores completed, an afternoon nap I headed back to the river around 5. First I drove by KWB and a few people were fishing the West side of the run,
none on the East side as the gravel bar is now covered.
With the high water the type of fishing that has gone on there the last while will now have come to a end.
I finally reach the spot I mentioned above and found the visibility caused by the small stream acceptable and worth trying.
The clear water runs along the edge of the chocalate covered main flow and then dropped into a drop off area of about 4 to 5 feet deep, the visibility is about 2.5 to 2.75, well worth fishing.
Pinks in good numbers were slipping up over the dropoff, through the shallows as they continued their upstream migration. I knew there would be some coho there also but could not see them.
Some other anglers were in the area, a mixture of fly fishers and other fishing with their deadly wool offerings.
I slip into my chosen spot and put my float dept to around 3 feet and put on some pro cured pink roe that I had from our trip to Victoria a month ago.
About 15 minutes into my fishing time while watching a fly chucker bringing in a pink I look back, float gone.
I strike and feel the tell tale pull of a fish.
My first though was it felt like a small jack coho or at best a small coho. As I start to think of having a fresh fish for supper the fight stops way too quickly. I bring the fish to the surface, a Sucker, a good sized one of about 2 pounds. Well that is a first as I do not remember every catching one in the Vedder in over 30 years of fishing it.
I quickly remove the hook and slip it back into its watery home, my brief excitement now over.
A lady comes by and tells me I am not fishing out far enough.
I explain the water is too coloured out there to have a fish actually bite. I tell her I have caught one where I am fishing, even though I did not tell her it was a sucker.
"But that is where my husband gets them, lots of them" is her parting remark.
The fly chucker continues to land pinks above me in a riffle but I believe the pinks would have a hard time seeing that fly but maybe not. Anway, pinks continue to go by me in good numbers as I see them quickly slipping over the drop off ledge above me but they do not take a liking to my perfectly cured roe.
The only coho I see is a silver beauty that breaks water and swirls just below my float. My float dips slightly as the line below slips over it body as it passes by, showing no interest in biting.
As the sun sets over Sumas Mountain and the first star begins to glow in the West, time to call it a day. The fish activity increases around me as the salmon now feel more at ease in the cloak of darkness that is closing around me and the river.
As I trudge back to the Leaf Mobile I look around me, not another angler in sight, the bird life has also gone to their nights roost and numerous fish continue to break water. As I load my gear back into the LM I think to myself, it is sure great to be back on the river for my first trip for the 2005 Fall fishery even though all I caught was my first sucker on the Vedder.
How lucky I feel to be 5 minutes away from this wonderful river. Some will say it is fished so heavily now that it spoils the fishing experience but I find there is always places to get away from the crowds that can give one much enjoyment like it did for me today.
O before I forget, the river condition was improving at dark and the fly chuckers said they could see about 1. 5 feet in the main flow. I hate to say it will be fishable in the morning in case it still does not continue to improve but I feel if the rain holds off I believe there will be some fishable water some time tomorrow.
If it is, some good coho fishing should be happening.
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Topic: A Sucker On The Vedder, September 30th (Read 3489 times)