After
five kokanee outings this month and hearing about some encouraging reports from the Vedder, I decided to retire the boat briefly and bring out the drift gear once again. Last night I fired a message out to Chris to see if he would be fishing since they still need to
tube some fish for the hatchery. He said that he would be, so I asked, "First light? Or your "first light", ie. 8am?"
My Vedder steelhead record is, poor. Many are surprised that I in fact haven't caught a winter steelhead from the Vedder since February 5th, 2004.
The 2005 and 2006 seasons were fantastic, for everyone else! In 2007, I did not even attempt the fishery. Perhaps keeping such a detailed fishing diary is not a wise idea if one is to avoid chronic depression. Many of you might be feeling the same sensation currently if you are following a certain Canadian hockey team.
Maybe it is impatience, laziness, lack of focus or dare I say it, just pure bad luck, I just have not been able to hook a steelhead in the last four years.
There have been misses, but most of the time the float simply stays dry while everyone else's around mine always dive.
I arrived in the lower river around 7am and headed straight to where Chris instructed me to visit first, the "Double stump".
A few casts into the day and the Drennan was firmly snagged to an underwater branch that I had gotten intimate with before!
A quick snap and the 20g Zeppler was on its way down to the canal for someone else.
I retied, worked through the runs with no result and decided to head up to another run where Chris and Lew were getting them in February. Beside the gentleman who was just working his way down through where I was going, there were no other anglers around.
The other fisher produced nothing as he finished at the run where I was about to fish. Discouraged, I gave it a go anyway knowing a different presentation can easily trigger a fish to bite. The float remained straight up as it drifted above a submerged log in front of me. I then rebaited, made a cast to the other side of the channel, where a seam is created by the steep bank and a submerged log. Halfway through the drift the float quickly vanished and I was slow on the strike since I am no longer familiar with what a steelhead bite looks like.
It did not matter, the fish wanted that big juicy roe bag and had planted that hook firmly in its mouth. Those kicks on the 2106 were very welcoming. I played it safely and made sure the fish was kept away from the submerged log. It turned out to be a wild doe, probably the smallest fish of the entire run, only about 6 or 7lb judging by its length.
That's ok, those who rarely catch cannot complain.
The time was 8am, I looked around, where was my tuber?? No where to be found.
After a close-up photo, she swam back to the run with plenty of energy as the fight was short, but very sweet.
Delighted, I phoned the tuber but no one answered.
30 minutes later, he phoned back, "Just getting organized, will get there soon."
"You're too late, could have tubed my fish."
I decided to make my way down to where the Drennan was lost again while waiting for Chris' arrival. Perhaps there was another one waiting. Both the float and my mind drifted as I was surrounded by geese and mergansers. At one point I was looking at the two geese beside me and I felt a tug on my rod. I looked back and the float was popping up in front of me.
Number two was waiting after all.
At 10am, the Leaf mobil finally arrived. I came back and worked along the spot where I caught the first fish. The float took another fast dive just a couple of meters in front of me. The hookset was precise, precisely away from the fish's mouth. The whole rig came flying back over my head.
The Leaf fan was rather excited when I provided him the update. We fished together for another hour with no float dives. The drive home was insane. Rain, wind, hail and snow from Abby to Surrey with sunshine greeting me in Richmond.
Water clarity was excellent and will probably remain so since the freezing level is so low. The strong, cold westerly wind picked up around 9:30am today, making the drifts quite difficult. Good luck to those who are venturing out this weekend.  I now look forward to my next Vedder steelhead in 2012. |  |
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Topic: Chilliwack River March 27th, 2008: Skunking streak ends while tuber snoozes (Read 4197 times)