Just got back from a fantastic 5 day trip in the Cariboo fishing one of my favourite rivers that a buddy of mine introduced to me (and made me promise I would keep it a secret).
Anyways, it was definately a trip that most fly fishermen/women dream about. It was also a buddies birthday which we decided to celebrate by going on a long fly fishing trip. The river was in almost perfect condition, the weather was good for all but one day, and the the crew were a great group of buddies who are passionate about fishing and enjoying the outdoors. Although we had an amazing 5 days of fishing, I hope some of the lessons we learned will be passed on to other readers/fisherpeople so that you don't make the same mistakes.
Day one,
Got to our camp by noon and started setting up. Since we had two RV's amongst six guys and our belly boats and pontoon boat was already geared up and inflated we decided to hit the river and do a quick run (even though it would get dark by around 930pm and i knew the drift could take up to 8 hours).
By the time we started to head down about 25 kms of river, it was now 3pm. We dropped the pick up truck at the end of our run and we were good to go.
I have fished this river on four other occassions and usually bring large dry flies but the last trip I had here I came across a guide who was dropping big pink streamer patterns which i was prepared to try out this time.
Immediately, after about ten minutes of drifting I hook into the first fish on a pink articulating streamer.
After hooking into this fish, we all thought it was going to be one of those memorable trips....and it was.
After fishing for about 5 hours, our group of six hooked into some large bows, the largest being the first one I hooked into but many more in the 2-3 lb range.Fish were caught on large dries and pink streamers.
As dark approached we realized that we were no were near our finish line so we started to find an exit point on the river so that we could run to the truck (since we thought this would be faster than the slow drift we didn't anticipate).
After finding a spot to get off the river, a couple of the guys took off to find the truck. In the meantime, we also realized a buddy was freezing from getting wet earlier in the day and after soaking his body in a freezing cold river for 7.5 hours with leaky waders!
As a result we not only needed to make an emergency fire but the truck took 1.25 hours to pick us up since the boys had to walk 7kms, in pitch black through bear infested woods.
The happy ending is the fact that we had ten live dungeoness crabs waiting for us to boil up around the campfire.
Lessons: Check your waders for leaks ahead of time, always be prepared with emergency supplies, always bring all your flies(arsenal) since you never know what the fish will be hitting (including your salmon steelhead dolly flies even though you were planning on dry fly fishing!)...fortunately we brought a fly tying kit.
Day 2
Sunny day and an early start. Got on the water by 9am and started drifting. Buddy who had leaky waders took the day off to get new ones in the closest town as well as patch up his leaky ones.
Fished hard all day and caught some amazing bows. In this river there seems to be two types of rainbows, yellow coloured ones and silver ones. Everyone tied into many fish with the largest being about 4 lbs for the day. Flies used included, any bright steelhead flies, large grasshoppers and large sedge drys. One buddy hooked and lost two monster rainbows that we estimated could have been the biggest two of the trip.
At the end of the day, two belly boats needed repairs, including one that was a spare that needed to be used from a broken down belly boat the day before.
Lesson: always pack dental floss and a large needle so that you can repair belly boats really well.
Day Three:
We are all starting to figure out where all the big fish are hiding. This was the most productive run of the whole trip. Two 22 inch rainbows were landed on dry grasshopper and large stimulator patterns and everyone hooked into at least a few large bows in the 2-3 lb range.
Lesson: always bring your fly tying kit. today, the fish were hitting mostly dries so we had to tie up a lot more. All of us were fishing hard so many flies lost in overhanging bushes, trees and deadfall.
Day four:
Turns out to be another stellar day although the weather has turned a bit and its a bit cooler.
Although the fishing was a bit slower, some large ones were caught and several double headers were had. One video clip shows me landing a nice 2-3 lber only to have another buddy hook into another in the background.
Day Five:
Packed up - drove home and of course...hit the thompson for an evening bite... sorry no luck!
Have many more great pics i will share once i get them.
Lesson: always carry t.p. and a good bicycle pump and duct tape on long drifts. Had to do a repair job on my belly boat!
In the meantime here are some great misc shots of our trip.
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Topic: A Cariboo river, August 18th - 22nd 2011 (Read 1375 times)