I am starting to sound a bit like a broken record with a losing streak that rivals the Vancouver Canucks (who are they?) when they entered the NHL (what league is that?). Chris' journal for the 27th and I hope to make it short as getting tired after another full day on the flow.
Anyway my day started with a phone call from Nick at 6:45 as we decide where we are going to meet up.
He is just picking up a coffee at Tim Hortons and will be at the river around 7. I tell him it is still dark out and besides I am in the middle of tying up some fresh roe bags that had now put roe on my new cell phone in taking Nick's call.
I can tell by the excitement in his voice he is hoping for a repeat performance from yesterday were he hooked 5 and landed 3 hatchery, all released.
I have the Leaf Mobile finally loaded by 7:15 and on the way to meet Nick but as I am turning on to Keith Wilson Road Nick is once again on the line. He has changed his plans as when he got to the
"Hot Spot" he found he had left his bait in his truck so he has to go back to pick it up.
I think to myself serves you right Nick for fumbling around in the dark.
He now feels there would be too many rods in the "hot spot" so he goes to another run I told him about yesterday. I tell him I am going to the "hot spot" as hope for a chance to pick up a wild fish or two from some other anglers if not my own for the hatchery.
As I wind my way down to the run I am going to fish I see Nick nicely settled into his run, a lone figure in the breaking daylight.
When I arrive at the hot spot about 4 other anglers ahead of me, lots of room.
I take up my position near the bottom of the run and more anglers start to arrive and start to fill up the run. It is not long after I had arrived Ben is into a fish and as I start towards him to see if it is a wild for the tube but Cory informs me "a hatchery maybe 5 pounds". They land and release it.
Ed, I fellow I know slips in below me and after about 10 minutes after he arrives he is trying to tell me something. I cannot hear what he is saying and for some reason he comes up towards me. When he is about 5 feet away just after I have made a cast, you guessed it, I look at him, taking my eyes off my Maple Leaf Balsa float and then I feel the strong pull of a fish, O no.
I quickly look towards where I had last had seen the float and I see to my delight the chrome flash and splash of a good sized steelhead.
My delight quickly turns to sorrow as not having a chance to even get a half hearted strike away the fish is gone. Record now 3 for 14. I make a remark something like, "thanks Ed" which I should not have said as it was only a fish, but I really would like to get one to the beach again one day. I apoligize to Ed later for that remark.
Anyway this fish would not come back or did it as a late arriving angler connects with one 15 minutes later, a hatchery in the 8 pound range but I think the one I had on was bigger of course.
I then have to leave as I have to meet some of the CVRCC directors at 9 for coffee and then off to do the clean up of our section as we will be too busy organizing things on Saturday to do it then. (See the pictures of the gang under general discussion taking note FA of my Maple Leaf bait rag and Terry's hat
) How I would have liked to have stayed as I had only fished an hour but I had a chance but blew it once again.
As I get near my truck I see Athezone, 2 rods in hand looking at the river, we had a brief visit, always good to see FWR members on the river. I share the hot spot with him and I see by his report he found a couple, well done.
We part and I then meet up with Lew, Don, Terry and Bucks wife for coffee at Riverside and then we are off to do our cleanup for a couple of hours. We get a few bags of garbage and did well on the bottles and should have close to $5 to add to the CVRCC bank account. With the lack of underbrush January is certainly a good time to do a cleanup, I hope we have a good turnout on Saturday. As we leave the area Cammer pulls along side and we have a good visit and I tell him where some fish have been taken. I hope he and his friend that was with him found a fish or two before the day's end.
Terry, Bucks Wife and I return to Riverside for lunch and I then return to the river for 30 minutes of fishing time before I have to attend to some family buisness. No takers in that amount of time that once again was too short.
I complete my errands and back to the flow where I meet Lew who had found nothing.
I am getting so tired I go for a power nap sitting down and leaning against an old log. One old log against another.
I know a bit odd to sleep this way but when tired better than having to go home.
I drift easily off to sleep by counting all the fish I have lost and where I had hooked them. I am jarred from my short nap by the sound of my cell phone saying "Hello Mojo" combined with a catchy tune of some sort, should have turned it off.
It is Nick with the news that he has just taken a 14 pound or so hatchery doe. He tells me he would have released it but it was bleeding badly as she taken the hook fairly deeply.
He updates me on his day, of one hatchery buck of around 7 pounds landed and released first thing in the run I told him about followed by another hatchery buck around 16 that he also released, wanted to keep fishing he tells me of why he released this good sized fish. Another good day for the Master.
After hearing this it gets me going again, no more rest needed as I head downstream tramping through debris from the highwater, fallen trees, log jams, soft sand and numerous small channels of water almost like being in an Amazon jungle sans the croc's.
All this work yeilds me nothing for the last hour and a half of daylight as I once again I have to fight my way back through the maze this time with a litre or so of water in the right boot due to a patch I put on last night that did not hold. Not a pleaseant journey to say the least. The only highlight of the journey back was just before I reached the LM was the hoot of a barn owl overhead startling a very tired angler.
My first stop on the way home was to buy a new pair of waders, maybe that will change my luck tomorrow, at least I will have dry feet to break the losing streak.
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Topic: The Losing Streak Continues on the Vedder, Jan. 27 (Read 1959 times)