I made my first trip out to the Vedder this afternoon in search of an early steelhead.
Thought I would try prawn tails today so I robbed some from the fridge and mixed in some double red hot pro cure. While the prawns were developing their colour stopped for a quick coffee at Tims and read about the Leafs win last night.
Arrive at the Crossing shortly after 1, head upstream a bit and park the Leaf Mobile hopefully in a safe spot away from the the car breakin guys. Parked it at 90 degrees to the road so anyone trying to break in can not duck down beside the vehicle when car traffic is going by. Do not know if this helps but it was a tip someone passed on to me.
After not being out on the river for a while it was good to be out there again, even if it was more of an exploring trip. The conditions were excellent no wind, 6 to 7 degrees celius and the water had a slight tinge to it, perfect for a steelhead on the first trip out.
Fished some nice sidestream water for a couple of hours but not a touch. Talked to a couple of other anglers who had nothing to report.
With the rain now pelting down and less than a hour to fish I head to a run below the Crossing where I saw Clay working the water. I fish my way down to him and we talk hockey, about the poor coho season,and fishing in general.
We are spending more time talking than concentrating on our fishing it seemed. I flip a cast to the far side of the run and my float is completly buried completly. I come back on it but there is no resistance at all and no prawn tail either. I am fishing fairly short so I know it was not bottom, I quickly slip on another red hot prawn tail wondering at the same time if that was a steelhead laying in wait for another prawn tail to drift by under the slight choppy waters above.
Of course Clay shows good sportmanship and does no cast where the steelhead or fish of some type is. On my next cast the float dips again but does not go under, I donot strike. A few more casts nothing. "Throw out there" I tell Clay. A cast or two later Clay gets a chance he too sets the hook and his roe bag comes back ripped up pretty good. We work the spot for another 20 minutes or so but whatever it was, a trout, whitefish, or coho does not give us another opportunity.
As darkness starts to set in we head back to our vehicles both of wondering was that a steelhead or not that had take our drennan floats under.
At least it gave us both a brief bit of excitement and we will certainly get us back out there in the next day or so in search of an early run steelhead as will many of you reading this report will I am sure. Good fishing over the holiday season for all that are able to get out on on their favorite river.
Author
Topic: Vedder River December 20th (Read 4903 times)