A warm Easter Monday welcome to all to The Journal on FWR.
I hope you all had a good Easter with family and friends.I imagine a few of you were able to get out and wet a line during the 3 or 4 day Easter holiday.
I had planned to be on the flow at the break of daylight but more e-mails to read and send. Some to do with what will be happening in the print media. Tomorrow should be a breaking story once again on the gravel excavation that caused millions of alveins to die because of a de - watering caused by a improperly constructed causeway. It could be a front page story in the Vancouver Sun. I have been told it was being advertised on Global as that.
The Executive summary was finalized today and if Rodney wishes it will be posted here tomorrow. As well, a over 50 page report is in its final stages of edit and will be made available in a few days. I am sure the followers of this file will find both reports interesting but it is too bad so many pink and chum alveins died in their redds because of this never given a chance to hatch and migrate to the ocean to begin their life.
Anyway back to fishing. My first stop the regular Tim Hortons and then to the river. I see some garbage so pick it up and are rewarded by a bright Tonnie sparkling in the sun now rising above Vedder Mountain.
A good start to the day with the double double paid for and 45 cents still left over, I may treat myself to a late breakfast, at least I have a bit for part of the tip.
My first run looks good and was the scene of some fish at this river level earlier in the season but today no fish in the biting mood there today. I decide to head down and check out the run below Lickman
and on the way down my luck of finding things continue as I find a pair of pliers logged between some rip rap. It is stuffed in the vest, a spare as I lose them once and a while also.
I reach the famous or infamous Lickman run and it is too populated for me an some anglers are fishing with floats on the side. A few regulars are there including Helmut who is without his 4 legged fishing partner Mavis. Helmut has his his rod folded up, that means one thing he has taken a steelhead. Helmut says " the bit was quite good first thing and that is when he picked up his nice hatchery doe.
Helmut slips me a small piece of his fresh roe to cure up, maybe feeling sorry for my week to the day without a fish. I decide not to fish this run as too many other anglers on this holiday Monday. Instead I head down to the Diving Board Run. Two anglers are hot footing it ahead of me down the Rotary Trail. They settle in at the top of the run and fence post so I feel comfortable to slip at the bottom part of the run. I notice one angler not fishing and I decide he has been successful as well. Some fish around it appears.
I fish the run for around 15 minutes and Red Toque appears, packing his spinning reel and a fly rod. We have our usual good visit and both agree it has been a good season. I get restless and hungry at the same time so head back to the Leaf Mobile and go for breakfast.
A few old timers fishers are there and seem to be more intersested in talking about the past than getting out on the flow. Will I slip into that mode one day, time will tell.
One of them tells me he saw two fellows cleaning two steelhead the other day, both kelts
. Apparently they also had a dolly in their bag, ouch.
Over my breakfast I get 4 cell calls relating to the gravel issue. The cell phone can be a nuisance at times but it sure helps when a pressing issue like this is happening. At least I can get out fishing and still be available when needed, no Blackberry though for me.
I head to the far side of the Lickman Road run and in the 30 minutes I am there I see one angler into two and he lands a wild one. My Maple Leaf drennan bobber stays dry and I head for home for a nap, more productive maybe. I first pick up a couple of bobbers, no drennans though. While checking the shore line for the bobbers I see 4 spots where the gravel has been turned over. They are steelhead redds as the steelhead have started to spawn now in the lower river, preparing the nests. The fish are no where in sight, sitting in the deeper water waiting for darkness so they can continue their housekeeping I believe. If one was to slip down near dark I am sure you will be able to see them.
After my nap, a few chores then I head back for the evening bite, back to the Lickman Road run. It is devoid of anglers for the most part as well as all the anglers from the morning are gone. Two ladies have fashioned some sort of fishing pole from a limb and have a rock on for a weight was sort of funny with no chance of a fish unless the rock hit one on the head.
But hey, I did not catch anymore than they did and I guess they were having fun. I wonder if they had a fishing license but maybe they had no hook on the end.
I see one steelhead surface, a rather dark looking one, maybe it will be hard to find a fresh fish now. Of course I can not find a fish of any sort.
As darkness closes in once again I see the first flocks of swallows in the air above me. The birds are cheerfully dipping and diving for the insects that are I am sure are now appearing with the warmer days. It brings thoughs to me that in no time we will be turning our attention from steelhead to hungry rainbows, anxious to latch on to yours and my offerings, in our favorite lakes.
I decide to leave the run and see more birds, the badminton type as I head for the badminton court thinking I may return to this run at first light tomorrow and see if I can land steelhead number 29 or maybe reach 30.
As I head back down the Rotary Trail jets thunder overhead coming from the Abbotsford Airport heading to some distance destination. The sweet smell of new growth is in the air, all around me, from the budding leaves to the wild flowers now just starting to bloom.
As well love is not only in the water in the steelhead redds I saw earlier in the day but on the trail as well. Many young couples walk hand in hand down the path of life, planning their future as they stroll down the winding trail ahead of them.
As I pass the couples on the way to the Leaf Mobile I start to think of the Vancouver Sun article on the alvein deaths coming out tomorrow morning and how well it will expose the apparent disregard by some for our fish stocks. I hope for the young couples, that the future ahead of them is not a rocky as it appears to be for our fish stocks. It could be, if those in charge do not work harder to do a better job in order to preserve our precious salmonids for the future and for these young couple's offspring. Time will tell I guess.
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Topic: The Steelhead Are Spawning, The Journal For April 17 (Read 4009 times)