Well I'm living in Castlegar until mid July as I am doing my teaching practicum through UBC up here. When i left Coquitlam to move up here, I ws told the fishing would be good. Until today I had only caught one small rainbow, last year in the early fall, and I was getting a little jelous of those who are catching their steelhead on the vedder.
So yesterday I saw that it was supposed to be nice and sunny the next day and I decided it would be a good oppertunity to get out and fish the Columbia River. At least I wouldn't have to go very far, the house I'm renting is right on the river. :thumbup:
I tied some flies last night, brown wooly buggers to be exact, and went to bed dreaming of a good day fishing.
Today I got to a slow start, I had to do some stuff around the house and had to grade some of my students papers. Anyway, I got to the river at about 4, put on my Kamloops reel on my 5 wt Sage launch with my intermediate sink line and a brown wooly bugger on the end. I fished the different pools heading down stream, noticed lots of chironomids hatching and saw a couple risers. I decided to pull a U-turn and head back up stream. There I found a nice back eddy just off of some fast water. Third cast in and I feel some weight. My first reaction was that I had snagged bottom. Then line started to peel off my reel and a nice size rainbow gave me an arial show. the big bend in my 5wt was a beautiful sight. After a good fight, with many strong runs I managed to get the 20" rainbow to my hand. What a rush.
Well Im happy to say that I have now caught a Kootenay Rainbow. I just can't wait to get out again.
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Topic: Columbia River - Castlegar, April 4th 2009 (Read 2449 times)