I met with my buddy Tadpole this morning at Fred's after not having fished for many weeks - actually, it was only my third outing this season.
We went to the Upper River, as the mid and lower rivers were un-fishable by our standards in the early AM (we don't like throwing stuff into 6" of visibility - unless it is a sockeye opening in the Fraser
).
Nothing for us at our chosen spots.
Then we took a drive up to the cement slab to see what was going on there. Of course, it was a gong show as usual with those water conditions. We got acquainted with a group of Asian guys that were just hanging out rather than fishing. What a hoot!
We had a lot of fun exchanging tips and experiences. These guys were very well versed in all things steelheading. They showed us a couple of neat non-commercially available hand-made artificials, and a couple of "Chinese variations" to old standards that we had never seen before. Tadpole and I will definitely incorporate them into our steelheading arsenal. They looked so yummy that I almost wanted to put one of them in my mouth (the tackle, not the Asian guys
).
If you are reading this - you know who you are - thank you for the laughs and for the knowledge sharing. That's what a day on the river is all about! You made our day and we look forward to running into you again.
As the morning went on, the situation improved considerably and we decided to try a spot in the mid-river. In about a foot of visibility, I managed to briefly connect with a beautiful slab that gave me the finger salute after a couple of well executed jumps.
Oh, well, at least I connected.
Except that fish, it was nothing else for us, but we did see a couple landed - both wild.
Just as we were enjoying a nice conversation with an elderly gentleman and his son, it started to rain torrentially, which got us all racing back to our vehicles. That was the end of the fishing part of the day.
As it was still too early (maybe 2:00 PM or so), Tadpole invited me to lunch (thank you buddy - much appreciated
) at the newly opened and renovated Pointavista restaurant. OMG!
The new (Mexican) owners have really turned the place around. They obviously have a master cook - the food is
really great. There are some excellent Latin American dishes available which you guys simply have to try out. The coffee is also freshly brewed and very tasty. We had farmer sausage and perogies, which came with a delightful Colombian soup as a bonus. The soup alone is a meal in itself. The prices are still very low because they are in the promotional period and they will obviously have to make adjustments to the prices in the future - they can't be making any money with the current prices. But as long as they keep the food quality, I wouldn't mind paying a bit more. It would really be nice to see the place thrive as it is nice to have an eatery with delicious and inexpensive home-style made food available to us on those long fishing days.
(I hope that I am not breaching any forum rules by sharing my enthusiasm for "Efrain's Pointavista" restaurant near Thompson Park. If I am, my apologies and feel free to delete the offending part.)
All in all, a great day on the river - hopefully it wont be too long before we are back.
Tight lines, Milo
Author
Topic: Chilliwack River, March 16th 2013 (Read 3025 times)