Here comes the rain, and the fish!
Last night I headed to bed at midnight, but had a hard time falling asleep because of the sound of the rain, and knowing that I was going to get into some good fishing this morning.
I woke up at 3:50am, without the alarm clock, which was a first...
Every year my dad's in town for a week to fish with me, and we usually plan it so he would hopefully be able to get into some nice coho salmon. After arriving at YVR yesterday, we decided to head out this morning despite of the heavy rainfall.
We arrived at the river at 5:50am, and asking ourselves why the heck did we came so early.
Twenty minutes later, itosh and trout slayer pulled up behind our car. They were rather laid back while sipping away their Timmy's coffee and hot chocolate.
My dad and I were already dressed and ready to hit the runs. When it became bright enough to see at 6:30am or so, we headed down to a run where I have been consistently catching fish.
A few casts into it, my dad decided that the branch in front of him had to be my Drennan's new best friend.
So FA or CG, there is a Drennan Zeppler, size 20 grams dangling on a branch somewhere in the lower river, waiting for you.
The morning bite wasn't there, I didn't get into a fish until 7:30am or so. I caught two coho jacks within ten minutes, released one while keeping the other.
Trout Slayer and itosh tackled a run further down from us, and I could see them hooking into some fish. Not long after the jacks, I finally got into a spring jack, which broke me off near shore.
Trout slayer decided to come up to where we were, he had a spring jack with him. We decided to head down to where itosh was after fishing with TS for awhile.
Itosh also had landed a spring jack, and said he had been missing several bites. A few casts into it, I set the hook hard as the float went for a dive. Unfortunately the line went loose as the fish swam towards me really fast. It was off after a few seconds.
Few casts later, another float dive, this time the hookset produced some powerful kicks on the Stryker 2106, indicating this was a large white chinook. To my surprise, I was able to turn the fish on the light setup without any trouble. Itosh kindly tailed that big baby for me, she had a big scar on her back, otherwise a very chrome fish. After looking at it for a few seconds, we let her back into the run.
After a brief break, I was able to hook one more chinook just below itosh.
This one produced some even heavier kicks, but again I was able to turn it with the Stryker 2106 easily.
A few minutes later, itosh tailed it for me again. This time I took over the fish, while itosh got a few photos for me.
That one went back into the run too, I wasn't about to haul a 20 pounder back to the car.
Oh yes, itosh also got into a big spring as well. It was bigger than mine, but not as chrome.
There was a school of chinook salmon moving in consistently around mid morning.
About 30 minutes after the chinook fest, finally the float went for the dunk I was looking for at the end of a drift. It's typical to see the coho grabbing the roe at the end of the drift when you slow it down. This fish came straight to the surface and thrashed a few times, I immediately had this
on my face.
After some powerful runs and more leaps, I headed towards the bank. I asked itosh to tell me if it was a hatchery fish or not. He gave the green light after a closer look, and I proceeded to pull it onto the bank.
A nice female coho around 8lb.
Just after I killed that fish, trout slayer moved down to where we were again. Sneaky sneaky.
My dad and I decided to pack it up for the day as the rain was just getting too heavy, and I had to get back for work.
While cleaning my fish, trout slayer was able to land a hatchery coho around the same size as mine (a few inches shorter
).
They're still fishing, so the rest of the report will come tonight.
Water was rising FAST by the way, please be very careful if you are wading out to a bar. Water clarity remains good, but it was colouring up slightly.
Unfortunately no fish for my dad.
He had a few good takes but was too slow on the hookset.
Poor guiding I tell ya...
Hopefully some of you will be lucky this weekend.
Few things to remember
- You need a freshwater fishing licence when fishing the Chilliwack River.
- You need to purchase a salmon conservation stamp if you intend to keep your salmon.
- Daily quota for pink salmon is four fish below the Vedder Crossing in Chilliwack River.
- Daily quota for hatchery coho salmon is four fish in Chilliwack River. Hatchery coho salmon have no adipose fin.
- Daily quota for chum salmon is one fish in Chilliwack River.
- Daily quota for chinook salmon is four fish in Chilliwack River, but only one maybe over 62cm.
- You may only keep four salmon (mixed species) in total per day.
- Only a single barbless hook is allowed.
- You must release any sockeye and wild coho carefully.
- Pink salmon have large oval spots on their back and tail. Sockeye salmon do not have spots. Chinook salmon have tiny black spots on its back and tail. Coho salmon have tiny black spots on its back and upper tail, and white gum.
- Please note that some sockeye salmon in the Chilliwack River also do not have an adipose fin.
- Complete Chilliwack River salmon regulations can be found on this page.
- Please phone DFO Chilliwack 604-702-2278 if you observe a violation.
- Make sure you have a good fillet knife to clean your catch and a cooler with ice to keep your it fresh.
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Topic: Chilliwack River, September 29th 2005 (Read 15586 times)