Ice Cap Bulls

With most of the Christmas turkey now into soup and all the celebrations under our belt it was time to get out and get some fresh air.  The boxing day derby on the Vedder in Chilliwack was a beautiful day but really crisp and I spent far too much time chipping ice from the eyes of my rod.  The first fish in the Fred's Tackle/Walley Hall/Chilliwack fish and game club derby was only checked in around the 23rd of December signalling a late and slow start to the Steelhead season on the Vedder.  This did not bode well for the Chilliwack Fish and Game club derby and though there over 331 anglers signed up (I know because I was the 331st and I did that just before Fred's shut down for Christmas Eve.)

On boxing day, I got out on the water in the upper end of the canal and it was cold but only one other angler was upstream so I felt I was first at the hole.  This did not turn out to be much of an advantage and although I worked the several hundred yards of river I only ended up with a large sucker to show for it.  As it turned out an estimated 180 anglers did make it out for derby day and only three fish were weighed in when the bell sounded at 2:00 pm.  By then I was well on my way to mom's for a hot shower and belated Christmas ham.

The first few days in January right after the big snow were clear and cold and the Squamish looked to be in prime shape but almost 24 inches of snow made the road virtually impassable.   Then came the rains of this week which boosted the Capilano, Mamquam and as I drove out today the Squamish was up somewhat and muddy.  So the day got a slow start but success favors those who persevere.  I got a late start but as it turned out I only saw 5 trucks that I could attribute to fishermen and this seemed in my favor.

I set out to try out some new flies and so the experiment took some time to get right.  Eventually things started to click and I had one persistent bull chase my lure just about to the rod tip.  On the third chase it tasted the point of the hook and decided that was enough.  The river visibility was only 2 feet at best so you pretty much had to find the fish rather than having the fish attack from any significant distance.

Yes I know that one of the pictures above is blurry but when you forget to check the lens setting and your hands are frozen after pushing aside an iceberg so you can make the cast you go with what you get.  These brutes made it feel like the fly was solidly anchored to the bottom before they finally began to move and gave the rod that nice sweet bend.

This porker must have been swallowing 8 inch trout with an extended belly like that.  This one is in such fine shape that it almost looked like a nice coho but turned out to be a beautiful chrome bull.  It hit the fly and missed and then crushed it when I did a quick uplift of the rod tip to make the fly look like it was trying to escape which it couldn't resist and just hammered it as the fly was just below the surface.  Nice!

The last fish of the day was the 4th one from the same stretch of water to attack the fly.  It was definitely not as fat as the previous fish but gave a fine battle none-the-less.  Soon though daylight was starting to fade, the temperature was dropping and feet and fingers were well past numb.  Also, the four sets of wolf tracks that were criss-crossing the river banks in the area were also on my mind.  I don't know what they were looking for in the river other than perhaps old salmon carcasses but it was time to head to the truck and find a good cup of hot coffee........Tight lines!