I arrived in Vancouver at 5:30. They had a problem with the luggage belt and there was a long delay waiting for luggage. The worst kick in the teeth was that after 2 hours wait, they told me they have lost my rod case!!! They’ll have to send it to me later. So I went to meet Kazu to grab some breakfast and start planning the following few days.
After breakfast, I got my fishing licenses. Kazu and I decided to do some saltwater shore fishing. We were meet with low tide and our first spot was unfishable. So we headed to the mouth of the Indian River to fish the rising tide.
Again, we were met with low tide as we arrive.
There were these palm-sized starfish everywhere! I couldn’t believe how big they can get!
We fished with a slip float rig to begin…using worms as bait. Soon, my first new BC catch…a small staghorn sculpin.
Finally, after Kazu caught so many shiner perch, I tagged into my first!
Then came more sculpins until this surprise English sole.
And as the tide rose higher and higher, I guess the larger fish came in closer…or maybe the shore came closer to us LOL…I had a reel screamer on the ultralight! It turned out to be a big pile perch! A little later on, I got another one about the same size!
So we ended the day with numerous staghorn sculpins and shiner perch, an English sole each and 2 pile perch for our 4 hours of fishing! Awesome!
July 2nd
This is the first official day of our road trip. We started at Coquitlam and headed for the Thompson River. On the way, we stopped at Kazu’s “favourite” fly shop in Hope. After the 4 hours drive, we finally arrived at the Thompson.
We fished around this area for a while but found no fish willing to fall for anything (fly or plastics). So we headed off to Kazu’s secret spot.
As the day gets darker, the fish began to get a bit active. We drifted stonefly nymphs for a while without success. Rises were common…but we were not too sure on what. Then I spotted a caddis…SWEET! I love fishing the caddis hatch! So on goes a #16 Elk Hair Caddis that I tied in Ontario…and after a couple of drifts…Fish ON!
After a scrappy fight on my 6-wt fly rod, it came in jumping and splashing! I’ve never had a fish fight that hard on the 6-wt…not even the 1lb peacock bass.
Then Kazu got one himself as well after acquiring a caddis from me.
We ended the day with 2 fish for me and 3 for Kazu…all Kamloops rainbow and the biggest ones were about 15”.
At the end of the day, we heated up some fried rice with the propane heater LOL.
July 3rd
After spending a night and making breakfast at a rest area, we started our way toward Prince George. After the 5 hours drive, we checked into a motel and headed out exploring a couple of streams. The Chilako river is near a town called Mud River…we should have taken the hint LOL. The river was low but muddy…I guess no shot for dolly varden. Oh well…option #2.
As we were driving to Willow River, we saw an ominous cloud…and a rainbow.
As I’ve learned from Hawaii, when you see a rainbow, rain is coming your way…and so it did! But we kept going and soon passed the developing storm. We got to Willow River to be greeted by a few spits of rain…but it soon cleared up. The river looked great! The guidebook said there were small rainbows to be found.
As Kazu went exploring, I stayed around the access point and fished a small pool under a small side riffle. My #16 Caddis got me 7 little rainbows up to 9”.
Kazu found 1 little rainbow at a log jam that fell to a stonefly nymph.
As it was getting dark, we ended the day and headed back to the motel.
July 4th
Today, we made our way to Chetwynd and the surrounding areas. Kazu had caught arctic grayling and bull trout in this area last summer. So I was super excitied! I was awestricken by the scenery around the Rockies foothills.
But when we arrived…as we’ve expected, the rivers were blown! NOOOO!!!!!
Luckily, I was looking into the guidebook and the map…and found this little creek…which shall remain unnamed. Apparently, it holds arctic grayling and small numbers of Rocky Mountain whitefish and bull trout. Let’s just call it Ken and Kazu’s Trifactor Heaven.
Well, the first evening there was a bit disappointing. All the better looking pools and runs were empty. But I did find my first Rocky Mountain whitefish in some small pocket waters very close to shore. And also my second mountain whitefish in a log jam.
Kazu found a nice slow pool and had a couple of rises from a larger fish…likely those whitefish. But he only managed to get a small one to hit.
Hm…the catching was a little weak since we fished over 6 hours at this stretch. We checked every good looking and bad looking pool, riffles, runs, pocket water, trees…and barely coax a couple of mercy bites LOL. So our decision was to fish the lower section and visit a pool under a waterfall where the guidebook said there should be good fishing.
Story continues...Part 2