It was a great idea when it hatched. My fishing buddy, Les, and I would take his buddy, Doug, from Calgary for a little winter fishing. After all, the temperature had been hovering around 50F. Even if it rained, it would be tolerable.
Doug's visit would be short so we planned a day-trip to the Fraser River sloughs.
And then it snowed. It's not supposed to snow in the Vancouver area, but it does almost every
year, lasting maybe a day or two. This time the snow stayed, and more fell.
Well, there was nothing to do but go fishing anyway.
As we left Vancouver, heading East toward Calgary, the drifts deepened and the thermometer dropped. We passed large bodies of still water, lightly frozen over. We studied moving water for access points where ice had piled up against the shore. We drove, and drove and drove, and drove.
Finally we arrived at a recommended spot and suited up.
Slabs of ice drifted in a Slurpee of a river as we cast to small pools of open water. Chunks of ice would nibble at the fly causing us to strike and large slabs would take the hook deeply forcing us to break off.
It seemed a truly useless occupation so we broke for lunch; bagels, grilled on a makeshift hibachi with smoked salmon and cream-cheese and a beer that wasn't really appealing in the snow and wind and below-freezing temperature.
We drove and drove and drove. Spotting a couple of bait fishers at another slough, Doug and Les dropped down to take a look. They fished a couple of promising pools long enough for fishery officers to check their licences and advise us that there was good fishing on the Chehalis; 18 and 20 inch cutthroat and steelhead jacks.
We drove and drove and drove.
With about an hour of daylight left, we hiked through the hatchery parking lot, past the spawning channel to where it joins the Chehalis and found the prettiest little river. Several bait fishers were working the river, casting roe where the channel joins the river. They'd taken several fish and occupied the prime spots.
Short of time, we wet our lines and told ourselves and each other that we'd have to come back some time.
Then, we drove and drove and drove, one of us searching for good food and the other two looking for a stripper-bar.
Never did get to eat supper, but it was a satisfying trip; smoked salmon and a little bar fishing.
Didn't catch anything either.
"There are no steelhead".
