duanec

it was purdy so i stayed to enjoy the morning and finish off another coffee a little while later i stopped to work a few runs and had some interest in a boatman. this rainbow did not want a portrait taken...um, nice action shot?

ah, so the day starts with a 7am call that the lads are not coming after all [nice], so it's just me & the pooch. that's ok, like the solo days once in a while. prepping at police as the sun was just starting to burn through the fog. i tried to throw a few casts as i pulled out, not 100 yds dwnstrm & i hook a really nice brown. completely unprepared and it's complete gong show to run the oars and play a good fish, and we parted company soon. i pulled over and watched some others drift by...

i did a couple back... wtf? another bc a.m.p. that looks like [on the surface anyways] it's gonna make it harder for us who don't have the privilidge of living bc to fish there? seriously: what-the-f? many thanks for the heads up, i'll be doing some homework as i have some contacts up there...

wow. after watching both the debates i gotta wonder... the 2 leaders that came across with the most intelligent w/questions and answers were green & bloc, both fringe party leaders [and they know it] who overall have platforms i can't support. i have a big big hate on for the idiot in my riding, harper makes me ill and dion is just, well, dion and the green shift has it's points, but well...and layton is a characture of himself. huh. where's the natural law party when you need it? some yogic flying on parliment hill and some old fashioned comic relief would be nice...

amazing pix, look fwd to round 2!

very sad news re: the hunter. i believe another hunter was killed by a bear last year in that general area? thanks for the update, good advice to be prepared.

neither have i, i just try to stay out of the way, but close enough i can see hear what they are doing. like anywhere service oriented these days you get a mixed bag of staff working there and i found it just pays to pay attention to some kids changing your oil.

my prev. vehicle was a jeep - i did it myself in my garage unless there was other work going that needed a pro. my present one is a pathfinder - i have done myself but it's an ass pain with all the plates & guards...diminishing returns re: time vs. money. and dealing with used oil...wife loved that part. now it's either mr. dube [check the work as it's done - you tend to get some attention paid when you appear to know what the crap is going on as opposed to reading the paper] or my local shop or the dealer.

yeah those can really leave a mark...

true story: friend of a friend is fishing the crow a many years back. he's solo, it's almost dark and he's working a size micro mayfly hatch. he chili-dips his back cast in the brush and in the process he inhales his fly up is nose. like way up. instant nasal drip flood and his eyes fill up with water. he tries fishing for it for a few minutes, but it hurts like hell and he only drives it in deeper. then - he drops and steps on his only pair of glasses. and he's basically blind without them at night. so after an hour or so of extreme blind bushwacking back to where he thinks his vehicle is he stumbles out onto the road, the first car stops as they see this poor bastard scratched to hell from brush, cut and bleeding everywhere. they drive him to where he thinks his truck is, but he's so blind and disoriented it's not there. they take pity on him and drove him into the doctor in town, they have to go in and get the fly from the other nostril it's so far up. and he needs several stitches to his many cuts and scrapes [he fell down alot on his little hike]. oh yeah, and by this time it's 3 AM and his wife has sent the search party out... that's one of the better ones i've heard.

that's an awesome fish and a great story!

oy vey, and amen!

we stayed at Nicholas Dean Lodge, Dustin Kovacvich is the head guide [he's the giant in the one pic]. http://www.nicholasdean.com/ yep our year was not as good steelhead-wise [from what i understand the commercial fishery in port alberni was mostly to blame?], but hearing good things this year.

my turn and the stand, and my first cast yielded this: which fortunately didn't count [was not a steelhead]. my second cast: and so we had an incredible day. we landed 8 steelhead and lost many, even had the opportunity to skate drys for them until late in the day. so late in fact the lodge sent out a search party as it was almost dark by the time we got back to the vehicle. who needed lunch? anyways, that was my first trip and i officailly got the fever. i thought it was a bunch of bs until that day, but now i iunderstand. i'm itching to get back for more, planning a trip next fall perhaps to the island but maybe up north again. thanks for bearing with me.

our last day, the guides pulled out the stops. the other group in the lodge were americans, some of them were a little bit, shall we say, snobbish and had outfished the canuckleheads. the lodge saw this, and so we were being taken to the 'secret spots' that the guides fish themselves. sure, ok. so 90 minutes into our very rough ride up an abandoned logging road, our guide realizes we don't have our lunch, or any water. lol. our instructions - keep going, we're not going back. after almost 2 hours of driving we stop, the guide shares out his own lunch and what water we have, and we set out on foot. after pushing bush for over an hour we emerged on the most beautiful tank pool i have ever seen. we flip a coin for first cast - i lose. he has a chaser the very first flick, and on the follow up: my buddy's first on the fly.

day 3 was spent on the skeena, where i sampled casting spey for the first time. it's way cool when it works, and i'd love to try it again. we fished all morning and i had one strike. by the afternoon the guide started expressing some concern that the fish were just not there in any numbers, although we did see a few. day 4, 2 of us did the copper, and the other 2 were on a very small trib in a raft. they hooked a couple nice steelies: but we had another fishless day on some very prime water. big lower lips from our team back at the lodge. many many rums...

day 2 another skeena trib. i watched as my buddy again outfished me and landed 6 coho. i was of the big lower lip until that last 15 mins of the drift back down the guide put me on a coho. i was very happy to not have the skunk going back to the lodge. don't i look happy? but the end of that day again we saw no steelhead.

more from day 1 - first fish of the trip this was a beaut.

the last 2 steelhead vids almost killed me, so i started flipping back to pix from my first [and so far only] trip, i'm sharing this as a form of therapy...i wish i was prepping to go back this year. the 4 of us stayed at a lodge up in terrace the first week of october. we chose it based upon chances of landing some good fish on the fly with a guide [first trip for all so no one knew what the hell we were doing] as well as logistics and cost. day 1 was fishing a trib of the skeena. was a very very brisk run up the river in the jet, the guide mercifully stopped more than once just so we could warm up a bit. a beautiful river, fantastic scenery. we got into some solid action on coho [i think we landed 8-10], but found no steelhead.

seen 'em caught on skated drys [and missed a chance on one once], but not dead drifted drakes. so it's like 'hey let's fish drys for cutts, 'cept, oops, here's a 12 lb steelie'? that's reedonkulous. all that vid does is feed the fever i caught in '06. when do we leave?

wow. looks bigger than that in the pic. my guess was totally based upon inexperience guestimating wt. for the particular species, and had nothing to do with the fact that perhaps some anglers tend to...ya know...exaggerate sometimes...

now if they'd only put some kind of fish exclusion device in place for the canal head...

um, wow. future peta recruits, no doubt

fiddy-four

in the herald today - they got the prov. approvals [$$] to go ahead now with the new budget, the city & others topped up some too. work 'could begin next month', 'could be open for summer 2010'. i know it will make for some potentially interesting new [and longer] drifts anyways...