I have just returned from a three week long business trip in Chilliwack and to say that I am very glad to be home is like saying water is kinda damp.
What a disappointment.
I don't travel well to begin with but this trip was to bring me to a training facility literally right on the shores of the Vedder river and I figured that if the course I was on began to grate on my nerves at the very least the fishing would keep me sane.
Wrong.
The fishing was terrible.
Upon arrival I contacted a guide that I had booked through a local outfitter in order to work out the logistics of our trip. In a rare display of west coast decency the guide shop actually talked me out of the walk a wade Steelhead 'adventure'.
"Knowing where you are from and considering the condition of our fishery you are most likely going to be disappointed so I will save you some dough...besides the river isn't that hard to figure out. You can access it anywhere and there are usually tons of people."
That is the sound of my heart sinking.
I did fish....I mean I am not a complete idiot.
I ended up buying a ridiculously expensive 7 day fishing license complete with 'Steelhead tag' (?).
I fished the first day with nary a nibble and had planned on fishing the following weekend hard as well but a nasty bout of stomach flu put the kibosh on that.
That first day I fished optimum looking water for about 7 hrs with no less then 300 people and I saw one fish caught. To be fair it was a big fish......probably 15 lbs of hatchery stupidity and it was immediately smashed on the head by the dirt bag that had landed it.
Get me the fuck out of here.
I don't know what I expected but I now know for certain what I had suspected all along......
WE HAVE GOT IT MADE HERE BOYS!!!!!!!!!!!
The crew at the local tackle shop were the rudest MFers I have ever run across and I wanted very badly to burn the place down. When they found out we were from Ontario we might as well have announced that we were from a leper colony.
Fuck them.
I would be bitter too if my Steelhead fishery had gone in the shitter.
After some searching we located a fly shop with some really cool people....one of which was a transplanted fella from Ontario. When we laid our story on him he just laughed and said that his fly shop regularly organizes Steelhead trips to the Great Lakes.
True Story.
Sad Story.
Another thing that shocked me was the amount of crime!!!???
Chilliwack is a gangridden shithole....and I am not talking about wanna-bes....these guys are the real dealio. Drug money and power dominates the lower mainland and it is like living in a friggin warzone...all this with a backdrop of scenery that is so beautiful that it is hard to look at. Surreal.
If I was forced to live there I would surely disappear into the mountains.
Any hoo....I am home now....thank the Christ.
My course sucked but I was successful and with any luck I will never leave my family again.
Did I miss anything?
:o)
7 comments:
Useless! Jesus...
Well you didn't miss much! I travelled to Ohio and caught a thousand Chrome Manistees. ;0)
Seriously, Sorry to hear the dismal report. On a positive note...that MFing place is on the other side of the Continent and you are back home.
But you still have to contend with that unholy gap on the dishwasher
:0(
The good news is that work owes me a few days so I will have a little more leave to burn for some Stateside dashes.
..Should've seen the weather out there...it was like spring and it poured rain for 6 days straight at one point...like night and day!!
People were waking around in parkas and most of the ONtario crew were in T shirts.
youch! you didn't deserve that treatment. i don't think you were far enough west. there are some nice people this far out. i know some of them personally.
Any farther west and I would be swimmin'..lol
It would be nice to go back specifically for fishes nest time....but whos kiddin who....I don't travel well.
With the new baby due in June I probably will have a tough enough time finding a drift in my own back yard.
:o)
G-Unit,
Glad that you made it back, and the comments you made are similar to one's I heard from a friend who spent time out there, he added that some people virtually still fish glacial lakes using fly rods, sink tip lines and chironomids ~ based on that I would suspect that shoving live rodents up one's arse is also quite common "out there" as well.
Shame that you did not connect with any fish, but I still think you might have been undergunned with the Rainshadow RX7, light weight and 5g Drennan loafer....
See you in MI in either late Feb. or early March ~ I fished Skamanias on the Big Man. in 2004 and would like to try for the spring runners...
Thx Joe.
I doubt I will being doing much fishing this Feb unless numbnuts can twist my arm. Usually the outflows manage to keep me in the game with their bizarre offering of sport but for the most part I think that I will just take advantage of the OT kickin around at work. It would be a good idea to do some Xmas $$ repairs and we need to decorate a new nursery.
:o)
It was interesting to note that the more sucessful fisherman out that way are actually scaling down their presentation. It seems we are meeting halfway.
Although generally I try not to talk about work to specifically here the course I was on was a great disappointment and it has left a very bad taste in my mouth as well.
Oh well...good to be home.
Yesterday Kim had her ultrasound and the baby looks great!!!!
Good to remember what is really important in life.
glad to hear your back. sorry the trip didn't work out as you thought it might. the grass isn't always greener, although bc is suppose to have good grass. talk soon
gw
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