I thought some of you might like to hear how my maiden voyage to the Vedder River went. I drove up from Seattle Saturday morning, getting a late (hung-over) start at around 8:30. Had to stop for copious amounts of water and other ailments along the way, and didn't reach the Border at Sumas until 11:00 or so.

I just have to say, Sumas is great. Hadn't been there in years and it reminded me of that town on Northern Exposure, only the women weren't quite as fetching. The wait at the border was awful. I took me over an hour to get the station. Making this trip on a whim, I didn't bring a passport or other proof of citizenship. Just my driver's lisence. I had to go into the immigration desk at the border, where they asked me various non-sensical questions -- why I was going into Canada, if I'd ever murdered any small animals or children, if I was wearing boxers of briefs, how many fingers they were holding up -- before letting me in. I have no clue what sort of people those questions are designed to screen out, but it all seemed very silly to me.

Found Fred's Custom Tackle in Chilliwack, bought a lisence, some "wool" and hardware, and generally enjoyed hearing that goofy Canadian accent. Drove along the Chilliwack River Road to a likely looking pull out, and went to the river. Folks were mostly catching pinks on wool under a float. I had heard this river was combat fishing at its finest, and was quite dissappointed. Maybe the Candadian definition of "combat fishing" differs from ours, but there was plenty of room to cast, play fish, sit on rocks, etc. Not having a float, I walked downstream a few hundred yards and had a nice run all to myself. Couldn't get a good drift on the bottom (constantly snagging if I had enough weight to get down, not getting down to the fish if I took the weight off to avoid getting hung up...you all know how it goes...sigh...).

I walked back to my car and grabbed my six weight with ultra-fast sink tip, and the game was one. Caught quite a few pinks on various pink flies. The fish were pretty aggressive, and were so numerous it was freaky. The water was gin clear and somewhat shallow, so it was pretty fun. I basically just saw pinks being caught, with a very rare coho being landed. I did see what must have been a 20 pound, living-dead chum swimming around, which got my heart pounding (can't wait 'till the rivers are full of these guys!).

The capper to an excellent day of fishing was dinner, at Burger King. My total was 5.68, and I paid with an American 20 dollar bill. When she rang up my order, on the cashier, it said, "total: 5.68." "Tender: 20.00" "Change: 22.34." And that's when I realized just how wonderful Canada is...

Crossing back into the States was a cinch: no lineup (though the lineup to go South at the time I was going North looked horrible...cars backed up for blocks and blocks and blocks), no hassle.

As an aside, if any of you know when the Springs and Chum start showing up in numbers (I had expected to see some yesterday, and was surprised to see only pinks), and how to fish them (I'm assuming wool under floats), feel free to respond.

Hey Eye,
Just wait until the chum & kings start running, then you'll see combat fishing for sure! That won't be until about the last week in Oct. They, like us, need RAIN to get the water flow up, then the Vedder will be thick with salmon. Most of the locals don't bother with the pinks, but your right they are fun to catch on fly's. www.sportfishingbc.com is where you can keep any eye (no pun intended) on what the locals are saying about the Vedder on the BB. We go up every year at least a couple of times when the kings start showing. One thing, the area is really beautiful! did you know that you can get a real good map of the entire river, that shows all the best holes, at Fred's? Good luck, might see you up there in a few weeks.

Hi Smolt: I just got back from the Vedder yesterday .There are plenty of white springs (chinook) in the river now. The hot spots in the upper river are busy,Ranger pool,Thurston Meadow and the Slesse mouth pool were all busy. In order to fish without screwing up your neihbours you need float,baitcaster gear. with small red wool lure. Chum havent showed up in the run below Thurston yet, green wool for them.
Try cooking your chum as small 1"chunks like lobster. Immerse briefly in salted boiling water suspended in a sieve in a large pot of boiling h2o. Accompanied by corn fritters and some Maple Syrup. with a good bottle of dry white.I brough home a 25lb chinook and left the rest in the river.
coot

Ok, I feel stupid asking this, but what is WOOL? I think I read someplace what it was a few years ago, but forgot.

And 3/0, what's the story behind your moniker? Really happened?

Wool is the same thing as our yarn,,,,, I think.

Yep...wool is yarn. They are backwards and goofy up there. Our floatfishing is driftfishing to them but our driftfishing is bottom bouncing to them and their floatfishing...we dont even do down here.

Plunking is bar fishing...so they must not have a Plunker but they probally have a Barfisher-someone who wants to kill every nate that swims and gets kicks out of tracing everyone's IP.

[ 10-07-2001: Message edited by: RPetzold ]

Thanks for clarifying.

Oh, I get it now, good one RP