Vedder madness 2004

Well, Vedder river madness has come and gone. This year was a little slower than last. Don't get me wrong there were still ton's of fish to be caught, we just didn't see the really big number days that we are accustomed to. My biggest was at 40 lbs. Grant Dilger won the big fish award with a genuine 50 pound fish. The first trip was last week for three days, we fished the lower river just up from Peach street and found one day of good fishing but the fish seemed to be there one day then gone the next. More fish were to be had up at the bridge below Tomahi rapids but the problem with that spot is unless you get really lucky you can't land allot of the fish you hook because of the fast water. I will tell you this, I will NEVER buy another pack of vision hooks again in my life. I ran out of hooks and went up to Fred's in chilliwack, the only thing they had left in 2/0 was Eagle claw and Vision, I knew E.C. was already junk so I took the chance on a pack of the dreaded Vision. They straighten out so easily that I almost lost my mind. I will always stay true to Owner hooks. Even if I have to drive a hundred mile to find them.


This week we went back to the Vedder for just a day. The river was higher and the fish that had come in with the rain had moved up quickly. The bridge hole had a huge school of springs (white Chinook) under it and we commenced pummiling them for several hours. All of us hooked fish but only one was landed. Brian took home a nice 16 lb king. We got sick of loosing every thing we hooked so with what was left of the daylight we headed up to Allison pool. There were coho in every pool and lots of springs. Paul landed a fish that was very close to 30 lbs and I put the wood to a small jack. The fish went off of the bite as soon as we landed our fish so nothing else happened except for a visit from a young curious blue heron. Had we gotten to the pool earlier I think we could have been better off. Oh well...............