[russianboy]

Hello everyone I am new to this forum, I have been fishing for salmon for over 8-9 years now. I have fished the chilliwack starting in about late september and every weekend on untill about october 20th or so. I was mostly around the railroad bridge area, All that time I saw no Spring, I hooked only 2 cohos and lots of chum. I was just wondering did I miss the main runs of spring / cohos ?
I went to the chehalis river. under the bridge and upwards about 500 meters was all full of chum, so I decided to hike up stream. I hiked for about 20 minutes and walked down the first path that led down to the river. As i got down there were about 7-8 fishermen in the area with 2 having 1 coho each and another guy with a fairly fresh chinook an coho.
are there any more places to fish in the canyon if I keep hiking further upstream, and is there a difference in the quality of fishing comparing if you go higher upstream?


Thank you.

 

[Richard Nixon]

My only advise is be on the lookout for sasquatch, they inhabit the area but nobody has definate proof. I've got a story that would make your hair stand on end!

 

[young gun]

walked out at about 7 oclock last november in pitch black no flash lights or head lamps, very scary, lots of weird noises.

 

[russianboy]

HaHa ;D

 

[anthony]

I have heard "STORIES" from the locals when i fished that river about 7 years ago been up there a couple times but never again

 

[russianboy]

lol the trail is a bit of a hike

I can imagine how difficult it is in pitch black ;D

 

[Pat AV]

Hello Russianboy,

Welcome to the forum. The Chehalis Canyon is very nice as you now know. As several members have eluded to the area is surrounded by mystery and as you observed the scenery is fantastic..

The fishing can be quite good and there are several access point into the canyon, all of them require some strenuous walking and plenty of caution. Always take your time on those trails and maybe even take a length of rope just for caution. I cannot stress the caution enough, many anglers have been injured or killed up there over the years,

All these warnings aside do not be afraid to explore the area, I have been doing so for years and have never been hurt. Just be prepared. As for the fishing it is usually fairly good throughout the canyon, I have not found any particular area to be better than others. On any given day one area can outproduce any other. The trail you were on today does go further up and there is some beautifully water to be found U/S from there.

Have fun exploring it and maybe we'll bump into each other up there some day.

Cheers,

Pat

 

[russianboy]

well as I said it was my very first time on the canyon, I want to start fishing their more than the chilliwack river I'm just wondering how good the fishing is there in general and what are the dates for the main fish ( coho, chinook, king chinook)? and what are most effective methods on that river?.



thankyou

 

[Pat AV]

Right sorry I forgot the dates, the fishing will be good in that system most years after the first GOOD rain in october.

Bait, hardware jigs will all work up there in the right type of water.

 

[russianboy]

Thanks for your feedback Pat, it is very much appreciated.

Yea I did realize today how potentially dangerous the trail could be. In fact on my way back I slipped on a downhill part and fell hard on my side :wallbash: .

 

[Richard Nixon]

My brother and I were fishing up there over 20 years ago. We walked about 5 or 6 holes above anyone else, down from Statlu on the east side. I was about 50 yards above Dale fishing the head of a pool when all of a sudden the hair on the back of my neck and arms stood up! There was a funny smell too. I looked down at my brother and all of a sudden he just froze, then he reeled in his line and beelined for the trail. On the way out we didn't speak to each other, just kept walking fast. Back in those days there was a log cabin pub/restaurant across from the Sasquatch Inn before it burnt down. We went in there for some reason, I still to this day don't know if we were in shock or what, sat down and just looked at each other. The owner of the joint comes up to us, hands us menus, looks at both of us and says, "you guys were just up in the canyon weren't you?". My brother and I were just blown away! I said to the guy "how did you know?" and he replied, "I've seen that look before".... ???

 

[Pat AV]

Yeah I hear you Barskull the place is down right spooky sometimes, I just love it. I used to go solo deep in to there when I was younger, now I preffer to go with a buddy. Just seems smarter now that I don't think I am invincible anymore.

I used to love going in to that log cabin restaurant always had a neat feel to it.

 

[russianboy]

Man that sounds scary, I am never going in the canyon again :happy:

hehe

sounds like an interesting story.

 

[russianboy]

The fishing was good there when I went as I said people had cohos and one spring on the rocks ;D

 

[Richard Nixon]

I reported it to a chaser over in Rosedale, he said that it wasn't uncommon to have those types of encounters in that area.

 

[young gun]

well we weren't on the trail dad made sure we were a good 200 ft above the trail, we bushed wacked it all the way back to the big hill, better safe to be above the trail than to be bellow it. And u can only get so far up the canyon, we walked in for about 45 minutes then waded 3 tailouts and then u hit a run with 2 rock walls on either side about 5ft deep, can go any farther, but it gets really lonely way up there. This was in med/low water, the coho still make it that far, but very few chum

 

[russianboy]

yeah thanks for that info, I will probably not go to the very dead end maybe will hike 30 minutes or so? I am guessing most of you use coho jigs in the pools or?

 

[young gun]

colorado blades dead drifted and roe. Jigs when can see how the fish react to them

 

[Richard Nixon]

You'll end up above the canyon if you know where you're going Young Gun. It's not all that long, maybe 4 clicks at most but near the end its tough terrain, if you can't find the trails. The fish up there havn't been harrassed by rippers or jiggers for a while, so they're not spooked out. There is NO cell phone reception up that far so if you fall or hurt yourself, you're hooped. Make sure someone knows where the hell you're going beforehand just in case. How many times have you been up in that canyon Young Gun?

 

[russianboy]

What technique is dead drifting?