[Bent Rod]

Fished the Vedder today, hiked a few miles of river, with only a VERY FEW worthwhile pieces worth casting into. The river seemed still a little high, as it was very swift with not much in the way of fishable water, which may have been caused by the recent floods. The upper had about 2.5 feet of vis, and below most of the clay action it had about 1 foot of vis.

In light of these water conditions, I have been tying up some new JIG patterns to aid in attracting fish in these less than stellar conditions. Today I tried some very large, bulky, buggy, chartreuse monster jigs. In one of the very few spots that smelled fishy, I found a fresh little steelie that just wiggled my float, enough that I lifted up my rod and was shocked to see a steelie shaking it's head. I lost it shortly after, and was rather pissed about not setting the hook properly. I immediately cast again into this piece of water, and my float once again started to act funny, this time I set the hook hard and was tight to what I thought was the same fish. After a very short battle I landed a nice chrome 7.5 lb buck steelie, and with no adipose fin both our days were done :lol: . Upon further inspection, I could clearly see the two puncture holes in the roof of it's mouth,definately same fish.

My buddies kept exploring and hopefully they also get a fresh steelie for sunday dinner or mybe a nice wild fish to make their day.
The rivers far from prime, but there are fish there for those who work it hard.
Good luck to those that can get out in the busy holiday season.

If your interested in jigs or a little info about how to fish them, check out my site, listed below.

 

[Rib]

Nice report Ironhead...good to see someone getting into some of these early fish...what did this monster jig look like? Can you show us a pic of the latest creation?
Nice fish,
Thx,
rib

 

[marko]

Good to hear you didn't come up empy handed Ironhead! Anything high vis. is certainly the key right now
when working in these less than ideal conditions. ...Marko...

 

[EZ Rolling]

nice fish ... thanks for the report

 

[Steelie Trav]

Sounds like a good day Ironhead. I just got a nice book from my uncle "Fishing Jigs for Salmon and Steelhead" by Dave Vedder. Upon first glance it seems to be a very good read. I have also done some reading on your site there Ironhead and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in finding out more on jig fishing.

I started off tying my own jigs but to little success, mostly because I didn't have much help in learning how, now with your site and this new book I will be tying up a few to try out this season. I also did notice the jigs in sandersons pics in the other vedder post! Very good indeed.

 

[Merc]

Both IH and Sanderson make excellent jigs that work very well. I've used them to catch steelies last year and found them at times, really deadly for chum this year. Good to have in the arsenal.

 

[scruffy]

very nice fish there congrats on the steelie

 

[Bent Rod]

Soon to be on shelves "DIRTY GIRL".

 

[Rib]

LoL...good name for her...fitting somehow... :lol:

 

[JBarns]

Hey IronHead, where do you buy your jig hooks and metal beads?

 

[steely_crazy]

Nice buck!!,,,,yummy,,,I wish I coulda got out this weekend. I will be out this week. Between this article and others I've read on jigs I think thats the way I'm guna go this week. Nice articles on your site Ironhead...thanks!

 

[Bent Rod]

I buy in large bulk from the source. I do however sell "do it yourself kits" if you are interested.
http://www.bentrods.ca/page184.htm

 

[coho_killer]

Ok i've been quiet long enough! Very nice fish ironhead! now if only i can learn this fishing with a jig thing i'd be ok! not sure i trust alot of the jigs on the market for the hooks look very weak and would definatly lead to instant fish loss! Hitting the vedder first light with Marko and Rib so i think hopefully one of us has something to report at days end! Anyone know if Freads has any fresh roe bags left? i need some for the morrning! till tomorrow i'm gearing up!

C.K.

 

[Bent Rod]

I saw a dude buying sacs at Derfs yesterday, they looked yummy enuff to eat, although with the poo water thats flowing now, they should make them 5 times bigger and soak them in scent. Why not go to Berrys, pick up some of the sweet singles they have and make up yer own MONSTER BAGS, soak them in all manner of scents, tie them in Chartreuse sacs, run a chartreuse gooey above them and now your ready for post 2006 Chedder conditions :lol: .
I'm out there tommorrow as well, gonna do another power hike through the wastelands, if you see a guy walkin the road covered in sweat, please give me a lift, I'll pay in jigs.

 

[coho_killer]

We shouldn't be too hard to miss for the three of us(Marko,Rib and myself) will be in a ford areostar and rib is a CP guy as Marko and i are baitcasters! Maybe we'll see ya on the flow! Good luck to ya!

C.K.

 

[HOOK]

hey CK look for my dad and i on the river i think my g/f will be with us as well

we might be in my truck if not we will be in the "purple" explorer my dad drives HA HA

tight lines

HOOK

 

[cohokid]

Hey, kevin. I better see you out there with a dead 15lb doe buck in your hands

its going to be a good season this year, i feel it.

 

[steely_crazy]

Did anyone get out on the Vedder today?

 

[marko]

Well, so much for the big "V". CK was the winner with a steelie smolt to the beach. A couple of unidentifiable
hits and thats it. Conditions have'nt changed over the past week with a constant flow of silt from a number
of the newly eroded banks.There was no end to the amount of guts and gear we chucked today with one
report of a 7lb winter :roll: lost at the beach buy a solo fisherman keeping pace behinde us. Don't hold
your breath for the river to clear up anytime soon, fish it anyway you can with 4 to 1ft visability. Hope the
rest of you who made it out had better luck, we still have some time before the season is in full swing.
Some colder temps and a full moon might be just the ticket for Boxing Day.
Season Greatings...Marko...

 

[Rib]

yes...conditions not much different today from a few days ago, weather held up nicely, a bit more visibility today, but not much more...found some more nice water in spots and fished a good deal of water quite thoroughly today....no steelies....I did lose a fish in some pocket water up top on a roe bag, but it didn't feel or look very big from what I saw of it and may have been a resident rainbow, or whitefish...otherwise fished a lot of nice water but to no avail...

rib