From my vantage point, the pullout at Sandy looked even smaller and tougher to get in to than the pullout at Vimy. If you are drifting make sure you look at your pullout location BEFORE you go upstream and launch your floating craft. Nothing worse than getting a nasty surprise seconds before you are trying to make the takeout.
Cowichan River
- Thread starter winephart
- Start date
Fins -n- Skins
Well-Known Member
The last few years it has been tough to get into Sandy even if the water height is lower. There is only room for one maybe 2 boats at best as all the beach and bank has washed away. Too bad they can’t drop some fill in there but that’s just wishful thinking. But it is what it is. Thanks for the updates much appreciated. Be safe out there
Fins -n- Skins
Well-Known Member
Any reports with this high water ? Heard of a few fish but can’t confirm anything.
Eric Reesor
New Member
With 122 cubic meters in Duncan and 103 at the lake even doing a walk in to the backside of the river is not going to find anything low enough to fish yet. Anything over 100 in the lower is a not really fishable. Sure in the odd place one might be able to sling gear from the bank but wading or holding a drift boat in the slot with anchors and oars is a good way to drag over any redds there might be, I know that the majority of fish do not spawn below the falls but some did at one time in history.
Seems that this year is again turning out to be mostly monsoon like than normal wet coast conditions. Swinging flies is out of the question yet, maybe if the water drops down below 70 meters per second but even at that level and below the river is unrecognizable compared to what it was just a short 20 years ago. The slots are ditched out, the tailouts are piled up with gravel and silt on the entire system from too heavy discharge during the rainy season. Sure there are fish but the river is only a shadow of what it once was. Who knows though: steelheading may turn on in the end of January and we might see some decent returns, we just can't quite know yet. I have an outcast stealth and find drifting the lower water a cakewalk and perfectly safe and not a problem pulling out like a drift boat. But when the river is at this level it is more of a kayak experience under these conditions, yee haw down the stream instead of merrily merrily row your boat down the stream between the runs as it can be on the Cowichan.
Slowing the fly down enough so that it is not just going by fish like a nuclear missile t is not gonna happen. Bottom bouncing with a pencil lead and gear is possible and will undoubtedly hit fish if they are there, but slinging gear ain't my idea of sport with O. mykiss because they are in reality biting fools in the right conditions. Gear fishing for steelhead is just too darn easy!!!!
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1stLite
Member
Yeah ok buddy
Well, I have bad news for you, 20 years ago the river had already gone for a crap compared to when I started drifting it 40 years ago. I got my 16ft fiberglass clacka in 1981. We used to launch at the top end of the park at stoltz and fish to what we called the grassy bank just below Sandy pool. From there we use to have to row down to Vimy to pullout in the near dark. Thats right, daylight till dark in that tiny stretch of river. Why did it take so long? Two reasons, there was 2-3X as much prime water to fish as there is now and you would get fish in just about every one of them so it took a long time to do a drift. The spot in front of the cabins at the bible camp just upstream of where the suspension bridge once was, was absolutely crazy good for 2 or 3 years. Since I started fishing the cowie, the decline in water quality, fish numbers, and increased pressure, has turned an insanely productive fishery into a mere shadow of what it once was.
As far as gear being "easy". Yes sometimes it can be, other times not so much. To me, trying to swing flys in garbage fly water is not my idea of fun. I don't think much of the Cowichan sets up particularly well to swing flys in compared to other rivers I have fished.
I would love to say things will get better but I have only seen things slowly get worse with time.
That being said, I would rather go fishing than stay home.
Tight lines to you all, gear or fly!
Eric Reesor
New Member
Fully expected to be dissed by a gear head. But as I have said gear fishing for steelhead is like shooting ducks in a barrel and requires just about no real skill in reading the water, just dangle some yarn and a bubble gum mister twister on a hook under a float set for the water levels so that the pencil lead bottom bounces without snagging and bobs your uncle. That is why I quit doing it that way 30 years ago, it is boring as all get out and far too easy. Steelhead being Rainbows are biting fools when the water conditions are right.Hmmmm sounds like a fluff flinger got beaten by a gear fisherman to me!
Eric Reesor
New Member
I fondly remember waiting until the guys with the coffee grinders and spinners all deserted the water below the trestle, then walking in below the bridge pool to the top of what once was the alder run and waiting for the spinner fall and hatch to happen usually in late May or early June. We called it the witching hour, one could time the cast to the rhythmic rise of a Brown in the slower water or let the dry fly drift over the tail out and have a take from a rainbow on just about every cast. For a while there the resident rainbows were getting up in size when the river was still super productive. My best was at least 19 inch and my best Brown was well over 25 inches. But then as you say it has lost most of the incredible insect productivity that it once had. Haig Brown describes it in his books and I had the pleasure of seeing it in the 1960s when I was a kid a few times when the caddis, mayfly, and chironomid were hatching in clouds. Of course back then, being a gear head I just thought that the fish were turned off because they stopped taking a spinner or even a scented worm or canned bait. All the fish seemed to be interested in was those darn fish flies! Might try the lake this year instead of the river come late steelhead season. Around the creeks a wet line can produce some great browns feeding on fry coming down from what little is left of the spawning creeks flowing into the lake, if I do hook some lake cutts or browns it will be strictly c and r. Been too long since I fished on the island. I do think the gear heads might get into some good fishing but not until the river settles, just hope the fish they hook survive to go up over the falls and do their duty. I hate seeing hero shots made instead of safer net release pics of a very important remnant of what was once a stellar west coast fishery.
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Haha I do both. Fishing is about adapting to what is in front of you. If you are so dead set on fishing with a fly maybe you shouldn’t go until conditions are perfect instead of taking a swipe at the guys that fish in less than perfect conditions. Just saying
Fins -n- Skins
Well-Known Member
Well I was hoping for a report and not water condition or fly versus gear. Or back in the day and fly fishing stories lol. Next ??
Hyde-N-Seek
Active Member
Hahahahaha, be careful what you asked for lol.
Good thing we no longer have to debate bait vs gear vs fly. Hahahahaha
I have done most and will continue to do so within the legal methods. To each their own for their own enjoyment!
Safety report ( is it clear and driftable ) always.
Water conditions, pressure etc, sure why not.
How was the fishing? Unless I know you, I always have the same answer, no matter how good or poor the fishing was, ONEFISH.
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