More pictures..

[Lipripper]

Since chrisp finally upped the pics per post setting I will share the road trip a couple weeks short of a year ago..


Unfortunately the Radio was stuck on Boneyard for the duration of this trip so I hope some of you young/super old folks do not mind some good ole heavy metal for the soundtrack..........

[xSjlEjpyA9g] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSjlEjpyA9g


Up at 3:30 then off to meet Cracker in Parksville.

We knew it was going to be wet, but........

We headed up Island for the first rendezvous with Ambler (S2). We met at Mcwhatever you want's and discussed. The better river was blown but one near by was fishable.

It was nice to throw some loops on such a historic river as I had never fished there. The thoughts of times past were humbling.
It was beautiful....

There's 2 in this pic

Cracker always showin off his big pole

We stayed for a couple hours in the rain and packed it in. It was good to see Ambler again, he looks different with short hair

We were off again...

The rain was relentless and as we drove we watched the ditches and creeks get higher and dirtier .. We pull off and have a look at a "spot" on the way to our next destination...

You know when you drive down a river to get to the river it can't be good...

Sweeeeeeet!

We decide to get out of the rain and meet up with this holmes* guy before he's off work. So I got him to cook me some squidamari...
Checked into the room...(still raining to use the term loosely) That guy sure does live in gods country and wish it wasn't raining so hard or I could have got some sweet pictures.... next time.

Couldn't help but just look out the window...

We took a drive over the bridge and she was punched...Then Holmes* stopped by the room....wobbly time
There was some arrangement made for the morning but I think we forgot...

Oh yeah Holmes* wanted me to say HI to all of you....

He brought some ribs to the room and we ran them over the Q... I would have to say that if Holmes* and BFM ever got into a rib fight.... If I was Mike I wouldn't show up


We finally got together in the AM... Ma Nature decided to give 3.9M on the gauge.

When in Rome.......

Holmes* was gracious enough to show us around his hood. This pic does not give the surroundings justice.. It was surreal.

He took us to a spot I have never been to and man did it look fishy..... only problem...side channel. I will let holmes* tell the story of the side channel but will add that it did end in...

We put in a full day then back to the house where we checked the gauge, 3.0m. We only had one more day there so unfortunately we made the executive decision to boogie and head for greener pastures.

Get into new the home base at not a bad time and start planning a jont to Nog's hood.
Get to a well known spot that's fishy and holds a few guys. There were two cars "Great!" walk down to the river only to find that river was high and the extended cab truck that was there was a clown truck.. 6 guys built like loggers piled out and plugged up the spot with the one guy from the other vehicle.. We fished the for a couple hours in the crap water, it was a zoo.
So we left. Searched a bunch of water and fished likely spots but the high water takes out most spots. Frustrated we went to the bend a rod spot and played with a few summies....

This guy was givin us the stink eye the whole time....

Disappointed with the situation we head back to home base... Talked to Nog that passed on the prime info that a top rod got one that day.
We decided to see what Sailor Jerry had to say and he convinced us to regroup and take the day off.... I did use that time to fly a bit farther up island to meet a member of another board and pick up a 7'9" Sage baitcaster for a great deal

We made new plans............ Found greener pastures

 

[Lipripper]

The day off was great and needed, we were both starting to feel all the hiking done in the days previous... With the revised plans and ditched boats we head out for part 2.

Head west to the river I basically grew up on. For many years there was an annual adventure here for a birthday camping trip. It was usually good fishing but if they are not there they just aren't, theres no point in wasting too much time. Its been a few years since I had been up there and was nice to revisit this spot.

I think I caught a Samsquanch in this one

It had changed a lot since the last time I was up..... for the better.

I do love this place and just couldn't put my finger on why it had taken me so long to return to a place that had treated me so well..

Even with the perfect conditions they were simply not there...

Time to throw another 100 plus kms on the truck..

This sure beats what we were dealing with earlier in the week...

New spot..

You just know this is going to get better...

and it didn't take long...

They were gear picky but once they were dialed in they were eager..

Finally something was going right on this trip..

Time to cue a mishap.. We decide to continue to the next spot which included some creative hiking. I was in front and get to the next spot. Turn around to see where Cracker was and didn't see him. Waited for a couple seconds then threw in a cast that was savagely taken down half way through the run.
I yell for Cracker and look up while playing the fish and finally see him up the river a ways... something happened. I play the fish in, let it swim and go back to see whats up.. While jumping to a rock top his foot slipped sending him down chin first onto another... He spit a few chicklets and put a hole in his chin that required some medical attention.. It wasn't bleeding bad at all so we fished it out rolling a couple more fish. It got to the point where it was bothering him so back home he goes a day early right after we found some fish.
I did the same in the opposite direction to sleep in my own bed for a change.
I tried to find someone to go back up the next day but everyone had this thing called work so I just stayed local for a day but to no avail.

It was a wicked fun time. We missed a few meet ups, changed plans drastically through the trip and the boats never left the trailer. In hindsight we should have done the trip in reverse and it would have been better, c'est le vie
After all it was a fishing trip and if I wanted a catching trip I would have paid one of Murphy's boys to zip me around the Stamp for a few days.

There are a few sections of this trip that will be revisited in the near future that's for sure

6 days, 5 rivers fished and 1400kms on the trip odo

 

[hambone]

Thanks for sharing! great pictures.

 

[lorneparker1]

Great pics and story Dan. Loved it sir!

Thank you for that.


Lorne

 

[springnut]

Wow your a master with a camera thanks for sharing.