Off to the Stamp

[BlacktailStalker]

Hope to have a good report and pics for everyone tonight, maybe even another controversial 20lb'r eh guys ?

[MB_Boy]

Hope to have a good report and pics for everyone tonight, maybe even another controversial 20lb'r eh guys ?

LMAO......."that's a load of horsecrap that you think you can catch a 20lber!!!"......

Good luck out there.....have a good day. I am headin' out tomorrow to try for some winter springs.....prawns and crabs! Gotta take advantage of the sunshine.

[BlacktailStalker]

Anyone up this morning probably looked at the temp on their truck and thought wow, is it reading wrong lol. -7 when we left, but that was ok because when we arrvived at the moneys access road on the Stamp to launch, the guy who purchased the property put a huge blockade in front of the road. (This is a whole other thread, errrrrrrrrrrrr) So we backed the trailer right up to the blockade and had to muscle the drift boat over the top and onto the old road behind it, sure didnt feel like -7 after that ! My buddy has the boat set up so perfectly for drags like this with a wheel on an axle to put through each drain hole secured by a cotter pin on the other side on either side of the boat to wheel down beaches, trails roads etc. Of course gettin down the bank is fun, trying to keep the boat from wildly roaring down the hill and running us over. We get to the river and wow, is it low. Low and clear. Geared up, dog in the boat us in the boat and we're anchored fishing the first hole after a 50 yard drift. Second cast and wham, first fish. Couloured summer run, maybe 8 pounds. Good start to the day, it's only 7:15. He missed 2 more and I missed one, after feeling confident we thoroughly covered the run, we drop down to the next elbow. Nothing, as with the next stop. Fourth hole I hook into another fish. A couple 20 yard dashes and she rolls, ah, another coloured summer steelie. Get her to the boat as quick as possible and release her. Not as dirty as the first, actually still had the silver hue to her but with a deep crimson horizontal stripe to her and a bit bigger, 10 pounds. Thinking maybe it was an early winter fish. Buddy hits one more on the next cast and it was an old boot, dark as can be. Pretty much dead weight to the boat, a small 6 pound buck, I cradles him in the coooooooold current for quite a while to make sure he'd be ok. A lot of the slots we expected to fish were actually too shallow to be decent holding water, so our enthusiasm was not all there. A couple hours slip by with a couple half hearted feels on our presentation but no committed takers. The cold was actually pretty dry but the wind was tearing down the river, it was cooooold. Occassionally the sun would poke through the trees and it was a welcome feeling. Glad we had the propane heater for our hands. One more slot coughed up another summer run of 9/10 pounds and that was it. We saw a few more fish shoot up the tail outs of a couple pools and only 2 chrome bullets' ghostly grey silouhettes the whole day.
We pulled out at the falls campground. Taxi'd up to the truck and drove down to the slide pool. Walking onto the logs we immediately saw a guy net a fresh fish on the other side. Plugged that pool for an hour or so and called her a day.
So, the river is low, and clear. Anyone going out should fish the lower, they should be stacked up if they are in there. We fished sparse presentations with light leaders, normally using 12 lb but today we switched to 8lb. The fish were finicky and spooked from the conditions. Each take was very soft and reserved.
Looking forward to a day or two of rain before I give it another go.

[LUCKY]

Great report. Thanks!

[tomigunz]

Anyone try the cowichan river this seson? I've been thinkin about goin.

[elkster]

Yeah I had a look at the river, but my son was working in ukie, so I went golfing instead. Damn near froze off the privates and my fingers, but boy to you get good roll on the frozen ground. Maybe try the stamp on sat or sun. Good report.