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Welcome to the Bow Show


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#1 AKnook

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 03:28 PM

This story goes back to the first week of September of last year where, already hooked on this new river, I manage to bring to the net an aprox 30" wild resident rainbow only to loose it inches from the net.  That one fish has haunted me ever since and the entire spring and winter was used in preperation to go back.  Beads, and a wide assortment of flies where bought and arranged, new rods purchased and trips planned because of that fish.  Don't get me wrong, many nice fish were caught there in the later trips but knowing that this river can hold much much larger fish had me addicted.

 

This weekend had me having only Sunday to make the treck in search of rainbows.  I haven't been at this river this early in the season so I didn't know what to expect.  If anything at least some salmon could be caught if the rainbows didn't want to come out and play.

 

I leave the house at 5:15am to make the 2.5 hour drive to meet my friends at the river.  The sun is out and the day should be a good one.

 

The river was a little low when arrived but things looked promising as a little rainbow was spotted right off the bat.  The hordes of chum salmon that I was so accustomed to seeing later in the season still haven't made it up the river.  At this stretch of water there were no salmon to be seen.

 

We are using a variety of streamers and egg sucking leeches as well as beads to entice a strike from the rainbows.  Where there are salmon, there are rainbows as they follow them up the river wating for them to drop their eggs or when the salmon die feed off their decomposing flesh. 

 

My buddy and I head up river to try that stretch first and we spot our first batch of king salmon.  Promising, we continue upward and find a deep pool with over 30 salmon.  Kings, sockeye and pinks all swiming around the pool together.  Up river from the pool would be our first area to fish. 

 

Three drifts with a bead and I manage a descent fish.  Not the biggest but the color on him was intense.  I LOVE these colored up rainbows.  WOW.

 

frgfrgrfg.jpeg

 

As I make my way up to net a fish my buddy has hooked I notice a limb in the water with some line swining down river with a small Dolly Lama fly at the end.  I make note of it so I can retrive the fly when I have worked that bend.  I net my buddy's fish and remain fishing there with him.  I hear a splash to my left and looked down river to see that that branch had caught a fish!  HAHA.  Rainbows so plentiful that even a tree can catch a fish!  I release the fish and retrive the fly.  Pretty cool sight to see.

 

Further up river we come apon a great looking run with some king salmon in it.  We drift beads with no success.  We then switch to some egg sucking leeches and manage a few.  We notice in the middle of this run were two very large shadows.  These are not kings as they are not blushed red.  These are large rainbows.  Many drifts with no succes but at the last fly swap I do manage a subtle strike and I set the hook.  This fish catapults itself about four feet in the air completely veritcal and pops me off!  I saw it in it's full glory, that is why I came here.  Wow what a rush.  His buddy never came around to play with us so we moved down river.

 

We arrive at a spot where the pool is deep but the current is slow.  There were salmon choked in this section, primarily pinks with a few sockeye and kings.  Although rainbows were our targeted species I coulnd't resist catching at least one pink and caught one with the same fly I had retreived from that limb up river.  HA!

 

bows.jpeg

 

Down river is where the bow show finally began.  It was insane at times where we would pull out 10 fish from a single hole.  If you can get a drift under the log jam or branches you will hook up.  In one spot I pulled three small rainbows drifting under a fallen tree.  A fourth larger fish was also caught and moments later my buddy hooks into a very large and fat monster from the same area.  Wow. 

 

Further down river we go and more fish caught.  It was the day I was looking forward to for almost a year.  Although I didn't catch my white whale on this trip I did meet his brother for a brief second.  Perhaps next weekend we can finally meet.  Now until the end of September that place will be home.

 

Tight lines, enjoy some more pics.

 

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dfdfedf.jpeg

 

A double rainbow! What does this mean?!

fgt.jpeg

 

dfdfd.jpeg

 

errer.jpeg


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#2 MadocFlyGuy

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 03:52 PM

Great report, and awesome fish AK! Every one of your posts makes me more and more envious!


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#3 AKnook

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 03:55 PM

Thanks brother. 


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#4 ChasinTails

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 04:02 PM

nice report man, great read


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#5 JDean

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 04:13 PM

Awesome...Love the side arm as well.  Gotta keep it handy as you aren't the only salmon fisher on those rivers


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#6 Brian

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 05:04 PM

Great report AK...I wish we could have pools in southern Ont. wth pinks, kings, sockeye and rainbows in them...


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#7 NiagaraSteel

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 05:23 PM

Great post as usual AK!
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#8 Christopher K

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 05:24 PM

Awesome...Love the side arm as well.  Gotta keep it handy as you aren't the only salmon fisher on those rivers

Yup, can't be too careful!

 

 

Great report man!


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#9 Shmogley

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 05:43 PM

darn bro.

not only is the country up there beautiful. the fish as well just have so much more color

 

thanks for sharing again. anytime i see a new post by you i know its gonna be special

 

hope that piece is a .45 or .50 hehe. otherwise might just piss the bears off ;) 


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#10 AKnook

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 05:59 PM

darn bro.

not only is the country up there beautiful. the fish as well just have so much more color

 

thanks for sharing again. anytime i see a new post by you i know its gonna be special

 

hope that piece is a .45 or .50 hehe. otherwise might just piss the bears off ;)

 

Thanks man. 

 

Its a Ruger .44 super black hawk.  I have only unholstered it once but never had to aim.  There is no way I'm going without a fight. 

 

Old saying here with a revolver with 6 shots is that you have 5 for the bear and the sixth for you if you haven't taken him down with the 5. 

 

In some larger rivers you have a lot of room and spance to keep an eye out.  In a lot of rivers I fish especially the one I fished this weekend its just brush/forest and the bank with an occasional gravel bar.  You are pretty enclosed.

 

This river has a reputation as being very dense with brown bears.  I have talked to many that will never go back as they were surrounded by 6 brownies within the first ten minutes of reaching the river.  I have fished this river about six or seven times and have yet to actually see one. However, the sign is everywhere and fresh sign at that.

 

Makeing noise is our first defence. 


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#11 Shmogley

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 06:17 PM

well said. i like that old saying too haha. bit of dark humor there.

good choice though. a lot easier on the wrist then a 50 ;) and not losing much stopping power


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#12 FrequentFlyer

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 06:47 PM

excuse me while i clean up this drool! if i ever make it up there i'll know who to call!


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#13 Kit

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 06:55 PM

Nook great fish as always brother.

 

If a .44 at 20' or less don't stop a bear after 5 shots that surely would be shocking. Aim for the head. Then you got yourself some amazing meat lol.


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#14 staffman

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 07:03 PM

Great report, thanks for sharing.


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#15 AKnook

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 07:22 PM

Nook great fish as always brother.

 

If a .44 at 20' or less don't stop a bear after 5 shots that surely would be shocking. Aim for the head. Then you got yourself some amazing meat lol.

 

Thanks man.

 

I have had black bear meat and it was good.  I have heard that salmon bears aren't good to eat.  I dunno, I don't hunt for them nor have I ever eaten brown bear.  I have talked to many hunters who will only eat bears that are far from salmon streams, as the salmon eaters do not taste good. 


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#16 Kit

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 07:38 PM

Really? You would figure that they would taste better then the ones way way inland but maybe from all the fish they eat the mercury makes the meat taste not as good as the ones that eat plants, berries and small creatures.


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#17 AKnook

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 08:33 PM

The bears tend to eat the fish when they are easier to catch, as in ripe.  They eat the dead ones too.  Im sure the rotten and rotting flesh can't do any good.  lol   The best fishing for rainbows occurs when the salmon are zombies and have the banks littered with decaying bodies.  Bring nose plugs though because it is rank!


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#18 Will

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 10:14 PM

Love reading your posts and seeing those incredible pictures (that third one is gorgeous)! My dad grew up in Terrace, BC, and seeing this kind of stuff from northern BC or Alaska makes me never want to forgive him for moving east!!! ;)
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#19 OCDComputing

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 10:34 PM

Awesome report!


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#20 Kit

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 11:10 PM

The bears tend to eat the fish when they are easier to catch, as in ripe. They eat the dead ones too. Im sure the rotten and rotting flesh can't do any good. lol The best fishing for rainbows occurs when the salmon are zombies and have the banks littered with decaying bodies. Bring nose plugs though because it is rank!


Yeah figured that as well easy meal.
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