Tuesday, February 17, 2015

One Fishing Adventure After Another

If you are dreaming of some kayak fishing in 2015 take a look back at the 2014 fishing season of Nikki Rekman Sales and Kokatat Regional Paddler, Laura Demers.  If you want some kayak fishing advice you can also contact Laura at Western Canoeing and Kayaking in Abbotsford, BC where she is the in-house kayak fishing and SUP expert.
    
Ross Lake
       In mid July I came across the opportunity to go fly fishing in the backcountry west of Quesnel, BC on the Blackwater River. The special invite from Marlin, my boss along with good company from friends couldn’t be turned down.  This was going to be the first time I ever went fly fishing.

The Cabin
    The trip took a downward turn before we even left home when we found out that there was a forest fire burning fairly close to where we had planned to go.  We decided to make the most of it and go anyways, although not to our original destination.  We came up with some alternative fishing options and set forth on one adventure after another.



          For our first adventure we loaded up our Clipper Tripper and Tripper-S canoes for a trip down the nearby Euchiniko River. I geared up with my Kokatat Orbit Tour PFD, can’t live without it. We bumped, dragged and portaged down the shallow river only to catch a few squawfish.  It did give me a chance to work on my cast while I only snagged a few trees ;)

I'm pretty sure I wore my Kokatat Wool Core for a total of
7 Days and no one even noticed because unbelievably it
smelt great!

      The next adventure was to tackle a section of the Blackwater River where the fishing was supposed to be better.  This time only three of us went and so I spent a decent amount of time soloing the Tripper-S while dragging a fly behind.  Then, bang I caught my first ever trout.  Landed it in the boat...didn’t use a net...I’m sure you know what happened next.  My first ever trout hoped and bounced itself right back to where it came from!

First moose I've ever seen!  She sat there just long enough for
me to get out the SLR camera from my Overboard Dry bag.
  Alas the fish.  We were there for 5 days and on the first day Marlin let us know about a fishing whole on a creek with no name.  My friend Sandra and I ended up going there day after day and being successful after everything else failed.  

And for the final adventure.  As we drove home a couple days early Sandra and I decided we just hadn’t had enough.  We arrived in Abbotsford after nearly 8 hours of driving only to re-pack our gear, load up our kayaks and drive 2.5 hours in the middle of the night back the direction we just came from to Ross Lake and the Skagit river.  With only 3 hours of sleep we awoke early to get to the fishing and the fishing was good!


1st Trout on 

Here’s to the best job ever for letting me enjoy my adventures!

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Green River, UT

Green River, UT
Photo: Shawna Franklin