by Uncle Wes, December 04, 2006

There is over a foot of fresh snow on the ground, the temperature is in the mid-twenties, the wind is steady out of the north with gust’s up to 30 miles an hour, the water color is green and in good shape, and the dog’s (Chum Salmon) are entering the river in droves.

Only the hearty, dedicated, angler would brave these weather conditions for an opportunity to battle these big salmon, some reaching over thirty-pounds. As luck would have it my fishing partner Steve Buckner and myself are two of those anglers, although some would call us crazy others just called us fools, but we couldn’t resist this opportunity. October brought us low water conditions and no Silver Salmon (Coho’s), the first half of November brought us flooding and un-fishable water conditions this was the first chance we had in over six weeks to hit the river.

We dressed in layers put our waders on, and off we went to our secret spot on the Nooksack River. Upon our arrival we watched the wind blow the treetops back and forth knowing we were in for a challenge and endurance test on this brisk morning. We grabbed our spinning rods and tackle making our way to the river ever so carefully climbing down slippery snow covered boulders.

As I started to wade into the river I could feel the exposed skin on my face and fingertips were already getting unbearably cold. I started casting a silver ¾ oz. Spoon with red tape on the concave portion of the spoon and Steve worked a silver plated spinner. Steve had hook-up after hook-up but nothing landed, I on the other hand hooked into a nice 25 pound Chum that came out of the water three times I could see the spoon in the corner of his jaw when all of a sudden my reel locked up, the fish got some slack and he was gone. I inspected my rod and reel to discover that the ferrules had ice in them, my line was frozen, and so was my reel. I quickly thawed them out and was back on the water. Steve had switched to a red corky set-up and was working that. Shortly there after I hooked up with feisty 12-pound dog, landed him and released him I then made a hasty retreat back to the rig content that I had mine for the day.

Steve continued to work his set-up landing a nice 25-pound dog and released it he then also retreated to the rig and called it a day. Our whole trip lasted 2 hours and it was definitely a test of endurance with the wind chill factor pushing the temperature near zero. For those of you that can brave such weather conditions I would suggest using spoons and spinners with red or green tape or try a corky set up in the same colors.

So until next time may the fish at the end of your line be the one of your dreams.