So here's another Thompson story.
This was just a few years before the river shut down so at the time it was 100% C&R for wild THompson fish.
I had taken a motorcar ride up towards Ashcroft with my CN lineman friend. My plan was to sneak in to one of my favorite fishing spots while he did some work on a switch box. It was a gorgeous part of the river. However, some guy named Ehor Boyanowski had recently bought the property and by so doing, had privatized an entire bend of the river, gated it off, and went so far as to employ a guy to scare off fishermen like me If they came in from the road side which I'd been doing for years.
So the trick now was to come in from the tracks at the bottom end of his property and sneak in a few casts on that luscious water where his obnoxious watchman couldn't see me.
So I get in there and I'm rubbing my mitts together with glee until I see that there's a spoon fisherman in the spot I want to fish. I knew the guy. He was an Ashcroft local and he stuck out because he was blind in one eye and had a spaced out demeanor due to that disability. He was grumpy and I asked what was up. He admitted that he'd hooked a big buck, threw it up on the bank, killed it, then stepped back in to keep fishing. Meanwhile, the fish had slid off the bank and into the river and was gone ---- he was pissed!
The guy had zero shame. An Ashcroft gangster for sure. Not only did he clearly know the river was C&R, he also knew that even back in the days when you could keep a fish, once you gave one the wood shampoo you were done for the day.
So a double D-bag for sure.
I took a few casts but couldn't relax with old One Eye in the way so I reeled up my line and headed back downstream to find my motorcar guy
About 100 yards downstream I see something glinting in a back eddy. Oh Lordy Lordy, what's this?
Yup, a stunning 20 pound buck, deader then a doornail, and obviously still fresh as a daisy. So I drop real quick to one knee, plant my 2/0 fly hook firmly in the buck's jaw, then leashed to the fish with tried and true 15 pound Maxima leader, I slid him back into the shallows so he wouldn't bruise and walked him back down to the motorcar. Old One Eye would never be the wiser and it served him right. I even turned around and waved goodbye and he waved back and gave me the thumbs up...ha ha
My friend was hyperventilating when I told him about my meeting with One Eye but when he saw the fish I was carrying, was pleased as punch knowing that this lovely buck was coming back down the tracks on the motorcar with us and had a date with his barbeque back in Spences Bridge.