Aces
Well-Known Member
Kingfishers still exist
Thompson River Stories: Share Yours!
- Thread starter Sharphooks
- Start date
man*of*steel
Member
It was also about -10*C that morning with lots of ice in the guides and on the rocks. Fishing the Thompson was not for the weak of heart.
Derby
Crew Member
Not sure if you saw the recent book put together by the club... just thumb thru it and there are some pics of Larry... not sure if you want me to post some or not
Attachments
WHO DAT
Crew Member
Hey ; any idea where to grab a copy of this? Did a little search nothing came up. Best Regards
WHO DAT
Crew Member
Yes please, these days I like living vicariously thru this type of publication! Gr8 to hand down to future generations.
I would love to get my hands on one of these! I will PM you
I probably should not request pics posted with out his permission. I've PM'd you.
Hopefully I can find a copy to gift to him. If not maybe you can send some pics to me. You have my email and other contacts I believe. Or PM me. Thanks!
This has got me thinking more about the stories and photos he has shared with me. I'll have to dig through some boxes with him when I am up there next. See what I can dig up.
Derby
Crew Member
Was able to bumped into Bruce a couple times over the years and later his son.. I do remember having a good sit down on the flat above the island on a warm Oct. afternoon and had a wonderful conversation with him. He dropped a few pearls of wisdom.
Walked away with a new prespective on the river and the fish... When I hear his name I always think back to afternoon and the wise man that I was able to enjoy his company
Derby
Crew Member
hmmmm not sure of the spot .. the bear for sure
Sharphooks
Well-Known Member
Here's one of a friend that loved the Cribbing and the mouth of the Nick:
Here's one that has a story behind it:
I got close to a family in S.B. and watched their children grow up during the years I fished the THompson. He was a lineman on the CN and he would let me ride with him up to Basque in his motorcar. Sometimes he'd let me carry my small inflatable on the roof and I'd drift all the way back to Spences Bridge
I never fished gear on the THompson but this guy was fond of spoons and carried his rod with him in the motor car. One day I took a ride with him up towards Ashcroft. While he worked on one of the switches he pointed to a spot, handed me his gear rod, and said.....you can't reach that spot with a fly. Take this and cast as far as you can ..... I'll bet you get a fish.
So I wound up for the super-cast, let the spoon fly and Lordy Lordy, I got an instant take-down the literal split-second the spoon hit the water.
I remember thinking: Wow, that was fun. I should fish gear more often!
Here's one that has a story behind it:
I got close to a family in S.B. and watched their children grow up during the years I fished the THompson. He was a lineman on the CN and he would let me ride with him up to Basque in his motorcar. Sometimes he'd let me carry my small inflatable on the roof and I'd drift all the way back to Spences Bridge
I never fished gear on the THompson but this guy was fond of spoons and carried his rod with him in the motor car. One day I took a ride with him up towards Ashcroft. While he worked on one of the switches he pointed to a spot, handed me his gear rod, and said.....you can't reach that spot with a fly. Take this and cast as far as you can ..... I'll bet you get a fish.
So I wound up for the super-cast, let the spoon fly and Lordy Lordy, I got an instant take-down the literal split-second the spoon hit the water.
I remember thinking: Wow, that was fun. I should fish gear more often!
Hyde-N-Seek
Active Member
@Sharphooks
Yup, the tug is the drug lol
The violent tug on the spoon sometimes will be arm wenching! Have yet to get that on the same scale on the fly yet. Mind you, I didn’t fly fish much back then. Lot more now but lot less fish now. So lots casting practices.
I had a T steelhead pull me 2-3 steps toward the river on a spoon take down after the same types of cast as you mention. I had the drag on too tight and I almost lost the rod. It was so violent that it literally jerks my arm and pulls me 2-3 steps toward the water. What a take! Oh good times.
Yup, the tug is the drug lol
The violent tug on the spoon sometimes will be arm wenching! Have yet to get that on the same scale on the fly yet. Mind you, I didn’t fly fish much back then. Lot more now but lot less fish now. So lots casting practices.
I had a T steelhead pull me 2-3 steps toward the river on a spoon take down after the same types of cast as you mention. I had the drag on too tight and I almost lost the rod. It was so violent that it literally jerks my arm and pulls me 2-3 steps toward the water. What a take! Oh good times.
Derby
Crew Member
I was able to find a couple pics of my first trip to the the Thompson .. Oct 11/1980-pretty much just got my drivers licence..... Myself and 2 of my fishing partners ( Gary & Chris sadly lost both of them to the Capilano river a couple years later, a story for another time) at the time jumped into my dads Dodge fargo converted Cargo van and did pretty much my first road trip... Add the notes from my log book at he time. It was cool going thru my early notes as I was learning to fish .. love my note the river was too high of course we caught no fish so had to stop at the vedder on the way home
at the time jumped into my dads Dodge fargo converted Cargo van and did pretty much my first road trip... Add the notes from my log book at he time. It was cool going thru my early notes as I was learning to fish .. love my note the river was too high of course we caught no fish so had to stop at the vedder on the way home Attachments
Sharphooks
Well-Known Member
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.
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.
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Sharphooks
Well-Known Member
Yes, Ehor was quite the guy.
I stumbled on to a fly fishing trick back in the good old days when we could fish the Thompson. I used a knuckle-buster reel that could be free-spooled with the flick of a lever. I started using it to fish dry flies and by free-spooling after a quartered downstream cast, was able to get a completely drag-free drift that was very effective at bringing fish to the surface. So I wrote an article and submitted it to a fly fishing magazine. The title of the piece was "Hot Shotting a Dry Fly". It got published and I got a check for $200. In those days that was a princely sum for me because I didn't have a P to P in.
So one night I'm at the Log Cabin and there's Ehor holding court with 3 or 4 of his minions. He calls me over and in front of all his buddies comes unglued, accusing me of "ruining" the THompson by writing articles about it etc etc . I got a bit defensive and and pointed out that I had taken great pains not to mention the name of the THompson nor the name of any other river ---it was simply a how-to article, not a where to.
He would have none of it. I was a scoundrel and had destroyed the THompson----for the rest of eternity there would be millions upon millions of flyboys overrunning its banks because I didn't have the decency or ability to keep a secret (etc etc)
I was going to point out to Ehor that the magazine that published me probably had a readership of about 10 people but I didn't want to spoil his narrative
So with him babbling away describing what a useless shell of a man I was I leaned over the table and swiped his chin with my finger
He shut up for a second and asked what I was doing with my finger
I told him I was trying to wipe the drool off his chin because he was drooling into his beer....
I stumbled on to a fly fishing trick back in the good old days when we could fish the Thompson. I used a knuckle-buster reel that could be free-spooled with the flick of a lever. I started using it to fish dry flies and by free-spooling after a quartered downstream cast, was able to get a completely drag-free drift that was very effective at bringing fish to the surface. So I wrote an article and submitted it to a fly fishing magazine. The title of the piece was "Hot Shotting a Dry Fly". It got published and I got a check for $200. In those days that was a princely sum for me because I didn't have a P to P in.
So one night I'm at the Log Cabin and there's Ehor holding court with 3 or 4 of his minions. He calls me over and in front of all his buddies comes unglued, accusing me of "ruining" the THompson by writing articles about it etc etc . I got a bit defensive and and pointed out that I had taken great pains not to mention the name of the THompson nor the name of any other river ---it was simply a how-to article, not a where to.
He would have none of it. I was a scoundrel and had destroyed the THompson----for the rest of eternity there would be millions upon millions of flyboys overrunning its banks because I didn't have the decency or ability to keep a secret (etc etc)
I was going to point out to Ehor that the magazine that published me probably had a readership of about 10 people but I didn't want to spoil his narrative
So with him babbling away describing what a useless shell of a man I was I leaned over the table and swiped his chin with my finger
He shut up for a second and asked what I was doing with my finger
I told him I was trying to wipe the drool off his chin because he was drooling into his beer....
