I thought some of you might like to hear how my maiden voyage to the Vedder River went. I drove up from Seattle Saturday morning, getting a late (hung-over) start at around 8:30. Had to stop for copious amounts of water and other ailments along the way, and didn't reach the Border at Sumas until 11:00 or so.

I just have to say, Sumas is great. Hadn't been there in years and it reminded me of that town on Northern Exposure, only the women weren't quite as fetching. The wait at the border was awful. I took me over an hour to get the station. Making this trip on a whim, I didn't bring a passport or other proof of citizenship. Just my driver's lisence. I had to go into the immigration desk at the border, where they asked me various non-sensical questions -- why I was going into Canada, if I'd ever murdered any small animals or children, if I was wearing boxers of briefs, how many fingers they were holding up -- before letting me in. I have no clue what sort of people those questions are designed to screen out, but it all seemed very silly to me.

Found Fred's Custom Tackle in Chilliwack, bought a lisence, some "wool" and hardware, and generally enjoyed hearing that goofy Canadian accent. Drove along the Chilliwack River Road to a likely looking pull out, and went to the river. Folks were mostly catching pinks on wool under a float. I had heard this river was combat fishing at its finest, and was quite dissappointed. Maybe the Candadian definition of "combat fishing" differs from ours, but there was plenty of room to cast, play fish, sit on rocks, etc. Not having a float, I walked downstream a few hundred yards and had a nice run all to myself. Couldn't get a good drift on the bottom (constantly snagging if I had enough weight to get down, not getting down to the fish if I took the weight off to avoid getting hung up...you all know how it goes...sigh...).

I walked back to my car and grabbed my six weight with ultra-fast sink tip, and the game was one. Caught quite a few pinks on various pink flies. The fish were pretty aggressive, and were so numerous it was freaky. The water was gin clear and somewhat shallow, so it was pretty fun. I basically just saw pinks being caught, with a very rare coho being landed. I did see what must have been a 20 pound, living-dead chum swimming around, which got my heart pounding (can't wait 'till the rivers are full of these guys!).

The capper to an excellent day of fishing was dinner, at Burger King. My total was 5.68, and I paid with an American 20 dollar bill. When she rang up my order, on the cashier, it said, "total: 5.68." "Tender: 20.00" "Change: 22.34." And that's when I realized just how wonderful Canada is...

Crossing back into the States was a cinch: no lineup (though the lineup to go South at the time I was going North looked horrible...cars backed up for blocks and blocks and blocks), no hassle.

As an aside, if any of you know when the Springs and Chum start showing up in numbers (I had expected to see some yesterday, and was surprised to see only pinks), and how to fish them (I'm assuming wool under floats), feel free to respond.