THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

also run this river in their millions every year.
Actually, it would have been impossible to catch fish during our visit on anything other than bait
because of the discolouration of the water, which looked as though someone had been washing out paint
brushes with white emulsion on them.
Visibility would have been measured in mere inches, caused by a natural phenomenon known as glacial
flour. This is finely ground rock fragments similar to talcum powder, scoured from the surrounding
substrate by glaciers gets into the river as the ice melts.
The other problem with our timing was mosquito's. I've never seen as many in all my life. We fished
from aluminium jets boats which were launched each day from a small beach where we parked up the
car.
Once the boat was off its trailer we would exit the car and make a run to it, then race out across the huge
expanse of the river with the front window open to blast any mossies out of the cabin.
It wasn't too bad out on the water, though obviously you still had to take precautions. But around the
banks it was mossie city. So bad in fact while we were there that they had crop dusting helicopters
spraying insecticides along the river margins all day long. The big question was, would the fish bite as
well as the mossies did.
We were assured they would and that we would see some big fish amongst them within that six to one
ratio mentioned earlier. But that's just a prediction, not a guarantee. And even if it does work out about
right at the end when the final stats are all in, it won't necessarily be five double figure fish then one
over the ton in chronological order.
They could come in any sort of order, which is exactly what happened, which when you are the only
one not to have achieved it and it's the afternoon of the last day, believe me, the pressure is really on.
For obvious reasons, the tackle they use there is heavy by freshwater standards. Medium sized boat rods
with shimano multipliers loaded with one hundred pounds bs braid.
The end gear is similarly heavy and
crude. Quite a large lump of lead to
keep the bait well pinned down in the
fast river flow, and a very short flowing
trace, presumably for the same reason.
Dave Devine bending in to a Sturgeon
As for the bait, this was either a one
inch diameter bag of salmon eggs
contained in a piece of material cut
from a pair of women's tights (for
reasons of staying out of trouble,
preferably not while she's still wearing
them), or a tiny cross section cut from a
lamprey, both of which had the
potential to bobble about and lift in the
flow, which is another reason for the
short trace to help keep baits down in
the feeding zone.
While both were small baits in proportion to what it was we were hoping to catch, every day out in the
boat still brings with it the likelihood of cracking the ton.
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