Salmon Hayek

Just got back from the Dominican, it was a great trip and one of the best weddings I’ve been a part of. I was going to do a post about the trip today but I think I’m going to hold off until I’ve received some of the pictures other people on the trip took as I really didn’t take as many as I should have. I’ll most likely recap it all later this week.

This weekend was a great one weather wise. After a week in the sun I was hesitant about returning to the land of suffocating gray clouds and a place where the sun goes down at 4 pm, so it was nice to have a sunny day on Saturday. Given I was still a bit on Dominican time I got up at 7 on Saturday and decided to try to catch some Salmon before the season ends.

I tried my luck at a new river, the Stave. The first thing I noticed when I got there was this hilarious sign, which perhaps needs a bit of explanation. Basically something like every 400 to 600 years, because Vancouver is near a fault line, a giant earthquake takes place and some people out here are really, really paranoid about the next one. I know of two people at my work who even have earthquake survival kits at their desk. Another person at my work told me their parents moved to Burnaby because they were so worried about the earthquake destroying Vancouver.

When I first got to the river, I walked around for a bit to get a feel for the place. Because it’s near the end of the coho and chum runs the place stank like rancid fish for obvious reasons. Most of the people there were pulling out really gross looking half dead fish from more quiet parts of the river, but I saw one guy parked on a more active piece of water who pulled out a chum salmon that still had a ton of life so I decided to park next to him. The guy was with a friend of his and they had some pretty hilarious conversations, some of my favorite tidbits were:

Guy 1: You still got that furnace that runs on a battery heating yer place?

Guy 2: Yeah, but the car battery ran out.

Guy 1: I told ya to get those 2 golf cart batteries while ya had the chance, ya fucked up.

Guy 2: I didn’t wanna pay the cash.

Guy 1: They were $35 bucks ya fackin idiot.

And:

Guy 1: So I told Carl that if he wants to live in my cabin, I’ll buy the wood and he can fix up the kitchen for me.

Guy 2: How the fack is he going to fix the mold ya got growin’ in there?

Guy 1: I told ya, it ain’t mold, it’s just water marks.

Guy 2: Yer a facking idiot, you’re going to tell me a ceiling that’s been leaking for 5 years ain’t got mold? It’s facking mold.

Guy 1: Fack you.

Regardless, the guys were both great fisherman, and really friendly guys. As they left they gave me some tips on spots to target and how to adjust my rig. Low and behold I finally caught my first salmon of the year. It was definitely into its river colors but it was a nice fish, still healthy and great color, not too big, probably 7-8 pounds or so, but regardless, the first fish monkey is off my back.

After leaving the Stave, I went home and got ready for the reception for Jen and Ryan’s wedding. It was at a Sushi Restaurant and was all for free. All the free Sushi and Sashimi I could eat. Not to mention the beer. Holla!