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Drifting the Cowichan River for Brown Trout | Fish'n Canada
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Apr 15, 2025
Pete Bowman tries drift boat fishing down the Cowichan River in the Vancouver Island interior. It was a unique experience and an amazing day of Brown Trout fishing that you just have to check out! Don't forget to leave a COMMENT and give us a LIKE if you enjoyed what you saw. SUBSCRIBE for new videos and episodes released weekly! CONNECT WITH US WEBSITE: http://fishncanada.com FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/FishnCanada/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/fishncanada... TWITTER: https://twitter.com/angeloviolafnc/ One of Canada's longest-running fishing shows, Fish'n Canada travels from coast to coast in search of trophy fishing opportunities. First started by brothers Angelo and Reno Viola in 1986, The Fish’n Canada Show has been on the air for over 30 years. Today, Angelo is joined by lifelong fishing buddy, Peter Bowman, and the pair continue to travel across Canada educating anglers using the experience they’ve gained over the years #Fishing
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[Music]
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you
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[Music]
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position Canada brought to you in part
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by stern some light jacket experts Ram
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trucks
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nothing works harder than a ram Castrol
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more than just oil is liquid engineering
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and us real when performance lose
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everything
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today's vision can adventure takes me to
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one of my favorite provinces in the
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country british columbia with the
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multiple species of fish and the vast
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types of water body that has to offer pc
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is a great fishing destination for this
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episode i'm on one of the best ground
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trout fisheries in the country the couch
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and river my host and guide attendee
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Cuthbert a man who knows this rivers
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better than anyone our method of fishing
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today is using spinning gear with spoon
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spinners and middle bass while casting
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out of a classic drip boat you talk
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about convenient Kenji's Lodge is about
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a hundred feet from the collagen which
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means there's fishable water right in
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his backyard we simply had a big
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breakfast block down to the river and in
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no time we were into our drift I love
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the idea of using the bait gas in here
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music and together come up here a little
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ultralight Raju six pound test
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I kind of need to do something like this
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you obviously with us you're letting a
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rod to a lot of the fight - right yeah
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never odd he's got a lot of give to it
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so you can you know make a shock
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absorber yeah and it's your this brown
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trout in here is going to go well look
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over ten pound oh man that would be
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unbelievable that even to get a five
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pounder beer you know it's real trouble
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with the fish that are big they're you
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know the eight and ten pounds slippery
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smart oh yeah if you do fool and they'll
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come up then you're they know where to
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go you need some rod to hold them but
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yeah exactly
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if you haven't tried drip fishing before
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you owe it to yourself to give it a shot
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it's the ultimate in guided fishing the
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anglers stand in the front of a drift
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boat casting a specific target areas
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well buddy in the back works his butt
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off
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rolling paddling lifting and dropping
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the anchor all well shouting over to
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catch the angler definitely it's easy
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job he's rippin off right
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yeah it looks like a yellow rainbow yeah
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that were right he's been living with
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the brown trout family oh they're the
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colors ready Wow that's bizarre
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along that log there's nothing and then
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you bring it up there in there behind
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there
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so that is a yellow rain Munna is very
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yellow what the heck got it Wow then
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yellow he's like a brown choke color
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I know what we had before too you never
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know maybe I pulled him in a little too
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aggressively Ellen I'll throw it on the
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chest until it stops working right now
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there's a bald eagle up there yeah down
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to your left up there top there yeah
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yeah mangle for my lure trying to see if
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you got technique he wants to pick up
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yeah you like to pick up my fish have a
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little snack gonna catch one first eagle
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this is both tranquil and exciting
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fishing at the same time the duty of the
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scenery is amazing and the chance of
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hooking the ten pounds of a smartest and
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nastiest rotenone a man you can't feed
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it look at that jump there behind you
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there's other water taking off the top
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right thing is that what that is er yeah
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it's not good for us guys is it Hardware
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fishermen not totally but the way I see
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it to everyone that comes up tan will
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eat under the surface right and so
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seeing them on the surface at least
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they're starting to feed yeah and so
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hopefully these fish are waking up
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getting more aggressive yeah yeah
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they've been pretty sleepy so far they
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sure have oh there's a good fish good
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this slammed it there we go
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looks like this guy's got some shoulders
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on one got the knee comb but I want the
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rainbow or brown look pretty white on
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the belly
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oh it's silverish yeah here come what's
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the brown well beautiful look at that
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horse look at this yeah look at that the
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biggest mover is thrown today look at
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that we put on a finesse stuff flies
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little tiny worms service this morning I
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said let's go smaller yes yeah yeah
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because I think that's awesome that's a
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B C Brown throw in there for you know
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Brady is gorgeous fish and you don't
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need to have fly be a fly fisherman to
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catch him I mean the second cast of that
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big old mental bait spending and obey
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going to put a single single barbless
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hook on it you take off your troubles to
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make it legal and the first cast I was
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working out like a jerk mate that cast I
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just dragged it across the current just
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held up there and let it sort of move on
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its own so buddy that is just that
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gorgeous throat and I don't care what
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country you're in the property and that
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is that is it in the rote world you know
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so we'll send him on his way
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absolutely
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when we do Pete is a right across to
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this right-hand edge you'll have to keep
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fishing out to the left side okay and
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just swinging it in close to shore in
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front of us okay down ahead you got a
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log coming out on an angle out of the
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water just downstream of it cord oh you
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got one there
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yeah one old brownie yeah I think in the
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brownie oh yeah he's not not massive but
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no I love a guy I got to stop this on
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the bend here and then just frying
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flipping bad if you can flip them off
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right there oh that's not bad at all
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oh he's in the net we're still getting
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them off there he goes they jump it
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through this guy well they're aggressive
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today they are aggressive today aren't
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they excellent
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whoo you know he's not long so he sure
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got some dirt on the colored on that
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camera on that one look at that look at
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one spot oh yeah a full what what a
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good-looking fish you come back when
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you're just a little bit bigger maybe
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four pounds bigger the Calton River
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starts his flow from Lake collagen which
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incidentally is one of the largest lakes
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on Vancouver Island and dropped swiftly
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through some of the most gorgeous
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landscape and all of beads he finally
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ending in the Strait of Georgia on the
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southeast corner of Vancouver Island
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and real burning this is the thin out
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the rower stretch you're going to try to
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hit way down to the left right now as
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far as you can go on this side of yours
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that's outside that left side got up
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ticking up there
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yep see were the shallows hips or meet
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at the end I let a long line out there
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he popped it once and then and missed it
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and this time he came back and hit it
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look a decent fish he's not bad
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look at that stretch the water folks
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look at that not without fish is he went
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a bit lighter equipment so you get a
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little more fight out of them yeah yeah
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okay rainbow catch them in the nest
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oh one more shot there he is cute little
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E I have one fish that side whoops your
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butt okay nice beautiful straight thing
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yeah you know I just going to get this
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rod out here for he did it I'm bigger
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and all boy great have someone little a
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rainbow now some shoulders on this one I
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you know what Kansa don't annoy me it's
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in the current but oh that looks good
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good flash makes no real oh cool alright
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go to 17 inch fish yeah they know how to
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use the current tray yeah turn his head
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down sideways yeah that's on that same
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level middle yeah
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look at that thing coming in is
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weaseling back and forth now what do we
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got it in brownie you know I think it's
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a rainbow I like to drag system in these
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little reels I'll tell you that yeah
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it's a little rainwater yep
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little rainbow Gant you're stacking a
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little edge down there together okay
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beautiful thing that beautiful shiny
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fish ha okay you got to go there stat
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down there I got a school of them left
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bring a left
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slight angle up from the boat like that
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yeah
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tighten up have a swing across right
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over them oh yeah oh yeah there we go
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how's that feel I look good feel good it
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was really good feels really good
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I'm just going to climb out with a net
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here for you
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[Music]
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Wow nice solid fish quote pulling good
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stand down stands definitely down okay
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you got yourself a big rainbow here I
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thought I saw a stripe on it yeah that's
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a big boat yeah play now gone on nuttier
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you don't like that that's a beauty bow
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good looking fish yeah that's right
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pretty okay watch yourself guys is
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entertainment there you go kind of
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Turner that way
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Wow huh talk get out of there he's
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not a typical bow
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there was no jump for that color Wow
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then the marks oh that's a good one
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that's a nice-size fish
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yeah it'll go slowly over three three
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and half pounds
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oh my first good fishing this we don't
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do that think that was all us real well
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Beauty the drag works really good on I
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just can't fit that barbless hooks fell
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out as soon as I scooped them yeah got
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it
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so we're going to do a little
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measurement on this fish okay that there
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is 18 19 inch just under 19 sweet oh
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they'll make 19 look at that I got that
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stripe folks that is a there's a bonus
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fish just to warm you up for the
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brownies okay we're gonna put him back
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in send him on his way
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look at the Hat Oh tell me is that any
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good
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every corner Bend and straight stretch
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of the college and brought new hopes of
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hooking into a big brown that's the
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beauty of grip fishing in an exotic
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environment like this it's like fishing
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a whole new body of water every few
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minutes you come out and there's poeple
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that you see that Yeah right don't know
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messing around with him Wow a little bit
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order right here so we can drive home on
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the right side yep
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there's your muddy water you're talking
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about you it looks like a cutthroat
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won't tell me that the cutthroat I've
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never caught a cutthroat my life well
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you have now is that oh no it's a little
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brown with the Browning yeah that's
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right
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I don't mind brown trout look
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good-looking fish and any records
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beautiful fur so well hammered out he
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came out up and he came over five to ten
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feet off of the couch River wilderness
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lodge has been in existence since the
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2002 approximately September my wife
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Kate and I developed the plan bought the
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property for the lodge with ideas of
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basically expanding and hosting people
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from around the world to stay and fish
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and enjoy our area we can move you from
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place to place and let you experience
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all kinds of fishing whether it be the
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ocean the smallmouth bass fishery
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steelhead there are trophy Browns in
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here so the guests love it yep yes James
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Japan that comes for the smallmouth bass
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people from all over the world that want
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to target the brown we have just a
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phenomenal fishery right here
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I couldn't have wrote the script any
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better the end of the drift was near and
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we were still looking for that elusive
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big brown Kennedy said it was do or die
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but he also assured me that this is one
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of his favorite runs now it was all to
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me Oh like a big brown egg this big
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brown thankfully we got taken with us a
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bit here I'm on the move yes a big brown
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eye Joplin's spectacular stay on buddy
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just keep your bellow man keep your Bell
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everybody oh I'm good
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hey who's going out I just hope the fish
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is good wow what a jump that fish is
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pulled off they use it turn efficiently
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don't they it feels like I'm on bottom
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right now that's fish just holding in
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the current right now it's just
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oh yeah stupid a lot of pressure an
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amazing job I lose in the drag off
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whatever you cast over there and it
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barely hit it yeah yeah hits the water
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and and you know what is the true
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attachment to a fishing guide right
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there we were fishing off this side of
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the boat and he said Pete take one long
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cast left hit that seam from the
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opposite side already had a hit night
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seam and one no one cast on the move and
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in this fish hit come we go we're just
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about to leave - one cast back that way
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and that look at this fish hold in this
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current like this current is ripping
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right here
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yeah and this kind of current like we're
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fishing pretty heavy but we got some big
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water here look at this fish man they
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know how to fight each boy got his mouth
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wide open catching water pulling drag -
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unbelievable
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staying down carry stuff is awesome that
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I mean it's so much different than a
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small brown trout smaller rainbow a
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little Brook until I got an always
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beautiful oh yeah are you no way to turn
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back there I thought it might be a bow
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it's good size yeah nice looking fixed
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it was jump shot I don't care what are
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those jumps come on dude
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this is unreal I just moved to another
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spot said okay I'll try and fight him
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from another spot hey what I ate what a
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strong fish and super efficient fighter
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he's losing this current blue the Curt
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they live in debt
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oh nice frame all right hit the brown in
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that is the brown he's quite silvery
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well that's a quality fish Wow man I
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cannot believe the strength of this fish
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this is freaking me out
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like we get them close and he just turns
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ya down and takes another run
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Wow
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yes God well yeah he's about 18 or 19
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inches look at that fish wait to see the
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shape this fish is in look at the step
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in the belly look at this fish
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we like to guess to me I like to know
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yep I'm not going to hurt him here we're
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just going to lay him down on there all
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my god can't weighs over 20 he's 20 and
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a half wait look at that fish right now
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he just relaxed and started to revive
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yeah and yeah if you want to show up we
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can just quickly put him there well I'll
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just take a shot I think it exciting
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because I don't get them to try to be
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with a book okay it ain't even like
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Danny pull the fish look at the chunky
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fish okay we got to send him on his way
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yeah buddy put them back oh my god what
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a gorgeous look I'm just sitting that
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net perfectly forwards you can just go
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like this what he's going to do is he's
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just going to swim out of the doget
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tooth again I'm okay goes my attitudes
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like a tree bit hanging right now he's
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talking that is so cool Oh boom such a
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saline oh hey Thank You Man awesome Oh
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[Music]
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today's hot spot as a whole of the couch
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and river and holds fish throughout the
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early season the weight point on your
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screen would get you there I use spoons
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and mentos bait on spinning gear but you
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can certainly fly fish the area as well
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for more hot spots like this one check
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out our website to get to my great crow
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fishing I flew from Toronto to Vancouver
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and then traveled on the bc ferry at the
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crossing location to dew point on
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Vancouver Island from there I drove
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south on highway 19 to Trans Canada
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Highway one
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I stayed heading south and then turned
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west on couch and valley highway 18
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select couches I then took King George
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roads to saddling rose then turned on to
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HUD roll roll and ended up at the Kelton
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River wilderness lodge fish in Canada
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brought to you in part by Romans we have
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door company must all repulsive since
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1951
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Franklin's boat the more you know the
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better we look and Richard Elkhorn
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number one on the water
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[Music]
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you
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[Music]
#Fishing
#Outdoors