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After getting skunked in the lower river, above the canal, we headed to the Campground. Lots of fishers and lots of fish! There were many shallow spots with springs grouping up, so I was trying to avoid disturbing their ritual. The last thing I wanted to do was hook into a half-dead spring trying to dig a redd. I know they can be quite agressive this time of year.
I did manage to hook into about 4 chum on my fly, including a big brute pushing upper teens. My first salmon of the year...finally! Two of the chum were foul-hooked, so I intentionally let them slip off when I got them close to shore. The other two came off after a quick fight, but it looked and felt like they bit! Way different fight between a tail-hook and a mouth-hook.
The highlight was when I hooked into a bright-dime-chromed coho on my fly! He zipped so quick and fast, surfaced, then was off before I knew what happened. Wow! He was definately bigger than a jack! I thought it was my imagination, but my buddy also confirmed that it was a chrome bullet! The funny thing was that the coho took my purple/pink chum fly that I had been dead-drifting with. I had no luck on the chum jigs but they were fun to use.
My buddy was the hero of the day though. He caught and landed his very first salmon! His smile was cheek to cheek! He was even more surprised when the chum bit a piece of tiny red wool that he found on the bank. Wow, sometimes it takes the most simple technique to fool a fish, eh? We go so fancy with all the hardware, flies, and bait. Here he just used a piece of wool. Here's the fish below:
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I did manage to hook into about 4 chum on my fly, including a big brute pushing upper teens. My first salmon of the year...finally! Two of the chum were foul-hooked, so I intentionally let them slip off when I got them close to shore. The other two came off after a quick fight, but it looked and felt like they bit! Way different fight between a tail-hook and a mouth-hook.
The highlight was when I hooked into a bright-dime-chromed coho on my fly! He zipped so quick and fast, surfaced, then was off before I knew what happened. Wow! He was definately bigger than a jack! I thought it was my imagination, but my buddy also confirmed that it was a chrome bullet! The funny thing was that the coho took my purple/pink chum fly that I had been dead-drifting with. I had no luck on the chum jigs but they were fun to use.
My buddy was the hero of the day though. He caught and landed his very first salmon! His smile was cheek to cheek! He was even more surprised when the chum bit a piece of tiny red wool that he found on the bank. Wow, sometimes it takes the most simple technique to fool a fish, eh? We go so fancy with all the hardware, flies, and bait. Here he just used a piece of wool. Here's the fish below:
