Does everybody just fish the Vedder? Not me. Personally I go for uncrowded waters where the chance of being accused of flossing is extremely low and snagging is almost impossible. You see there just isn't the water velocity or the quantity of fish there. The water is tanic colored at best. There is some hatchery additions made and an attempt to reestablish populations of chinook and chums. However it's not rare for me to fish an entire season and not catch a hatchery coho. The large majority are wild. It's not generally crowded at least not on weekdays. Often I have a km or more of river bank to myself. It's an agrarian location amidst farms and fields. I can enjoy the local wildlife which is birds mostly; herons, hawks ducks and geese plus muskrats & the odd coyote or otter. Earlier this week I was treading through grass as tall as me when I heard the desperate chattering of a blackbird, a small hawk hot on it's tail. The smaller bird suddenly broke left and executed a beautiful roll over the hawk and struck it's back with it's feet. I could hear the strike! The hawk seemed unperturbed & the blackbird dove down below my line of sight and the hawk followed, both passing from visibility. How did it end? I went to look and found no sign of a kill.
Fishing has been ok. It's usually over by noon. I hooked 5 fish last trip; 4 coho and a cutthroat landing 2 hatch coho (the limit is 1) and the cutthroat which was 15 inches. So far this season I have landed 3 coho. The trip before I landed a beautiful wild buck that looked close to 30 inches. In past years I have seen coho that weighed 15lbs. I also have taken 2 spring jacks on separate days & brought them home.
have a look:
The first spring jack:
It's fillets:
not a Harrison white
The second spring
I don't catch springs there that often. I took a 10lb fish on a fly rod a few years ago. I was a bit red so I released it. The one before that was 10+ years ago.
The coho
On coho # 3, a fish I had hooked from a high bank, this happened when the hook came away:
I have contacted the maker and am getting a new one under warranty. I'll pass on details when it's complete. Anyone else notice the set in the tip? It's a graphite rod!
Believe it or not I kept fishing with that rod and even landed hatchery fish #2, a beautiful chrome doe I had to release. I could have kept it,the thought entered my mind as there was no one around but I let it go.
BTW I usually don't take pictures of fish I release unless I can keep them in the water. I try to be an ethical angler.