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[dennisK]

mid river was quiet today in the early morning (rhymes with chedder).

2 chum and this bronze fish.

i think it's a quality versus quantity thing.

and yes, in the mouth.

18" leader.

[younggun]

solid, i'm surprised u didn't get more fish, there are tons to be caught. Nice sized fish, but there are fresher fish.

[dennisK]

Yeah I know.

But something about the colour bronze. My first one like that; looked like gold in the water.

Also not a soul anywhere; the isolation was worth it.

[Tex]

Wow, beautiful fish.  Nothing compares to a chromer, but I'm not one to pick on a salmon with a bit of colour. 
Reminds me of how a steelhead often becomes even nicer to look at once it gains that rosey red colour to it's cheek with a faint stripe down the side.
Gorgeous!

[BigCoho]

i have seen alot of bronze fish in the Chehalis river

[Fisherama]

That's actually a very handsome fish, even if it is slightly coloured... very solid looking.  Keep up the good work.

[canso]

looks to be a red, very nice.

[Nucks]

Beauty of a fish! When they go in the smoker, that one will taste the exact same as a chromer. Good work!

[milo]

DennisK, that is a gorgeous shot of a gorgeous fish.
I have a theory that red springs turn copperish (bronze) whereas whites turn greyish (green).
Also, the belly has a reddish tinge from what I can see in that picture.
I bet dollars to donuts it was a red spring.

Good to see they keep coming back during so many months!

[DanTfisherman]

While on the Vedder a few years ago, I caught this fish pictured below:



I carefully inspected the fish and found it to be a red spring as well.
If you are unsure (and careful) you can lift the gillplate carefully and look at the color of the flesh just in front of the Pectoral fin.  It will look red if it is a red spring.  If you are worried about lifting the gillplate, you can look at the flesh of the fish just behind the anal fin.  In the battle to get up river, this area often wears first and the flesh will look reddish.

At that time, I choose to let it go.

Although I do not post very often, I am replying because upon having a discussion with an oldtimer, he informed me that the fish I caught was one of the original wild springs from a way back in this system.  He informed me that many people think the reds in the Chehalis and Vedder in July are the "original" wild Springs, but this is not the case.  Before hatcheries and enhancement (and introduction of the whites), the Vedder used to have a small run of reds which would come in during the month of October and spawn in November.  I mention this because the fish are very few and far between, but in more recent years, seem to be making a comeback, which is nice to see.

I choose to let mine go in hopes it would find some others and spawn, bringing more and more reds back to the river in the fall.  This seems to be the case, as in the last two outings out there, I have seen two other reds caught in the past two weeks.  Both were colored up and after some chatting, the individuals were convinced to let them go.

Please do not assume I am being overbearing.  I am just encouraging individuals who may be lucky enough to catch a red spring to consider letting it go to bring future stocks up.

On the other hand, the tale I heard about the reds could just be a tale and I could be completely wrong.  If anyone knows for sure, it would be nice to have a definite answer.

Congratulations on a beautiful fish there, Dennis.  Also, if you look closely at mine, you can tell I clearly flossed it with the blade, seeing the hook appears to be on the outside of the mouth and all...

Dano   

[hotrod]

I've caught of few of those gold fish in my day. Some cohos and some springs. They are freakin weird but let me tell you they taste the same as silver ones!

Nice job and try to ignore the internet wolves and let rod take care of it!


   Hotrod

[Every Day]

I have also heard that these are the orignal summer run reds. Apparentally the Vedder also has a winter run    I have landed 2 already this year in late spetember, and have seen many more than that caught. All of these fish I have seen or landed have been quite clean and even bullet chrome. Nice to see Reds around this late.. now I feel bad for killing one  Hopefully the stocks rebound and we get more and more of these late reds every year 

[CALI 2 B.C.]

that is a nice fish,havt seen many like it kinda looks like a huge german brown trout lol great color

[SnaggedADuck]

the top one is a red and the bottom a white spring.  I think you can see the bronze and the grey