Saturday morning, my Dad and I started at the lower river chucking roe. I lost two fish in the 4-5 lb range, I think spring jacks, before 8:30. Broke of them broke my 8lb Stren leader - I was not happy. The bite died off but there were lots of fish rolling and splashing throughout the morning, including lots of coho in the slack water.
Saturday afternoon, we decided to head upriver. I hooked a large but surprisingly unfresh (chrome with white fungus on tail and dorsal fin) spring that ran downstream and broke off. Eventually we had two nice springs on the beach. A tiny dab of pink wool was the trick. The fish were hooked in a fast and choppy center channel (nearly white water). The fish turned out to both be males with white flesh (10 lbs and 13 lbs).
Sunday morning, we headed back to where I lost the fish on roe the day before. By 6:30 am, I had this spring on the beach:
She was 13 pounds with marble flesh. No action at all after that on the lower river, and we saw no coho like the day before, so we went upstream and again pink wool in the fastest, deepest water was the key. We hooked 3 more springs before my dad landed an 11 lb buck. It turned out to be marble as well.
September 16 and we each have 2 springs on our licenses - not a bad start!