In the last couple days I have noticed some fresh looking coho on the Chehalis hatchery cam, and with the bit of rain lately I was excited to head out for the first time this season. As we arrived at the river our excitement soon turned to disappointment as there was hardly any water going past the hatchery. We would Spend the next three hours hiking, and fish for 20 minutes or so without any luck and decide to call it a day.
Walking back we ran into another angler who was doing better than we were, he had four coho on the beach. Although he was using a slightly different setup than we were, it appeared to be one of those bottom bouncing things with the six foot leader and about 4 feet from the weight to the float, it was clearly working for him but seemed a little odd because the water was only one foot deep? In passing I had suggested that he keep some of the fish lying dead on the river bottom because they appeared to be in better shape than the ones he had retained, and as we parted ways I turned around to see this other angler poking around in the river with a big stick. LOL.