I got up early before the light and headed to cottonwood to start my day. Fished there from first light till about 7:30. No fish, not a bite. No one even had hooked a chum or spring. (line of 8 guys maybe) I got out of there fast as thats what exactly had happend the day before. I headed up to Wilson rd. where i tried again to get my first coho of the year. Again same thing. The water was a bit murkey but otherwise conditions were good. A guy just up river hooked a nice clean female chum and i was glad to clean his fish to keep the roe he didn't want. Fished the run for about another hour and could not intice a bite. I was short floating... the guy who hooked the female chum had long liters but still managed to get a clean hookset.
So off I went again to venture for the elusive coho! I drove up to tamahi and wandered around for a bit. Lower area there was reports of coho being caught. The guy i talked to said he hooked a wild one early in the morning. I ventured a bit higher up river near the big rock. To my surprize i found 3 coho lying on the bank! This made me pretty excited so i walked back to my car and grabbed my gear and rod and headed upriver above the big rock and crowds but still below the bridge. I fished the pools of slack water inbehind the rocks. It only took about 10 short drifts and i had my first coho doing arials off the end of my line. This only lasted for a few seconds tho as it did a good enough job jumping around to pop the hook.
I casted into the same area once again and after another 10 - 15 cast or so another coho took the bait. More arial acrobatics took place and i laughed a bit as the coho leaped into the air jumping onto exposed rocks. It wasn't huge... maybe 5-6 lbs but after a quick spirited fight i had it on the beach.
The 1st Coho of the year for me so as you can tell i was VERY excited. Turned out to be a doe, and a very clean/silver one at that.
Picture from my crappy cell phone camera i took.
WOOHOO!!!