Well got up at 5 am and headed off to the river. After a brief stop for coffee at Tim Horton's finally arrived at 6:45 am to my first destination. After 15 minute walk found a nice stretch of river that apparently was devoid of any other fishermen as far as I could see . Oh joy! Quite beautiful to look at the fresh dusting of snow on the mountains with the crisp[ air all around...very refreshing. So on goes a piece of chum roe and I start at the head of the pool, casting, then move down to the middle of the run and begin casting. I get about midway across to the middle of the river when my float goes sideways and I see the familiar flash of silver, churning below the surface. It works its way to the top of the water and roars off down stream peeling line off my reel, until it gets to the tail out whereupon it jumps, looks back at me, and spits the hook. Darn! Oh well. It didn't feel too large, somewhere around the 6 - 8 pound range. Thinking possibly I might as well go back up because I hadn't finished that part of the run, I placed another fresh piece of roe on and continued casting where I had left off. 4 casts later my float takes another sudden dive. I pull back and feel the head shakes and pull of a definitely larger, feistier fish. This one explodes onto the surface, tail flapping all over. After 5 minutes and a lot of tugging back and forth into the river I see that it is a hatchery! And I think my heart started to pound just a little harder. Gently I coaxed it near the shoreline and it goes for the slide up onto the rocks, whereupon I find a rock to settle it down. the hen weighted in at fred's at 12.5lbs, and i got to go home at 9:30! Just a great day!