After the last three outings all produced nothing, I decided to set the alarm for 4 am and make sure I gave it my best at first light. It's my first year fishing the vedder and all I have to show for it so far were pinks.
Glad I remembered the torch, seemed a much longer hike through the woods than I remembered in daylight. Was whistling away just in case of bears, proud of myself for getting off my backside nice and early, hiking down to the run and arriving first to pick any spot I wanted.... only to find six other guys already there and setting up
Anyhow very first cast, fish on. Played it for a couple of minutes and it threw the hook. Five minutes later another hookup, this time landed a large spring that I released as it was quite coloured up. This was my first ever spring caught solely by me (I've caught them when guided in the chuck) and what a confidence boost it was. Up until then I was always worried whether I was missing bites, or whether the float was too shallow, or too deep, whether i was casting in the righte spots etc. Now that monkey is off my back, I can settle in and know that I've got some of the basics.
So my patience and early start paid off, however.... no more bites for me and I didn't see any other hookups all morning on that stretch - so it goes to show what a huge part luck plays in all of this.
As an aside, as i walked back up river I saw one guy fishing in a really fast narrow run where I wouldn't have thought made sense. He had one nice coho and looked to be playing another as I left him. His tactics were that the fish hugged very close to the sides in very fast water and if you stayed well back from the edge you don't spook them, you can see them and then catch them. The only person mid river that i saw with coho today so I guess he knew what he was doing.
Ps on the way back I wasn't whistling....saw my first bear while out fishing. Fortunately a small one that saw me and headed off in the other direction. Maybe need to get that bear bell.