We just got home, completely soaked. Luke and I arrived at the lower river around 6am, just after gman. We fished a run that has been productive for us in the past two weeks. This wasn't the case today, after a couple of bites and briefly connecting with a coho around 3 to 4lb, that was it. Not many fish were moving through during the time we were there. By 9am, it was time to shift. I decided to take Luke to a few spots in the mid section and make it another scouting trip since we didn't have much time. We found one run that was not fished, and anchored ourselves there for the rest of the morning.
The odd springs and chums were leaping out of the water, and occasionally we saw a few chrome coho surfacing sideways as they made their way up. It was an encouraging sight, but I wasn't sure if they were holding on simply zipping by. Beside a couple of hookups with springs, it was rather quiet. The odd coho continued to surface right in front of us in the slower water.
At one point, I decided to hooked on a bigger ball of roe just to entice another spring, I guess I was bored.
A slow drift in front of me, the Drennan was pulled under hard. The hook was set, and the fish was on. It dove down hard, "Spring" I thought. It then proceeded to surface with a few tail splashes. A quick glance at the hook nose, and our jaws almost dropped.
I then played the fish carefully down the river until I reached a nice beach where I could land it. Few minutes later, this happened:
Mr Biggie Time to buy a lottery ticket!
This was easily my biggest coho from the Vedder River. I estimated 16lb. Luke was more generous, he reckoned at least 18lb after holding it. I'll do a measurement later on today.
I decided it was best that I packed up the rod at that point as it couldn't get any better than that. The rain was coming down hard and I had to rush back here for work. We left by 12:30pm.
Water was low and clear when we started this morning. By the time we were leaving, it was slightly siltier and rain was still coming down hard all the way home.
Good luck to all this weekend, especially to those who are in Fred's derby.