Wilson has fish

C
ChezJfrey
Have given up summer steelhead and will wait a month or two for winter. Also, took a brief stab at coho on the Sandy, but word is that local rivers look out-of-sorts given the recent rain. Planned to fish yesterday, and decided to target chinook on the Wilson. Never done it, but supposedly this is a good time of year for that river. Water was a bit chalky, quite a few leaves and small debris getting caught up nearly ever other cast, maybe 2 ft. visibility and height looked good. I only had one rod suitable for chinook and I had it rigged for float. Hit a few areas with a float setup, with nothing going, then I spoke to dozer in the afternoon and he and a buddy were down by Mills. Having never been to Mills Bridge, I brought my float rig down, but the flows in that area had me thinking float was the wrong approach there.

Didn't feel like taking the time to re-rig and I had with me my only other option, which was my steelhead spinning rig for tossing hardware. Might have been a mistake because within 10 minutes with a spinner, hooked a strong, somewhat weighty fish...in the beginning it immediately leaped (had me fooled into thinking maybe something other than a salmon at first), then ran into the current and hunkered down where I couldn't get it to budge; not enough backbone or high enough test! Seemed like it took me about 10 minutes to make any progress on it, LOL. Got a couple more nice leaps from that fish before getting it to the bank.

Anyway, found it to be a very pretty native Coho and sent it on its way. Oh, and while fighting the fish, OSP walked down and this was the first time I've had my license checked, so encouraging to know the patrols are out there.

Had another hit not too long after, but missed it other than seeing the big flash right as I struck out on the take. Also got pecked by what I'm guessing was a trout, but it didn't stick on the #4 spinner.

This weekend that river will likely be pounded given conditions, but forecast looks excellent and there are fish...saw several rolling yesterday and other people on the river have also indicated fish are being caught.

IMG953375.jpg
 
J
JeannaJigs
Excellent fish!
 
E
eugene1
Great post and fish! Wonder what a fall nook would have done to your steelie rod setup??
 
A
alm21
Nice ho. I had a blast catching coho on that river last year while targeting chinook.
 
B
bran_man
Yeah that's a beauty! About time you got away from those old summers! Ha ha jk. funny now I'm starting to target re-run and b run steelhead again ha ha. Seems like you love that hardware and just can't get away from it, but hey with how successful its been for you, I'd say stick with what you know! Great work man!!! keep it up
 
B
bran_man
eugene1 said:
Great post and fish! Wonder what a fall nook would have done to your steelie rod setup??

Its all on how you fight it. my first nook of this year was a 35pound chromer on my okuma steelhead rod on 15lb test.... just saying ha ha. def doable if done right
 
C
ChezJfrey
Yeah, no matter what I try, the positive reinforcement using spoons/spinners just keeps making it difficult to explore and get more practice at other techniques...LOL

And eugene1, yeah, the bit of struggle I had with a coho that was probably only topping out at 15 pounds at the most had me continually thinking why it might have been a mistake throwing out with my steel setup...what if it had been a chinook? My fear is that I would have probably been schooled and spooled if I don't have 200 yards of open bank, hehehehe.

I'm thinking I want to give another go at the chinook out there on Sunday, but like I said, the favorable conditions means that the banks will probably be packed along Hwy. 6. Not a scene I much care for, but the call of that river is strong for me right now :)
 
C
ChezJfrey
bran_man said:
Its all on how you fight it. my first nook of this year was a 35pound chromer on my okuma steelhead rod on 15lb test.... just saying ha ha. def doable if done right

Well, that's exactly the setup I had going...Okuma steelhead spinning with 15 pound mono, tipping my 25 lb. braid. I still think I would need 200 yards of open river bank to freely chase :)
 
troutdude
troutdude
Excellent fish and report. Did the game warden snap the pic for you? Get it on a spoon or spinner?
 
E
eugene1
At least you are getting out there Chez! Gotta love the fall season whatever rig you're fishing with.

Best and good luck tomorrow,
 
C
collegekidusa
Silver Bullet!!! :)
 
C
ChezJfrey
troutdude said:
Excellent fish and report. Did the game warden snap the pic for you? Get it on a spoon or spinner?

Homemade spinner made from Fisherman's Shack components - #4 silver with a pink tube on the hook shank and a pink sticker on the back of the blade. Cool thing is that I made a bunch of spinners in my first year of steelheading back in 2011. Didn't catch a steelhead that year, but this particular spinner is the last remaining one of that bunch :)

Picture was snapped by a fellow OFFer, dozer365.
 
C_Run
C_Run
Congratulations on branching out to a new species. It's probably just something to do with your hands while you wait for winters to arrive but rewarding nonetheless .:D Are you going to go back into spinner production now?
 
B
bran_man
and on a homemade no less! That's awesome! very rewarding i'm sure. pink and silver is def a coho slayer. that's pretty cool!
 

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