This past weekend gave us some rare good fall weather and river conditions, so we grabbed the opportunity and headed out to the river to fish early in the morning on Saturday and again in the afternoon on Sunday.

Early Saturday, fly fishing was the name of the game, so I brought along my trusty St. Croix Imperial and a box full of my recently dubbed “Coho Thunder” flies. So far this season, the Coho Thunder has accounted for some nice coho, searun cutthroat, rainbows and dollies.  The fish pictured below was quickly released after participating in this photo shoot.

Coho salmon fly fishing success, with my "Coho Thunder" fly.

Check out this short video that Sam made of our Saturday morning.

Sunday afternoon, we headed back down to try for some Chum salmon. I brought my fly rod along, but also brought a jig rod along for my wife to use. On the second cast, while I was adjusting the depth of the bobber stop for her, the bobber started quivering, then moved sideways, and eventually dipped under water. STRIKE!!! I set the hook and quickly handed the rod off to my wife.  Chum salmon definitely aren’t going to win an beauty pageants, but they are super hard fighters and are a blast to catch.

A nice jig caught Chum salmon that was released.

It didn’t take her long to get one for herself.  Such a fun way to spend the afternoon!

My Wife's first Chum salmon.