I have enjoyed my best days on the river in this past year and have found the time to be there when it was at its peak. I would have to say that I enjoyed my pursuit of the columbias spring chinook more than any. and particularly the wind river. I had been making my morning trip to the river for weeks on end hoping that i would be there on the day that the fish were going to arrive. I had purposely made sure that I would be able to fish everyday the month of may just to get a chance at these fish. well after two weeks of this and only a few fish to show for my efforts I was getting a little nervous that these fish had been intercepted along there path and were not going to show. but I had not lost complete hope and was still getting up at the sound of the 4:00 am call. it was may 13th and It was raining like heck I walked down to the drift I know would produce as soon as the fish did show. and low and behold on my second cast I was tied into a fresh springer. it was a pretty good fish of about 17lbs and if anyone who has ever caught thes fish in the river knows they do a might battle for there size. It was going to be the day that I had hoped for and I was into fish the whole day. a few people came down during the day and everyone that did took out a limit. the fish and the rain just kept coming. It took less than a week for the majority of the run to go past this low river spot and the crowds intensified ten fold everyday until four days later there must have been forty people fishing that drift after ten days. I filled my punchcard in the next two weeks and made many new friends. it was best early and the fish were definately more aggressive in the lower end. there was no snagging that I saw. until the fish got to the seven mile area and began to get lockjaw.
p.s. I would always carry a bacpack to cary out my fillets and all of the trash left by others it made me feel good to walk away from the river with a limit and a bag of trash