I used to live by a small stream that got some springers.

My plan of attack was to sneak up on a 'secret' hole that I had found that held fish. I would expect an aggressive attack on my silver spoon on the first cast. If I missed the strike, they would suddenly get lock jaw - and game over. I don't know if this is true on most waters, but it was like clock work on my stream. Kinda hard to do if you are competing for first water though...

On another note, the biggest one I caught nailed a small silver spoon that I was using to catch SRC. I had worked the deep pool by my house for 10 minutes, then just as I began to pull the lure out of the water and leave, a hog of a salmon came out of the dark, grabbed the spoon, and headed back to the bottom. I won't bore you anymore with the details, but I did land the fish on my 5ft rod with 6lb line - and I was one happy kid.

Good luck!