Personally, I never get up early any more to fish first light and here's why:

I'll NEVER beat everyone to the ramp in the morning, and I HATE the clusterf*ck situations that usually occur when I try.

I'll NEVER get to the river before everyone else to get first water, and again, see above.

I usually like to put in a full day when I do get to fish, and I find that when I get up super early and fish till late morning, I'm so tired for the rest of the day that I'm not very productive anyway!

How all of this pertains to fishing coho in the salt you may wonder... My theory:

Coho are visual feeders mainly, meaning they see and chase their prey, more than relying on their other senses, like smell, to locate a meal.

Logic would dictate that the more light that is available, the easier it is for them to see their potential meal. Plus, flashers reflect more light when there's more light to reflect.

So it's either that, or in all my years of chasing them in the salt, I haven't been lucky enough to stumble across a feeding school of coho till at least 9 a.m.