My buddy and I took his pontoons out again last Sunday for some late pinks and the hope for some early Coho. Put in at Ben Howard and caught four pinks right off the bat on the centerpin with a jig under a float. It was a blast landing them on the long float rod, which I had upgraded to after using a 7 wt fly rod earlier in the run. I didn't want to get a Coho (wishful thinking) on that light a rig, although the steelhead gear was still getting a bend in it with those hard fighting bucks. Seemed I'd see that float go down set the hook, and then the fish would just glue itself to the bottom, Chinook-style. I'd get a strong head shake every so often and as soon as they got close to shore they'd take off. The hens seemed to jump a bit more. I gotta say that float fishing for the pinks was my preferred method at the end of the day, as every time I switched to spoons or a drift rig I would just foul hook one after another. Bringing in a big buck pink sideways is a hassle and I wished I could kept using the float rig but the water was a bit low. Is there such a thing as too many fish in the river? It was a great run this year, but I look forward to putting all the pink away and switching to the blues, purples, and greens for this Coho run.

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