It seems like this the afternoon bite is better this year, so I took the kids to school, then moseyed down to the river. I didn't get there until about noon or so. I Started at the Wishkah road bridge first and saw one fish spook but no take downs. Then I went up to the wdfw access spot and walked up fishing. Most of the river there is not very good for jig fishing so I just kept walking up river. I finally found a nice slow hole that looked fishy. Even though I like to bobber fish the most, I have a real bad habit of not watching my bobber. So, as usual when I try to find my bobber it is gone so I just set and feel head shaking. The regs say the upper sections are barbless and I'm not very familiar with the river so I pinched my barbs all day just to be safe. I was a little nervous fighting the fish, but luckily she still came to the shore. I caught the fish at about 430 so I made few more cast the called it a day. She was about 12 pounds.
The lower river was packed with people and drift boats, but the first spot I fished, I saw few guys and one boat. At the wdfw spot I was the only car and a few guys were on the other side. It was a cold, wet and miserable day (typical steelhead weather) but I just kept thinking about Another member "hawgs on" who bass fishes. He always says "grind it out". It paid off this time. I was using a white head, chartuse body and white tail jig, it looks red but that is blood.
The state made an error in the regs about selective gear rules for the upper sections so watch for the signs posted. They will tell you the correct rules this year.