Scouting for river Chinooks

I took Tuesday and Wednesday to scout the Root River in Racine WI and the Milwaukee River in Milwaukee WI, in search for early run kings. Tuesday I was only able to stop at two spots on the Root and after a few drifts my bobber started bouncing. I couldn't believe that I had a hit that quick but once I put my Raven Matrix 13'6 to it, I knew something wasn't right. After a few seconds a 2-3lb catfish came up with my hook in it's mouth. I took this as a sign and decided to try closer to the river mouth which was a good choice. While talking to another fisherman, I looked back and saw my bobber being towed underwater. Once the line went tight I somehow swung and missed that fish. It didn't take very long before my bobber started bouncing again with a nice 10lb buck chinook at the end. After seeing one other fish landed and 5 missed by other anglers I decided to call it a day.

Wednesday I took the morning to check out two spots on the Milwaukee River. The water level was up slightly and it still had quite a dark muddy tint to it. Similar to the day before, it only took a few drifts in one of my go to chinook holes before my bobber started bouncing. This time it was only a 14'' catfish. I called it a day for that spot and headed down river. Once I saw the river was easily 4' higher that usual in the lower stretch and no fish jumping I took two drifts and called it a day.

With the amount of silver fish still being caught I have come to the conclusion that the main run is still 1-2 weeks out or the next good rain (which might be in two weeks).