So I'm new to salmon fishing this year, had lots of luck at Furry Creek and now I'm trying to work into the fall season.
Today I was super excited to go to the Vedder. I've been watching all Rods' videos, doing tons of reading, and I caught a couple pinks by jigging the Vedder mouth earlier this month. I bought some wool and scent recommended by Sea-Run and had a bucket of Firecured pink roe and I was rearing to hook a Chinook!
Started near the Vedder bridge at 6:30am, found a deep pool moving at a quick walking pace and starting casting roe. Spent an hour working through depth, different spots in the run, and a bunch of different presentations. Got nothing! I mis-cast once onto another angler's line and got yelled at, threatened, and invited to fight. Around this time I realized that the other 6 people fishing the run had 12' of line below their floats and were ripping on the rod at the end of every drift. Flossing! And one of them was flossing with roe! Most of them caught big springs within an hour but no fish were biting my presentations so I moved on to other runs in the area. Looked for walking pace, deep areas.
Worked another 3 runs trying different depths and presentations and got nothing. Literally everyone else I saw before noon, except for 3 people + 4 fly fishers were 'float fishing' with more than 10 feet of line below their float, ripping on the rod at the end of a drift, occasionally hooking something. One guy approached me and told me that my float depth was too short and I needed the weight to drag through the school of fish to catch anything...
So I drove to the end of Lickman road, it looked all blown out with no good runs so I didn't fish there. But I met a guy who said he landed a jack in the lower river that morning and sympathized with my distaste for the flossers. He offered to show me his spot so we went there and lo and behold there was 20 people float fishing with 12 feet below the float (in 8 foot water), occasionally hooking something. We worked the run with roe and wool for an hour and got nothing despite many jumping and rolling fish. Many of the flossers hooked fish.
So then I went to a hole near the mouth of the river that I found earlier this month and I cast a Koho spoon. After a half hour I hooked a small Coho but it shook the hook close to shore. Nothing for the next hour, tried a few spinners and spoons. I saw a couple guys leave with big chinooks, said they caught them on Kitimats and Orange buzz bombs a few hours prior.
So I decided that on the way home I'd check out a couple potential bar fishing spots I'd found on google earth. There were 4 spots on Dyke road and Nicomen Trunk Road near Deroche, but once I got there I found they were all full of riprap or gated off! So I still can't any bars to fish between Mission and Harrison river, accessible by car/foot.
So after a 13 hour day of fishing and driving, applying all the things I've been learning and studying for the last month, I got 1 hookup and saw 3 fish legitimately caught, and about 50 other fish flossed. It was nice to get out on the river but it kinda seems like a waste of effort, time, and money to study fish habits, tides, rain, river dynamics, techniques and presentation types and have nothing to show for it. And the bulk of the community I met on the river today were jerks or confused flossers.
I think today was the most discouraging day I've had in years. Is this a typical day of fishing for someone just starting out? Am I just terrible at this? Maybe I should hire a guide and try to make some more friends who fish. Any input you guys have would be appreciated, I'm at a loss here.
TL;DR: Studied everything about fishing available online, tried it all on the Vedder today, got nothing except yelled at by flossers. Is this normal?