Casade River Coho in October

Cascade River near Marblemount

In the summer time, many mornings the alarm is set for 3:45 a.m. so that you can be standing in the river for a 5:00 a.m. sunrise. One advantage to fall fishing is that sunrise isn’t until 7:45. So after burning up half the day and sleeping in until 5:00 a.m. last weekend we decided to head up to the Cascade River.

The Cascade River is a tributary of the mighty Skagit that dumps into the main river near Marblemount. This small river is home a decent return of hatchery Coho in the fall and a nice run of hatchery steelhead in the winter. This is a long haul for these fish and many of the fish caught this far up river will have some serious color to them. These fire engine red Coho may not make the best table fare, but they fight hard and are less lock jaw than many silvers around the local rivers.

The Cascade is very accessible river. Park at the hatchery and walk down the trail to see all the fish in the side stream that were able to make the long journey all the way back to the place where they were created. Cross a small side stream, and from here you can either go up or down river. Just like fishing at any hatchery in Washington State, this spot is no secret. You will not be alone.  The gravel bars are large enough that people can spread out, and there is some room to move around. Not a highly recommended fly fishing destination however.  Today we were fishing with a group, and being that not everyone in the group fly fishes, we decided to join the dark side and gear fish today. We could go off the tangent that gear fishing is not real fishing and that true fisherman only fish with bamboo and dry flies, but I will save that for another post.

We arrived to the hatchery about 7:30 a.m. and were fishing by 7:40. Second cast with my freshly cured to perfection humpy eggs, Katie reels in about a 6 pound red silver. The water was very low and clear, so short leaders and good bobber stops were the ticket to keep from losing gear. The fishing was not lights out, but it was fairly consistent. We spent the two hours or so fishing the same spot and by now there were enough people around that every decent hole had a few fisherman standing in it. I had gone all morning without hooking  a silver, but about half way through the morning I got surprised with a VERY late summer run hatchery steelhead. She had been in the river a while, but its always fun to be surprised with a fish you weren’t expecting. Due to the low and clear conditions, dark jigs and eggs worked well for us this day. Between the humpies and the silvers over the past few months, I have had my fill of salmon and am ready to commit to chasing winter steel. But overall, this was a very enjoyable trip out with friends.

 

Goodbye Summer, Hello Rain... and Fish...

 

Did you know that is rains in the Pacific Northwest? If you spent a day on a river in Washington in July or August you would probably think the answer is NO. If you were to hang around until the fall, you would learn the truth. The end of summer is often a big mystery in the Pacific Northwest, sometimes September is one of the nicest months of the year and some years, it rains…a lot. Once summer is gone, it is gone for good and the grey skies and dark clouds set up shop right over the top of Washington State for the next nine months.

This year being an odd year, we were graced with the presence of 6 million slimy humpies that dumped themselves into our Puget Sound rivers about mid August. At first, I was super pumped and couldn’t wait to target humpies and fill my smoker. Now, I can’t swing a fly down a river without hooking one of these things in the hump. It’s like reeling in a piece of drift wood sideways. I never thought I would be annoyed by catching a fish, but I’ve had enough Pink salmon action to keep me content for the next two years. So as September rolled around and as the month progressed, it was time to start thinking about the Pink salmon’s less slimy relative, the Coho.

As most people in the PNW are upset to see summer time come to an end, the river fisherman of our state are chomping at the bit waiting on the first big rain. This time of year there are often thousands of staging Coho in the Puget Sound waiting for their chance to shoot up the rivers where they will swim to their fire engine red transformation. This last week brought in some of these rains, so we decided to hit the river.

The week before Saturday September 28^th, the weatherman was calling for extreme rains that would blow out all the rivers in no time, flood warnings and all. Listening to the radio on our drive out to the Skykomish river Saturday morning, they were saying how this was a good weekend to stay at home and tie leaders. We figured we had a couple hour window first thing in the morning before the river turned to sludge.

Steelhead are almost always my first priority when hitting the river, so after we made a pass through one of the usual runs on the Skykomish, we decided to head down to the mouth of the Wallace river and see if there were any Silvers milling around. 99 times out of 100 there is already someone standing under the train trestle on the Wallace River. I think the cats and dogs falling out of the sky scared off all the regulars this morning, as we walked up through the woods to find no one. By now, the rain was coming down harder than Shaq in the 90’s breaking backboards.

I have a messed up obsession for chasing steelhead with my fly rod, so I continued to fish down towards the mouth looking for steelhead. If there is a chance that a hunk of steel may be nearby, I want to chase it, even if the odds were against me. Katie stayed up river near the trestle, and no more than 10 minutes later she had a silver on the sandy beach. I instantly became jealous and started winging my fly up into the hole where she just hooked the fish. To my surprise, all I hooked were humpies, no matter where I go there is a humpy to be reeled in tail first. The river was starting to change before our eyes and it was only a matter of time before it would achieve full blown out status. So we bonked the hatchery silver and took it home for the bbq.

That morning when we arrived to the river, the Skykomish was flowing about 1500 CFS, by evening the same day, it was flowing over 14,000 CFS (15,000 CFS is flood status). The next morning it was up to 18,000 CFS. These crazy rains are the rains that all of us river fisherman have been waiting for. Once all the houses and cars stop floating down the river, there will be nothing left but fish for the catching. Fall is here, and winter is right around the corner. For many of us this is our favorite time of the year. Happy fishing.

 

Labor Day Weekend in the PNW - Humpy Madness

Puyallup River Pinks

It must be Labor day on an odd year in the Pacific Northwest because you can’t walk along any river bank in the Puget Sound without getting whacked in the head with a pink buzz bomb or pink marabou jigs. It’s a beautiful time of year, when all the rivers around the sound are lined hip to hip with amateur anglers slinging humpy specials, the banks are littered with beer cans and old hooks, and the meat snagging season is in full bloom. 

With an enormous run of Pink Salmon returning to Puget Sound this year, people with little to no fishing experience are able to go out and get their limits of salmon. The Skagit River, Snohomish River, and the Puyallup River, are three of the major hot spots where people are filling their coolers. Any pullout where you can find a couple feet of casting room is as good a spot as any.



Snohomish Pinks & Pink Marabou Jigs

We spent Sunday September 1st chasing pinks on the Snohomish River at a small pullout just a few miles upriver from downtown Snohomish. This secret spot only had about 25 cars parked there when we arrived to the river around 8:00 a.m. At first, there many fish surfacing, but before we could get a line in the water, they were gone. It was pretty quiet for about two hours, and then fish started rolling in again. We managed to hook three in about 20 minutes. They key is to catch it when the tides bring in more fish and have your lines in the water when the schools start running. I was unable to coax any with the fly, but managed to hook two in a few minutes on some ¼ oz pink marabou jigs I tied up a few days earlier.  Slow multiple twitch retrieves seemed to work well. Everyone was hooking fish for about and hour and then it died again. We had enough fish in the cooler to put the fillet knife into action so we called it a day.



The next morning we decided to go explore down south on the Carbon and Puyallup Rivers. I have fished crowds before, but not like this. I am not sure what I was thinking when I packed two fly rods in the car, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Both rivers looked like a tasty cup of Nesquick with no more than 1" or 2” of visibility.  The banks were lined with large men that were jerking and twitching so much trying to floss fish it looked like some sort of redneck line dance. I’d rather swing flies in the Sauk River in the woods in a down poor by myself and not get a bite than fish like this. Unfortunately, guys were flossing and catching fish in the mouth making this legal.  Hoards of people with stringers full of pink salmon and the occasional silver or king were walking down the streets along Puyallup River.  Corkies, pink yard, two to three feet of leader and a chunk of lead was the only setup I saw being used on the Puyallup River. If meat is your sole purpose of fishing, then buy a whole bunch of gear since you will lose half of it to trees, snags, and other people's fishing line, and head to the Puyallup river. If solitude, nature, and actual enjoyment is what you seek, stay far away.

If you have the ability to look past the crowds, humpies are very fun to catch and a great way to learn to catch fish.  Break out the smoker and look up that secret brine recipe and head out to one of these spots. After all, the more people that stick to the lower rivers chasing humpies, the less people that will be standing in my nice steelhead runs further up river. 

NO Skykomish River Dam!!

Many fishermen are on the water every chance they get, and as a result get to know their home waters like the back of their hand and learn to love them. It can take years to learn the ins and outs and all the secrets of a particular system. For me the Skykomish River is becoming those waters. I still have many years and many fish to go before I even come close to knowing the river like the back of my hand, but this river has become my “go to” river, is near my home, and has become a river that I thoroughly enjoy fishing. Part of having “home waters” is working to protect, clean, and conserve those waters.


Cold Skykomish River

A study has been developed that would propose a dam on the Skykomish river above sunset falls. The plan would call for the installation of a 55 ft weir that would inflate and deflate as necessary. The dam would divert water into a tube that would run to a power house further down river. The dam would put out enough energy to power about 10,000 homes. This covers about 1% of all of SnoPud’s customers (most of the power coming from Bonneville). The Skykomish River has been designated “Wild and scenic” and is free flowing and should be left this way. Aesthetics, river contamination, fish habit, and financials, should be just some of the concerns here.



Skykomish River Summer

 I am not an engineer nor am I an environmental scientist, and very rarely do I jump on the tree hugger band wagon, but in this situation I think I will. The Skykomish River was designated wild and scenic for a reason. It is a beautiful free flowing river where myself and countless others love to fish, hike, raft, and just plain enjoy. The plan would cost $150 million dollars and would power 10,000 homes. It does not seem worth the risk, when this money could be put towards upgrading current power supplies or other means of energy. With millions of dollars spent to knock down dams on the Elwha River, this plan seems a contradictory and unnecessary.

Below is a link to a petition that can be signed. Also are links to my sources and other articles.

http://www.savetheskyriver.org/

http://www.oregonlive.com

http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/skykomish-dam-plan-moves-ahead/nYJ9n/

Skykomish on Dwellable

The Big Debate: Trout Bead Droppers

Many old time “purist” fly fisherman would consider anything other than a dry fly flung by a bamboo rod to not be fly fishing.  I’m sure many of these old timers were rolling in their graves with the introduction of the bead dropper. It’s been a hot debate for some time now whether or not using a single bead a couple inches up from a bare hook under an indicator can be considered “fly fishing”, and in some cases even “legal”.

Trout Beads

A dropper is a very common and very productive practice in fly fishing, and has been for a very long time. However, when beads came into play as droppers, there was some controversy that developed. These beads can be rigged several different ways. The bead can either be rigged with a tooth pick inserted into the bead, or once the leader is put through the bead it can be doubled back through, this way the angler can move the bead up and down the leader. The idea is that the bead will be placed just a couple inches above a bare hook, and when the fish grabs the bead it slides down the leader and the fish is hooked in the corner of the mouth. There are couple different schools of thought on this, one being that using a plastic bead is not a fly but actually a lure. Two that sliding the bead up the line above a bare hook and then hooking fish in the side of the mouth is considered snagging.  Third, is that it’s just another good old fly fishing tactic, so who cares.

I see where all three thoughts come from, and I hate every meat headed snagging poacher as much as the next guy, but I have a hard time viewing the bead as a snagging tool. Washington State Rules and regulations state, “It is unlawful to possess a fish taken from freshwater that was not hooked inside the mouth or on the head. The head is defined as any portion forward of the rear margin of the gill plate.” (pg. 16, Washington Sport Fishing Rules effective May 1, 2013 – April 30^, 2014).  This makes hooking a fish in the face with the bead method perfectly legal in the state of Washington. However, cross the Columbia River and go into Oregon and you better leave your beads at home. Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife defines snagging as “Taking or attempting to take a fish with a hook and line in a way or manner where the fish is not enticed to voluntarily take the hook(s) in its mouth. Game fish which are hooked other than inside of its mouth must be released immediately unharmed.” (pg. 12 2013 Oregon Sport Fishing Regulations). So hook that hatchery brat in the side of the face in the state of Oregon, and you gotta let it go.

For me, FLY fishing with beads is very new and I have only tried it once to no avail. But it was a topic that interested me due to all the controversy behind it. Personally, I see nothing wrong with it. I have been on rivers where guys tie on a treble hook, a hunk of lead, and then rip their line back hoping for the best. That is not fishing. But a bead is an egg imitation that entices a fish to bite just like your grandpa’s hand tied royal coachman would do. When the fish is hooked in corner or side of the mouth, very little damage is done to the fish. I chose to fly fish for many different reasons, one being that I enjoy catching fish, and even though the bead may be frowned upon by some, I see it as just another tactic. The bead is a very productive way to fish, and many guides have used this tactic to catch fish and the keep their customers happy. In my opinion, as long as you are staying within the legal realms of the water of that you are fishing, bead on.

Okuma Helios Review

With all the big box store putting our local mom and pop fly shops out of business, I thought I would do my part and go to Wal-Mart and look for a fly reel. Normally, I would stay as far away from Wal-Mart as possible for my fishing gear unless I was looking to pick up some power bait, but I received a gift card, and had no choice but to spend it on fishing stuff. I never pegged Wal-Mart as a place to shop for quality fishing gear, but when I was messing around on the interwebs one day, I came across the Okuma Helios reel. I was forced to spend my gift card on the 7/8 model.

I purchased the reel without ever getting the opportunity to play with one or feel it for myself, but I read many positive reviews, and heard great things about the reel around the internet. Okuma has a history of providing good gear at affordable prices. My first 8 weight reel was an Okuma Sierra that has no bells and whistles, but is tough, holds a lot of line, has a solid drag, and is a reel that I still use regularly today.


When I opened the box to my new Okuma Helios 7/8 the first thing I noticed was how light the reel was. I was also impressed with the aesthetics of the reel. A large arbor, made of machined bar stock aluminum, the Helios is light and precise. The Helios has two ball bearings plus one roller bearing on a stainless steel shaft to make it strong and smooth. A major selling point for me was the sealed drag. The sealed drag will protect it from the elements, taking away any worries I may have had about using the reel in saltwater (which I have already). The drag is easily adjustable and super smooth just like the rest of the reel. Me, being a southpaw, the reel also offers and easy conversion from right to left.

There is no shortage of reels on the market that will break the bank above $300, but the Okuma Helios is half that, coming in around $150. The Helios is a great reel for the price, and can easily compete with $700 bank breakers out
there.

               

 

Klickitat River in August

Friday night after a long torturous day of work at our “real” jobs, we decided to brave the wind, dust, forest fires, and lightning and make a b-line for Leidl Campground on the Klickitat River. The Leidl campground is located about 23 miles outside of Goldendale about three miles up from the Stinson Flats campground right on the Klickitat River.


Klickitat River

The Klickitat River is a glacier fed river, and is one of Washington’s longest free flowing rivers. Not a huge river, it runs cold and can be temperamental with weather changes. Hot days create glacial runoff, and a little rain up in the hills will create some color in the river as well. Don’t let the color fool you, even with a little tinge, the river is still very fishable. Though the river lost visibility pretty quickly, the bipolar Klickitat seemed to regain visibility in the afternoons and evenings, making this the better time to fish.

Talking with some of the locals, steelhead fishing has been a bit slower lately than past years, but the fish are still there. As tree hugging fly fisherman, we’ve already handicapped ourselves to the bait fishing, plug pulling, meat slingers of the Pacific Northwest, so when fishing was tough on the Klickitat over the weekend, we were doomed. The trout bites were plentiful, and if rainbow trout were the name of the game we would’ve been balling. Trout fishing is a ton of fun, but we were there to slang chrome. Unfortunately, there was little chrome to slang. We swung flies, skated dries, and even tried dropper beads with scent, still no metal lovin’. We only heard of one fish caught up above Liedl. So this became a reconnaissance trip to scope out some buckets to fling our flies into on future trips.

The Klickitat is a very accessible river to the boatless wandering on foot fisherman. The river was running low over the weekend at about 780 CFS, and was very wadable up near the Leidl Campground. Stinson flats also offer some very nice water that is easily approachable via felt soles. Watch out for snakes though.  August makes for some hot days on the river, and has made for some great summer run steelhead action, but perhaps this is a trip better designed for the fall.

Sunday, we traveled down river to the town of Klickitat. There was more fishing activity on this portion of the lower river. Visibility was better and the river was even more accessible with the highway running along the river for many miles. Klickitat offers a couple general stores and no shortage of cabins for fisherman. If it is attractive people with spikey hair, popped collars, and martinis you are looking for, stay far away from the town of Klickitat. You will not find those things here. But if it’s a beautiful easily accessible steelhead river that you are looking for, then the Klickitat is perfect place (all you need is a Discover pass to camp at Leidl and Stinson Flat).

Yakima & Naches River

We just spent all winter complaining about how it’s 42 degrees and rainy every day in Western Washington, then summertime shows up and we have an awesome streak of 70 – 80 degree weather. Apparently that wasn’t hot enough, so we decided to run away to Eastern Washington for the weekend, where it would be a mild 100 degrees and we could complain about how hot it was.

No need to put the waders in the car as we packed to head to Yakima Sportsman State Park on the Yakima River. The park itself is pretty large, well maintained, and easy to find, as are most state parks in Washington. Unfortunately, access to the Yakima River from “Yakima Sportsman State park” is a little tough and limited. But, we decided to get up early Saturday morning to see if we could smack a trout on the top of the head with a hopper or and elk hair caddis. Nearly every cast along the bank received a bap from a very small trout. Nothing of any size though. This back and forth battle with monster 4” rainbows went on for a couple hours until my arm got tired from battling these behemoths and my belly rumbled telling me it wanted to go back to camp for breakfast.  

Visibility was good, but the river was running swift and full. I read that during the summer, many of the dams on the Yakima River are opened up for irrigation purposes. This causes the river to run high, hard, and cold during the summer months, but this provides a great environment to brew some big trout. Since the river was running so high, nearly every mile of the river bank was touched by green grass. The entire river looks like it should be housing a 23” trout under its grassy cut banks, but to be successful on the Yakima River, one really needs a drift boat. Since bank access is limited, and we are pedestrians of fly fishing with our lack of a boat, we decide to head up the Naches River after breakfast.

Naches River

The Naches River provided a totally different experience. The Naches is much more of a freestone style river that we are used to in Western Washington. Bank access on the Naches was much more abundant. We cruised up S. Naches River road to Eschbach Nature Area. This seemed to be just an old abandoned camp ground with some empty sheds that would make a great dwelling for rattle snakes. Maybe by “nature area” they meant “beware of snakes and rusty nails”. However, this area provided pretty good river access so I really can’t complain. We were able to get in to several small rainbows here. From there we headed south on Hwy 12 and stopped at another public fishing area that provided a nice big run to get into some more trout.

For the angler on foot that does not have a drift boat, nor a wallet with a $500 bill inside to hire a guide on the Yakima River, I would highly recommend a trip the Naches. Easy access, lots of trout, and less anglers than the Yakima River. If you are looking for nature, scenery, and better fishing, I would book a campsite further up the Yakima River closer to Ellensburg, but don’t forget your drift boat as there is even less bank access in the Canyon. There are many campgrounds, but they fill up pretty quick. If you can make it past the wonderful scenery provided in “Yakivegas, the Palm Springs of Washington” then there is still good fishing to be had. Either way, these two rivers provide some of the best fly fishing for trout in all of the Northwest.

what used to be a Naches River Stone fly

 

Summer Steel - North Fork Stillaguamish

With the past few weeks spent dodging tweakers and angry meat fisherman on the banks of the Skykomish river, I decide it was time to get out and try something different. So Sunday morning I rolled out of bed and made the trip up to the North Fork Stillaguamish river. The Stilly is a good river to fish when you want to escape from the crowds. Still a very popular river, it is further away from Seattle, doesn’t have the jet boat guide traffic, has some fly fishing only sections, and gets a smaller return of summer hatchery steelhead. Overall, less people.

As a rule of thumb, July 4th is when to start chasing steel on the North Fork Stillaguamish River. However, fishing has been tough thus far on the Stillaguamish. Early in the summer there was land slide somewhere up in Boulder creek, a tributary of the North Fork Stillaguamish. This has resulted in a blown out North Fork for several weeks. I have been watching the river closely waiting for it to become fishable. Flows are low running about 775 CFS, but the water is still pretty milky from the slide. It is definitely fishable with probably 12” or so of visibility, but there is still some clearing that needs to happen.

Dug and I took the opportunity to explore a few spots I have never fished before further up river near boulder creek. My first mistake was bringing only my Echo 12’9” 7 weight spey rod. This was a little heavy duty for this small of a river, works wonders on larger rivers like the Skykomish, but I never really had extend my line past the Skagit head I had lined up. My shorter 11’ switch rod would have been perfect for the job if I hadn’t forgotten it in the garage… Saturday was kind of a long night and I may have been a little spacey. 

With the water still murky and my lack of preparation, Dug and I continued hiking around the river looking for holding water to come back to and fish another time. There are several spots that are readily accessible from HWY 530. The best stretch is probably between the famous Deer Creek all the way up to Fortson. This is a large stretch of river, and if you have no luck with the summer steelhead, there are numerous opportunities for some great cutthroat fishing up here, in fact, likely some of the best cutty river fishing around. The Stilly is a great place to spend a whole day and break out the BBQ for lunch. As soon as the river does some clearing I will be back again this summer. 

Summer Steel – Skykomish River Report

It’s officially warm enough to leave the waders in the car and wade the rivers in sandals and swim trunks. There is nothing more enjoyable than swingin’ flies in a tank top and sunglasses. With the season starting off a bit slow, like the July weather, the fishing has been getting warmer.



Paul with a nice hatchery steelhead

Towards the end of June and the first week of July, the Skykomish river was flowing nicely right around 4000 CFS. I had the opportunity to spend Friday June 28th with Matt from Get Hooked NW and some customers from work. We met at the Lewis Street bridge bright and early ready to drag some eggs for Kings and Summer Steelhead.  We made several passes with opportunities each time. About 9:00 a.m. we finally hooked a chrome bright hatchery steelhead.  We had multiple chances at fish throughout the day. Many boats on the river were also hooking fish. Matt and his sidekick Sean did a great job throughout the day taking care of us and giving us opportunities to set the hook. He makes a good cheeseburger too. All in all, it was a very enjoyable highly recommended trip.

The next weekend, Katie and I decided take the meat sticks down the Sky to float some jigs for summer steel. Since last winter I have been 100% fly fishing, so it was fun to break out the spinning rods and gear fish for a day. We arrived to the river right about 6:00 a.m. The river already crowded, but fish were rolling and people were catching them. I hadn’t tied my jig on before Katie hooked a fish in the rocks. It was a chrome bright 6 lb hatchery steelhead. As soon as I was geared up, I too had bobber down. I missed the first opportunity, made a cast to the same spot and this time I hooked him. It was identical to Katie’s fish. These brats we super bright and fresh. We went home about mid morning and started the BBQ later that night. Fishing was good. However, I can only handle so much crossing lines with 15 other fisherman before I start to lose it. 

After getting the first steelhead of the summer onto the BBQ, I decided to recommit to swingin’ flies for the summer. It has been warm and dry, so the river dropped down to about 2500 CFS. It was low and clear. This can make for some tough fishing, but Friday July 12th, Katie and I decided to go swing some flies in Sultan. After fighting the summer time eastbound traffic on hwy 2, we arrived to the river at 6:00 p.m. I started at the top of the bar swinging a dark purple intruder. This area of the river is typically pretty swift, but today with the lower flows the water looked nice. I swung through the first half of the run and about half way through I had a couple solid baps at my intruder. After a premature hook set I missed the fish. Made several more cast through the same spot with no touches. Finished out the run to no avail. Overall it was very nice night with one missed opportunity.

The Skykomish river is overall probably best chance to hook a summer steelhead the Seattle area. The river is low, today is running about 2000 CFS. This is a good time to study the river and take mental notes to find holding buckets. Even though it’s low, it is still very fishable and good days on the river are still very likely.

Skykomish on Dwellable

Orvis Fight Against Canine Cancer - Cover Contest

For many of us, our best fishing buddies (or just best life friends for that matter) walk on four legs, shed all over the house, chew up our wading boots, and cause us hours of work running land mine cleanup in the back yard. But he is more excited that you came home from work than anyone else could ever be, and a simple walk down the street makes him the happiest beast in the world. Its nothing new, but dogs make pretty good fishing buddies.

According to caninelifetimehealth,org, more than half of golden retrievers die from cancer, and it is the number one cause of death for canines over the age of 2. Orvis is running a contest to search for the next wet nose to be on the cover of their dog catalog. Each vote costs one dollar and goes to support the Morris Animal Foundation and the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study. The money will be used to help develop early cancer detection tests. We have entered our one year old golden Dug, into the contest. Any support is greatly appreciated.


         VOTE HERE: VOTE FOR DUG!!

 

 

https://www.caninelifetimehealth.org/#About/GoldenRetrieverLifetimeStudy

http://coverdog.orviscontests.com/contest.html?contestId=8