Its been too long, and its been slow...

Where are all the Steel?

For the past month or so, I have been horrible about updating this blog. I have been so busy with casting practice (not fishing because I can’t catch anything), that I haven’t had time to write anything down. This winter has been a little bit of a drag as far hatchery steelhead go. We have been fishing nearly every weekend and have managed to hook into only 1 steelhead (that I proceeded to lose anyways). Returns of hatchery steelhead have been minimal this winter. It has been a mild, relatively warm winter,  with only a couple decent rains and snow falls. This has also affected our ski season, or lack there of.

 

We spent multiple weekends exploring and swinging flies through multiple runs up and down the Skykomish river with nothing to show for it but several bull trout (which are always great to catch) and a lost hunk of steel. Flows have been pretty good throughout the winter on the Skykomish, however there haven't been many spikes in flows to bring more fish into the system. The river seems to be in its best shape around the 4000 CFS mark. Above 6500 CFS or so, it seems to get a little too cloudy, and below 3000 CFS it is gin clear during the winter.

 

 

Snowy Skykomish

The crowds have been thick and the fish seem to be few and far between (although talking to people on the river, there are fish being caught). The lack of hatchery fish returning to the Puget Sound actually caused emergency closures on the NF Stilly and Cascade River due to low numbers. The NF Stilly has been reopened, but the Cascade Remains closed.

 

It’s difficult as steelhead fisherman to wait all year for the winter season and then have dismal returns. I am no biologist and don’t have a lot of room to speak on the subject, but I think there needs to be a greater focus, or at least a different focus, on the way our state hatchery and wild steelhead operations are ran. But that’s  enough on that touchy subject. With 99% of our local rivers here in Snohomish county closing on January 31^st, the season is wrapping up.

 

With Occupy Skagit coming up again soon, we will fight to reopen the C&R spring season on the Skagit. It would be nice to have something to do until June 1^st.