Weekend Report - Skykomish River

If there are pumpkins and corn stalks on the porches around the Pacific Northwest, there is probably pumpkins and corn stalks floating down the flooding rivers along with driftwood and muddy water. This time of year the river flows can be a real roller coaster ride. Many rivers are blown and take some time to recover. Luckily, the Skykomish River seems to be one the quickest rivers to recover from these rains.

We have been lucky enough to have the rains hitting us just right. Typhoons and blown out rivers in the middle of the week make it a little easier to go to work and pretend to do our real jobs. These mid-week rains have been easing up come Thursday or Friday and the rivers start dropping back into shape by weekend. Hopefully this trend will continue.

The Skykomish River seems to fish best under 7000 CFS this time of year. Eventually normal winter flows will set in and should be flowing around 4000 CFS or so. We were lucky enough to hit it last Saturday at about 6700 CFS as we were launching the boat underneath the bridge in Sultan. To start the day there was about 16” – 18” of visibility with the river clearing up much more throughout the day.

Skykomish Coho #1

With our shuttle now parked at Ben Howard, we started the float from Sultan. The first mile or two of the float was pretty uneventful. After about two miles of a quiet river float, we finally saw some signs of fish splashing along the shore.  First cast into a little side hole, fish on. Pulled the boat over just down river and we managed to net the first silver of the day. Couple casts later back up river into the same hole, Coho number two on!! Several more casts, a couple pieces of pizza, a couple pictures, a couple Bud Lights, and we were back on our way down the river.

Skykomish Coho #2

The nice thing about getting a couple of fish in the boat within a matter of minutes, is that the rest of the day instantly becomes easier when you aren’t stressed about the lack of fish.  We then floated for a couple more miles further down river, with little to no signs of fish. We stopped at a couple of the normal runs to swing flies and see if there was any chance at all for a late summer or early winter steel unicorn… but of course, no such luck.

Alas, just up river from the “Afternoon Hole” above the Ben Howard boat launch we spotted multiple splashes in the frog water along the shore. It was game on again. With the boat parked up river and a short walk down, it took only two or three casts before it was fish on again!! This time it was a large green dinosaur. The chums have arrived, it must be November. We snapped some pictures and put her back in the river to swim another day. One more fish was hooked but not landed before the river became quiet again. And as quick as that school of chumleys came, they were gone.

Skykomish Chums

The passing school of chums has gotten me excited to be on the river in November as chums are strong, willing to bite, and put up a great battle. November on the Skykomish River is a great time. Cohos, chums, and maybe, just maybe, there will be a steelface milling around in the Sky’s fall waters.  The greatest thing I learned on this trip is to keep a close eye out for signs of fish this time of year who might be swimming tight along the shore lines. If they are there, they will likely let you know. Even with muddy water with little to no visibility, you can still find fish. As long as you can hit your days right and avoid the floods this is a great time to be out.

Is it Fall Already?

Fall time in the Pacific Northwest normally consist of rain storms, blown out rivers, and fantasy football. It is also about filling the freezer with salmon. It is now mid October and we are just starting to feel the effects of fall. It has been dry and the rivers have been running low and clear. The past few years have seen solid runs of coho salmon staging themselves in the Puget Sound waiting for the first rains and an opportunity to make their journey up stream. And the rains have been late.

 

 

Fall Coho

This fall has been dry, rain is just beginning, but the salmon have been making their way up river. We have hit the Skykomish river several times and had the holes all to ourselves. This is a rarity out there. Low river flows below 1000 CFS have scared people away and kept the jet boats away from the Sultan and Monroe boat launches. It was so low it kept most drift boats away as well. We have made the float from Sultan Monroe several times, and have also fished from shore around the Sultan area and have managed a couple fish.

 

Salmon season is a great time to learn the ropes of fly fishing. A common term is “lock jaw” but these fish are willing to take a fly in the rivers. Fishing early morning hours is a must and lockjaw does seem to happen when the sun gets high in the sky. Pink and Purple bunny strip egg sucking leaches will catch just about everything that swims in a river, including Coho. You can swing them with a spey rod, dead drift under and indicator, or slow strips near the bottom with these ESL's. Small twitchy strips in a slow swing on the spey rod with a fast sinking poly leader and 3 ft of mono seemed to work well. Any fish on a spey rod is fun, and you can find Coho, Bull Trout, Sea Run Cutthroat and whatever else is swimming around this way. The best part about fall is that all these fish are there!

There's something about fishing rivers that I love much more than any other body of water, but if it doesn’t rain, it doesn’t rain. So the smart move is to hit the salt water. We had an opportunity to roll over to the Hood Canal and cast for more silvers. We hit one first thing in the morning  chucking gear, and a couple sea run cutties on the fly but that was the end of the action.

 

This rain should push fish up the river (and fisherman) and we should start seeing some  chums roll in as well which are always a fun battle. Fall is one of the best times of the year in the PNW. It is much more fun to fish when the river is full of action and splashing fish with the orange trees in the background.
 

Awesome Fly Lines - Wulff Ambush

One of the greatest advances in fly fishing in recent years is the development of new fly lines. Shooting heads and running line have allowed fisherman everywhere to be able to sling 75 foot casts across rivers with spey and switch rods. But what about single handed rods? My attraction to two handed fly rods was the ability make long cast in tight quarters. In the past, weight forward, floating or sinking lines have been the norm for single handed rods. I’ve spent a lot of time attempting to learn the art of roll casting with traditional single handed fly lines. Most of the time was spent untangling the rat’s nest I turned my long leader, heavy fly, and indicator into.  It’s hard to have confidence in your fishing when you can't cast and are constantly fighting your gear. The development of new fly lines such as the Wulff Ambush Triangle Taper have changed the game for single handed fly rods.

I recently purchased the Wullf Ambush TT-7-F for my single handed 9’ 8 weight. The line has a 20’ 265 grain shooting head that transitions smoothly into the running line. Since the line is all one piece, there are no loops or knots between the head and the shooting line, creating smooth casts.  I purchased the line with hopes that it would double as a roll casting nymph line for steelhead and as a rocket launcher on the beaches for Coho.

My first outing was a trip the Skykomish River on closing day of the season in mid-February. Using a big thingamabobber, a long leader, and a heavy egg pattern I tied the night before, roll casting has never been so easy for me. The 265 grain head turned over my long leader and heavy fly extremely well. The full floating and smooth running line was very easy to mend. Line control is essential when being a dirty nympher, and the Wulff Ambush made it easy. 90 percent of my time on the river has been spent swinging, but the productivity of nymphing has encouraged me to do it more, and this was fun. The argument between nymphing vs. swinging is a whole other debate, but I like “fishing” so I’m just gonna do both.

Yesterday we hit up Picnic Point Park during high tide in hopes to find some sea run cutthroat. My normal rod of choice for sea runs is a 6 wt., but I thought I’d bring the 8 wt. and my new line along to give it a try. The Ambush line casted decently with normal overhead casting. Casting these lines is much different than standard single handed lines. I found that pulling about the first quarter of the shooting head in past my tip and making as few false casts as possible worked best. Too many false casts with too much line out and you’re going to be asking your fishing partner to use his needle nose pliers to extract a hook from your ear.

My 8 wt. is a 9’ 4 piece that I built for myself a year or so ago. I think a 10’ rod and the 235 grain line would be ideal for this. But even with the shorter rod and heavier head I think it worked pretty well. The best piece of gear to catch fish that a person can buy is gas to put in your car to go fishing with. Experience and time on the water is #1 to being successful, but some of us can’t help but be gear whores sometimes.  So overall, the Wulff Ambush line has definitely added to my fishing arsenal and I'm getting excited for salmon season from the beach.