Its finally here - Skykomish River Report

The months between February 15^th and June 1^st can be very painful for steelhead fisherman in the Puget Sound area. We find ourselves spending the weekends tying flies and drinking twelve too many beers from the couch strictly out of boredom.  The only options to stand in a river are the 4 hour drive to the coast, or hope one of the rivers in Eastern Washington have a surprise opening. There are the weekends spent chasing sea runs in the Puget Sound or trout from a lake somewhere, but it’s just not the same. People around here like to steelhead fish so much, that on April 6^th hundreds of us went and pretended to be steelhead fishing at Occupy Skagit up in Rockport in an attempt to cure this 3 ½ month case of cabin fever. So when May 31^st rolled around you can imagine how excited many of us were.

Opening Day on the Sky

Unfortunately, the season has started off a bit slow.  Warm days and snow melt had the Skykomish River running high and hard on June 1^st. For the first week or so of the season, the river was running between 8,000 – 10,000 CFS, but was still fishable and was holding its color. The lack of rain and the mild temps over the next week caused the river to drop down to under 5,000 CFS, according to the USGS readings. When the river is right, it seems to be running near the 6,000 CFS mark.

 I have never seen as many boats and people on the Skykomish River as I did on Saturday June 1^st. There were multiple instances where I could’ve slung my fly into a group of tourist on a jet boat they were so close. You were either trying not to fall in the river from the jet boat wake or you were casting in between drift boats floating down the river.  I did not see anyone fighting a fish, never had tug on my fly, nor saw any signs of fish. All in all, not a very enjoyable experience.

The next weekend the river had come down and people were starting to thin out a little. I think due to poor reports from the week before. Katie and I decided to brave Reiter Ponds on the Hwy 2 side. Normally, I dodge this area with every ounce of my being. Something about fishing at the hatchery lined up with a bunch of rednecks pounding Steel Reserve from a paper bag doesn’t appeal to me. I’d rather stand in the woods by myself and not catch anything than be there. But unfortunately, if there are fish being caught anywhere in the Skykomish River, it is probably at Reiter Ponds. We spent about an hour or so there, and out of the 15 – 20 guys that were there, we saw two fish caught on the highway side down river from the hatchery.

We left there to explore the Wallace flats. We started under the railroad bridge on the Wallace River and were going to work down towards the mouth to where it dumps into the Skykomish. Katie hooked on miniature rainbow on a small light green Wooly Bugger. When the levels are right, the water between the bridge and the mouth is very nice. I have had steelhead run up river right in front of me here and I have caught salmon here, but today I had no such luck.

Wallace River

Overall, it has been a pretty dismal start to the season. It’s still early though, many months to go, and things are looking up. I spoke to a guide on Monday 6/17 that was able to get into a few fish over the weekend and says that he is having better luck each day. A steelheader’s glass is always half full, the fishing is getting better every day.  Merry Steelhead fishing!!

Batson Forecast 9' 7wt For Sale

Check out the Snoho Flybox on Etsty. Recently built Forecast RX6 9' 7 weight.

The SnoHo Flybox - Forecast 7 weight

Hood Canal SRC's

 I had the opportunity to spend my three day weekend back at the parent’s house out in Seabeck, WA. Growing up, we spent a lot of time on the canal casting for silvers, crabbing, shrimping, trolling for sea runs, or chasing whatever else may be in the Hood Canal at the time. As a kid, I took for granted how abundant everything was in the Hood canal. Like everything else, things aren’t as good as they once were, but there is still plenty to go after in the Hood Canal.

 

This weekend brought a minus tide and the opportunity to pluck some oysters and clams, and then wing some flies around for sea run cutthroat. The oysters were plentiful and took no time to  gather our limit of 18 each, but the clams were few and far between. I’ve determined that it is easier to go to the local marina and buy a sack of clams, than it is to spend two hours ripping your hands apart in the gravel chasing clams that you can’t even catch. I am so unflexible that I have to grunt n’ growl to put my socks on in the morning, so getting on my hands and knees to dig for clams does not go over well with my athletic physique. Clearly, there is a secret to chasing clams that I am unaware of. After a shoulder and yoga workout with the clam guns and hands and knees digging, I had two whole clams in my 5 gallon bucket. So I threw the clams guns in the boat and grabbed my rod to try for some sea runs.

It was a calm day, and there were trout surfacing everywhere. Seeing these cutties surface, I tied on a popper but had no luck. I stopped to smash half a turkey sandwich in my face, and then put on a chum fry pattern I had tied a few weeks before. Finally after a couple casts, the chum fry got stuck in the nose of a nice SRC. There were many schools of bait fish popping around. Casting to the outside edges of these schools, we had a few other bops on our flies.  There were also a couple fish hooked on the gear rod using a crocodile.

I have been impatiently waiting for all of our local “S” rivers to open up for the summer when June rolls around so I can go stand in the river in my leaky waders and not catch any steelhead. I am still looking forward to that, but the past few weeks have been spent chasing sea runs at different locations in the Puget Sound. I have learned to really enjoy these fish, I would like to continue to chase them even when the rivers open next weekend. Any time I see a nice rocky beach covered in clear salt water, I will be wishing I had my 5 weight.  Here are some of the patterns I have had success with.

Flat Wing

Miyawaki Poppers

Chum Fry

Tyin’ One On and Smokin' Out This Summer…

With summer river seasons quickly approaching there are a lot of things to get excited about and prepare for. Making sure you have a cooler that will still float when filled with a Busch Light 30 bomb, patching up the flotation devices for the river floats, and saving up all your “sick days” at work for when the flows are right are some of most important. As fly fisherman in the Northwest especially this time of year, many of us by now have a full blown case of cabin fever, so when summer time approaches we start to get excited. I have been thinking about the things that need to be done, where will I fish first? What gear do I need? What flies do I need?

This summer especially has potential to be a great one. Being an odd year, there are some 6 million or so Pink Salmon expected to return to the Puget Sound. Pink salmon do not make for the greatest table fare, but after a few hours in the smoker they taste just as good as the next salmon. So clean up your Big Chief and get ready to put it to use. The season on the Snohomish River has been pushed up to August  1^st so we can all break out our smokers a couple weeks earlier this year.
 

   Pink salmon are hard fighting, and as long you can find a spot to cast without getting slapped by pink buzz bombs from all the meat fisherman, they are fun to fish for. There some patterns outthere are designed for Pink Salmon and Coho Salmon like pink clousers, flash flies, and the HumpyHooker. But they are just variations of each other. All very bright pink flies fished by casting and experimenting with different strips on the retrieve. Or you can swing for them using a medium sink tip.




            There is no set way that you have to fish for pinks, but for me my perfect setup would be a 6 or 7 wt  11’ switch rod, if I was going to make an attempt at swinging (which is a little unconventianal). Or I would use a 9' 7wt single handed rod with a twitchy retrieve. Since pink salmon are quite a bit smaller than other salmon species, you can leave your 14’ two handed 12 wt at home. The Washington State record is 14.86 lbs caught on the Skykomish, so there is no need to go too hard with your gear choices.

              Any day spent wading in a river is better than a day at work, but a day spent wading in swim trunks can be even better, especially catching fish. Pink Salmon are a great way to get started fly fishing for salmon since they come back in such strong numbers and are relatively easy to catch. I plan to spend a lot of weekends filling my smoker. Also here are some links to some tasty sounding brine recipes and some smoking how to's...

How to smoke Salmon

justsmokedsalmon.com

seattletimes.com-huge-puget-sound-pink-salmon-run-of-6-2-million

Batson Forecast RX6 9ft 7wt 4pc build....

My most recent build was a Batson Forecast RX6 9 foot 7wt. This was the second rod I have built on one of these RX6 blanks, and I have really come to like the quality that you get for the price tag. You can buy a completed custom built rod for half the price of one of the high end blanks alone. Plus they are locally made out in Sequim and come with a limited lifetime warranty (like the other high end blanks). This going to make a great rod for filling the smoker with some of those 6 million Pink Salmon that are expected back, or for chasing summer runs.

I used a stainless Pacifc Bay rod seat to make it more durable if being used in the salt. Blue snake guides, chrome and blue stripping guides, and a couple chrome and blue decorative wraps to finish it off. Overall, I am extremely happy with this build. Now on to the next one. Check out the rod the Etsy page (I know.... manly).  THE SNOHO FLYBOX

You got a spey rod? You must be a tremendous fisherman.....

Its an expensive leap jumping into the world of spey rods, and a lot of people are doing it. There is no doubt that a spey rod is a great way to catch fish, but you have to learn how to use it. I have been fly fishing with a single handed rod for some time, but when I first purchased my spey rod I thought I was going to walk out onto the river and cast all the away accross to the bushes on the other side. Little did I know I would end up with so many holes in my jackets and so few fish on the bank. In a perfect scenario a person could go to a fly shop and have someone help them pick out a setup that is perfect them and then take them outside for a casting lesson before they ever went to the river. But we cant all afford $1000 spey setups and $300 casting lessons. Lucky for us there is a wealth of knowledge on the internet, in books, and in DVDs. I watched Skagitmaster Vol. 1 multiple times in a week before going fishing, it provides many things to think about on the river. Look up any book Lefy Kreh has ever written, it may not be about spey casting, but for general fly fishing knowledge there is nothing better. Peruse the inernet, you can learn how to do anything on Youtube. Check it out:

 

 

 

 

Learning to use your gear properly makes being on the river much more enjoyable. There are always going to be those guys on the river that are there to put on their $900 waders and lean their $1200 spey rod up against their truck while they stand on the boat launch and take pictures of eachother. Dont get me wrong, I want the $900 waders and the $1200 spey rod too, but they dont do you any good if you dont take the time to learn. 

 

 

 

 

 

Why the change???

When I started "Trails & Scales" I did it with intentions of blogging about hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, fly fishing, and any other outdoor activities I was partaking in. However, as of late I have done very little hiking, skiing, snow shoeing, or other outdoor activities. I do enjoy these things, but if I am skiing, that means I did not go fly fishing that day. If I was snow shoeing, I was not wading in a river. Hello, my name is Charlie and I have a severe addiction to fly fishing.

I wanted to put all my blogging focus onto my fly fishing addiction (which it pretty much already was anyways). Changing the name solidified in my mind that I would write a fly fishing blog with some other fun outdoor adventure stuff, not a blog with fun outdoor adventure stuff and some fly fishing.

"Swinging in the Rain" is something I have been saying in my mind for a long time. I even found myself singing it while standing waste deep in the Skykomish while I was... swinging in the rain. If you ever fly fished in the Pacific Northwest, you have probably swung a fly in the rain. The name also reflects one my favorite things to do, I like fly fishing in the rain.

swinginpnw.blogspot.com

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