River Journal
There are more fish pictures viewable at: Fish Pics
Please
release all wild steelhead!
10-11-02 The fall colors on the Sky are peaking…the lush green of summer is going out with a burst of yellow, red, and orange. The wind cascades leaves into the river…to drift lazily away like a dream. Arriving at the Cracker Bar, I found the water flow rate about ¼ of the 70 year average…a mere 500 CFS, and the water was absolutely crystal clear. Neither condition is conducive to aggressive fish, or fresh fish for that matter. For the most part, the river is empty of fish except for hundreds of salmon that ball up in only the deepest runs. Even though these deep runs are stacked with silvers, these are fish that have been in the river for a while that have slowly worked their way up the river and consequently they’re dark in color, with soft meat…not good table fare at all. However, they’ll still put up a good tussle when hooked. These fish refused to strike all day, and I only hooked two fish over the day…of which neither stayed that way for long, and may have been foul hooked. This summer drought has to come to an end…or there will be no fall salmon “catching” at all! Looking up the river…what a beautiful site of the fall colors against the blue sky and the jagged Steven’s Pass area Cascades!
10-3-02 It’s been so long since I’ve hooked a good fish…perhaps my birthday will entice a strike on the Sky. I’m embarrassed that this page has gone so long without updates…but I do have an excuse…VERIZON! After 90 days of Verizon jacking us around on getting our DSL account moved to our new place…things are finally back on line and this web site has been moved to a dependable hosting service (hear that VERIZON?…DEPENDABLE? Now there’s two words that don’t belong in the same sentence.) Anyway, I got down to the Sky at Sultan about 11:00 AM after running lots of errands and feeling guilty for going to the river in the first place with so much to do at the office…BUT…I’m glad I went. I’ve been down to the river a few times and it’s just been terrible with the water running at extremely low levels and no fish, or what fish there are not biting as the clear, low water conditions put them in a lock-jaw, holding-tight to the bottom frame of mind. I fished the Cracker Bar and was all alone for the most part, except for some beginner bankies on the far side. I didn’t see anyone else hook a fish. The silvers were constantly splashing and rolling…and they looked in good shape from what I could see. I tried everything in my arsenal and no takers. I switched to a foam tube-bobber with eggs about 4’ down and a couple small split shot 9” above the single size 2 red gammy hook…and started drifting that through the slack water just at the edge of fast current and then I got a call on the cell phone from a teacher in dire need of assistance for her computer. Everything was going just fine…fishing and talking when it all went to pot. Not watching my bobber as I should have been rewarded me with a pole suddenly tugging away upon which I yanked back hard to set the hook (not looking to coordinated I might add, while still trying to carry on a conversation on the cell phone) and was surprised to have a line screaming run blast across the river at which point the line went suddenly limp…no fish for Bob! Thinking my excitement was over; I fished in the same spot for a bit more hoping that the 2:00 bite was now under way. A young lad, 17 or 18 I’d say, came down across from me and began fishing the plunker way and he quickly became bored. He proceeded to revert to his 4 or 5 year-old mentality and began throwing rocks in the river. While baiting my line and not watching the overall situation very closely, I noticed a splash within 6’ of me and it sure sounded like a rock entering the water. I looked over at Rock-boy and saw he was searching out more suitable rocks to make airborne and I thought, “This can’t be happening!” So I went on about my birthday fishing trip when suddenly another rock entered the water even closer to me than before, at which point I immediately glared at the now hated Rock-boy and displayed body English that if he continued, he may not reach the ripe old age of 20…EVER! Rock-boy now seemed fairly intimidated and flustered, at which point he made sure his pole was firmly seated upright in bank rocks with his bait swirling about out in the deep hole. He then walked west down the bank to the big tree swing and climbed way up to the top of it and began throwing rocks from there. I’m now wandering just what type of whacky-tobacky this individual had been smoking prior to coming down to the river’s edge…I kept a good eye on him. After a few more minutes of rock throwing ecstasy, Rock-boy returned to his fishing camp and then I noticed him quicken his step looking all about the shoreline. It suddenly occurred to me that Rock-boy’s fishing pole was nowhere in sight…a fish had yanked it into the river! Trying to contain my sheer glee, I displayed an expression of satisfaction now knowing that all was right with the world once again as I watched Rock-boy pick up his oversized tackle box and stomp up the hill out of sight. The river continued to gurgle, silver’s continued to roll, and my bobber moved smoothly with the current. My right knee, now numb with bone-on-bone pain reminds me that my day on the river is quickly drawing to a close. A good rain will bring fresh fish eager to strike…maybe next week.
8-10-02 Bob senior’s birthday! My dad’s first trip to the Sky and
we’re both thinking of a chrome summer steelhead that’s flat due to come to
shore. We fished above and below the
Mann Road Bridge in crystal clear water that was only pushing 600 CFS…barely
enough to fish in most places. We
drifted eggs and shrimp, plus threw an occasional small spinner that out
produced the bait hands down. We caught
several small salmon that appeared to me to be jack pinks on an even year…so
they must be the start of a new run, or just confused about when they should be
in the river. We released them all
unharmed never the less and enjoyed our tussles with them. Both my dad and I had good fish on during
the day, that may well have been our dreamed of steelhead, but they didn’t
stick to the hook long and they were relegated to a could-have-been fish
story. We had a great time, and my 70
year-old dad out-fished and out-waded me with ease. Life is good.
6-1-02 Steelhead and spring-king opener on the Sky! I apologize this page has been so neglected the past few months…no excuses. I’ve been looking forward to this day for some time, but alas the heavy snow pack in the mountains and warm weather had the river punched out to 19,000 CFS last week, and it’s still at 11,000 CFS as of 6-3-02. Tony and I went down in the afternoon on the first anyway, just so we could give the state $50 for the privilege and so that we could say we did fish on opening day! The water was milky green, swift, but still fishable. Lots of sleds and bankies throwing all they had at fish that either weren’t there or sure weren’t interested. We had a beautiful day though…warm and a nice buffeting breeze coming from the west. Summer’s lush growth was already abounding. We only had a couple hours to fish and not a bite that I’m aware of. We threw drifted eggs, purple marabou jig under a drift bobber, and a flashy spinner along the bottom crosscurrent fashion…but no luck. What a nice feeling to be back on the river though!
1-21-02 Today
I fished with my friends Steve Hamel and Dave Stroesner…guess where…on the Sky
at Sultan of course (hey, if it ain’t broke…don’t fix it!) and we even had lots
of company (all human however…nothing that had fish scales unfortunately). We fished above the Mann Rd. Bridge for a
few hours all to no avail. The 
river
was at about 4,000 cfs and a little milky colored, but still plenty
fishable. The only other condition
mentionable is that the river had been a foot over flood stage a couple weeks
before…that would put the river about 5 feet over Steve’s head in this picture
at left! Apparently the high water made
short work of available fish in the river…all to our dismay. A couple sleds powered up past us and then
quickly drifted back down boondoggling in front of us. They reported “no fish yet” to us as they
drifted by a couple different times. We
reported back that we were on our 3rd catch and release limit J. After getting thoroughly trounced by what
I’m sure was a complete lack of fish in front of us…we ventured up to the
Reiter Ponds snag fest and broke everything off as fast as we threw it out
there (can you say, “bobber fishery only?”…from what I saw that’s a
definite)…and wished we’d just drifted down the bank to the Cracker Bar at
Sultan instead. We had fast food and DQ
desert on the way home and good conversation was had by all. Watching the snow drift down through those
tall timbers across the green, boulder filled Sky at Reiter Ponds was the
quintessential winter steelheading scene…didn’t get a picture of that, but I
did manage to snap a picture of Steve looking very fisherman like on the
Sky! One more pleasant memory in the
fishing treasure chest! Dave enjoyed a
new type of fishery away from his bass habit, and if we can get him hooked into
a 15# chrome torpedo next time around, he may just “get hooked” on river
fish’n!
12-7-01 My sister, Robin Lynn Bagley, passed
away on 11-2-01 and that tragic event has left all our lives in disarray
lately…and consequently I haven’t been on the river for over a month, and in
fact I’m not sure this is even the correct date as I’m actually posting this on
1-31-02, but it’s close. I only hooked
into one living creature…a 7” whitefish that got a little too close to my sand
shrimp…and he went back swimming of course.
As usual, I fished my haunts near Sultan on the Sky and as I
recall the river was around 3000 cfs.
After a couple hours I called it good until another day. The view on the way back to the rig was hard
to beat though.
10-16-01 3:00
PM Tuesday afternoon start at Sultan.
All alone…just me, the Sky at 2600 cfs, gusting 10-15 mph
wind-driven steady rain, and a cold front coming in fast from the west. The rain had been coming down in buckets all
day, and when I got done with the day’s work, I took a look at the river flow
chart on the Internet and low and behold it was repeating the exact same
dropping-fast pattern and at the same flow level (2500 cfs) as when Steve and I
last fished it and did so well on Friday 10-12-01. The river had jumped all the way up to 10,000 cfs on Saturday,
10-13-01, and had been dropping steadily since then. The forecast was for rain the rest of the week, which never has
materialized, leaving the river to continue to drop all week and is now at 2000
cfs on Thursday and still dropping fast, but on Tuesday I figured the heavy
rain that was forecast might punch the river out for good and finish off
the salmon run...so I zoomed down to the river at 3:00 pm and fished where
Steve and I did on Friday down below the bridge again. The river was running with just a little
color…probably 4 feet of visibility. I
started off fishing some fresh, uncured silver eggs in big king-sized globs on
a bare #2 red gammy hook with 2 feet of 12# fluorocarbon Vanish
leader…yummy! I wasn't there 10 minutes
and I hooked something big right off...the fish just felt heavy and surged with
heavy tail-powered lunges, but I had no idea that it was the biggest steelhead
I've ever tangled with! It never jumped
or made the traditional steelhead line-stripping runs up and down the hole...it
just lumbered out there heavy and stayed in the deep, fast current, more like
the way a king fights. I finally got it
up to the bank once and just about passed out when I got a good look at the
size of it when it started to roll and thrash around and a 10" across
spotted tail started waving in the air!
A big red stripe down the chrome side and bright red gill
plate...steelhead it was! This fish was
at least 15# if not more. The biggest
steelhead I've landed prior to this is 11#.
Anyway...now for the sad part of the fish story...every time I'd get the
fish up to shore it would thrash about, but as soon as I got serious trying to
pull it up on to the bank it would just launch right back out into deep
water...this went on three times and the fourth try was very reminiscent of the
nice silver that I almost had on the bank with Steve the week before on
Friday... just as the fish was on its belly in the shallow gravel next to
shore…out came my hook launching right back at me and I let out a few choices
words borrowed from the time a seal had a big king salmon of mine in its jaws
out in the bay...DANG...that big, beautiful fish was gone back to the depths to
fight another day! Pausing to reflect,
I sat there with pounding heart and twitching right biceps as a few onlookers
above and below me shook their heads. I
continued to fish and got two nice chrome silvers...a 3# and a 4.5#...both
hens, and walked out right at dark...not leaving till I had to in hopes of
hooking another steelhead. See you on
the river!
10-14-01 9:30 AM Sunday morning…fishing with my lovely wife, Kim, on the Sky at Sultan. We saw on the Internet that the river was at 6000cfs and coming up fast…not the best conditions for a hot bite in the least. After debating whether to go down and give it a shot, we decided that the river was so full of fish that it was still worth the effort. We had a nice visit and enjoyed the tremendous fall colors as we strolled out onto the river bar. There were at least two dozen fishermen lining both sides of the river bank, with an occasional sled ripping up and down the river…but we found our usual spot was available and nestled right in. Overcast skies, no rain or wind, and 2 foot water visibility made for great fishing conditions…especially with nice sized silvers rolling in front of us occasionally. However, the river swelled to 7300cfs during the three hours we fished…as we cast between the trees and dead pink salmon coming down the channel…alas, the surging water volume quelled the bite. I think I had a couple strikes, but we never did hook anything. Of course we still enjoyed ourselves, although some Vicks vapor rub under the nose would have helped with the stench of rotting humpie carcasses…Kim was NOT impressed by those at all!
10-12-01 7:00 AM Friday morning…fished with my good
friend Steve Hamel on the Skykomish at Sultan. We’d been getting some pretty good rain that week and the river
had gone from 425cfs on Monday all the way up to 5500cfs on Thursday. The weather was cloudy with occasional light
rain. A quick check of the river level
showed the river coming down with a current level of 2600cfs… perfect for a
good bite! First off, we went up above
the Mann Road Bridge and tried to fish the fast straight-through slot above the
old bridge abutment. For the first time
in a couple months, there was enough water for sleds to be on the prowl, and as
we made our way to a likely hot spot, 3 sleds moved up the river past us. The water had just a little color and nice
sized silvers were rolling all about.
We gave it our best, but the water was just too fast to fish really, so
after an hour or so we decided to go on down below the Mann Road Bridge and
fish on the Cracker Bar where the water runs slower in the big hole where the
Sultan River dumps in just down below.
We weren’t there too long when we put a getting-dark 3# or so coho buck on
the bank, followed by a slightly larger and brighter hen…and then another hen
just like the last! We were really
happy to be on the river with a red-hot bite!
I hooked a possible double-digit weight, dime-bright silver and even had
it landed in the rocks when the hook came out and by the time I reacted and ran
down to the bank the fish bolted back to the depths…DARN! Just approaching noon, Steve’s pole went
down heavy and stayed there…a quick lift response and he set the hook into a
nice 6# silver hen! A few minutes later
in a now steady rain, we were smiling with 4 nice coho on the stringer and
making our way off the river. Check out
Steve’s nice fish…a job well done!
9-24-01 7:30 AM start on the Sky at Sultan
above the Mann Road Bridge…heavy fog with no wind. Water running crystal clear at summer ultra-low or roughly 600
CFS. Cindy and Brian have accompanied
me this morning to join in the fun. We
started off at the old bridge foundation on the south side of the river…a deep
slow hole with so many pink salmon in it that it looked more like the Pt.
Defiance Aquarium than the river we’re used to seeing. The pinks were rolling pretty much non-stop,
but they’re pretty dark…close to black down streamers, so they didn’t hold our
interest long. We moved on up river to
a 3-4’ deep drift just below some narrow rapids. We drifted some king egg clusters (Pro-Cure Wizards formula) on
3’ leaders with almost no weight starting with a cast as far upstream as
reasonably possible and still drifting the center of the river. After just a few casts I hooked what I
assumed to be a good sized pink as it really put up a tussle…but after it
ripped off the fourth line-screaming run, but never jumping even once, I
started wandering just what I had got myself attached to. As the prize finally neared shore the
unmistakable red stripe down the side became apparent…a summer steelhead! The hatchery hen steelhead was just under 8
pounds and was a beautiful chrome specimen with just a hint of red stripe down
the side with a red tint to the gill plate as well. My first landed steelhead of 2001 and the pen hit the punch
card…woo-hoo! 
Steelhead
are so beautiful, one always feels a little guilty bonking them…but at my rate
of success with them, I don’t think I stand any chance of impacting their
overall survival. We continued to fish
that same stretch with much anticipation as the salmon were really on the move
in front of us as we could see them moving by in the hundreds. At the head of the drift are shallow rapids
that come in from the side channel and they were constantly exploding with
droves of pinks running the rapids…it looked like a bunch of toy hydroplanes
ripping up and down through there! Just
about 10 yards down river from where I hooked the steelhead 20 minutes before,
I hooked into another fish that felt solid, but not near as large…a nice chrome
coho hen. Bob is now happy. The rest of day was just a series of nibbles
from smolts, whitefish, and sculpin…alas, no more fish for the stringer, but we
had a wonderful day on the river with Brian getting the hang of river drift
fishing and Cindy enjoying reading her magazine in the afternoon sun after the
fog finally burned off around 1:00 PM.
Another memory tucked away in the fall salmon treasure chest! For a picture of the river where we fished, click here (plus you can enjoy a fish story
there too!).
9-7-01 Late afternoon on the Carbon at the treatment plant…clear with 0-5mph wind gusts from the north. Water running the usual slightly muddy 2% milk color at summer ultra-low or roughly 275 CFS. I crossed the river immediately and left a long line of fishermen behind to fish alone just above the treatment plant outfall on the east side of the river. I used a tubular foam bobber with two year old frozen/cured chum eggs 3.5’ below the bobber. I use a small split shot about 7” above the eggs to keep them down. At the head of the drift is some frog water alongside the fast running channel against the rip-rap and I began drifting my bobber combo through there and immediately started getting strikes. I hooked and instantly lost three in a row, but finally landed a 3 pound buck coho that was pretty green already…certainly not a chromer, but not ugly either…so I carefully put him on the stringer in case he was the only catch and I could just release him later as one fish isn’t worth the work/cleanup hassle. I continued to fish, but that was it for strikes…so my silver went back swimming to continue his mission to spawn and die while I hastily got back across the river before dark fell. I did end up walking out with a big sack of eggs though as some fishermen above were field cleaning their day’s catch and were discarding their eggs on the bank. One fellow landed a chrome silver that was probably at least 10 pounds…beautiful fish! Here’s my last view before leaving the river.
9-4-01 Late morning, 8:30 AM, start on the Sky at Sultan…partly sunny with 5-10mph wind gusts from the west, with clouds quickly moving in/lowering from the west. Water running crystal clear at summer low or roughly 850 CFS. A few fishermen were on the far side by the railroad tracks and old swinging rope tree, but I luckily had my whole side to myself. I started off drifting a red corky/yarn combo through the upper rapids with almost no weight…but since I’d left the eggs in the cooler L in the trunk, I quickly made the move to a tube float bobber and a pink-bodied 3/16 oz. jig with white trailing yarn and chrome head about 4’ under the bobber. Just a few casts and allowing the bobber to drift quite away down the rapids by paying out line I hooked a 4 to 5 pound buck humpy (pink salmon). He really put up a great tussle and I decided to quietly release him as his back was really humped up and the jaw kype was already quite developed…along with the pinkish gray sides and black vertical striping on the body. This fish was certainly not worn out though…very strong and agile…he quickly bolted back for the depths and safety of the fast running slot. I returned to my position at the head of the drift and with only a couple more casts I hooked a much brighter, yet a little smaller, female that fought more like a mini steelhead than a salmon. She almost came to shore when the jig launched out of the water in a oh-so-polite premature release. All the while I caught these two (ok just “caught” one…’nuff said) there were humpies constantly rolling in the rapids. This suddenly seemed to stop just shortly after hooking the second fish and that I know of I didn’t have another strike after the second hookup. Fishing with the jig under the tubular foam bobber requires sharp attention and a quick reaction when the bobber does anything other than gracefully continue on down stream, and I did miss at least two other strikes that I’m aware of. I plan to get Kim back down on this same spot over the coming weekend, so I can get her into one of these…she’ll be smiling! I didn’t see any other fish caught while I was there.
9-1-01 King opener on the Carbon River near
Orting with Kim, my dad, and Bill Bagley.
In years past this opener is usually hot for fresh kings out of
Commencement Bay. Not this year. We met Bill at the Orting Safeway at 5:00 AM
and proceeded to walk down to the river at the treatment plant hole against the
clay bank. Quite a few people already
standing IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RIVER in the dark when we got down there. We got acceptable positions on the drift and
waited for daylight. The weather was
overcast, no wind, and surprisingly warm.
The river had about 2” of visibility with its usual creamed-coffee
summer coloring and was running at roughly summer low flow. The rain began to drizzle off and on, and
then just before we left at 9:00 AM or so, it began to rain pretty large drops
hastening our exit as we managed to forget our rain slickers. Out of roughly two-dozen fishermen within
sight, only one fish was hooked and landed down river from us against the
rip-rap channel…whether hooked legally I couldn’t see. I saw one fish roll against the clay bank
just down and across the river from me at about 8:30. None of us touched a fish that I know of. We had a good time visiting and it was nice
to get us all down there on that fishing hole once again.
July/Aug Fished the Sky at Sultan several times over these two months and the water level was so low and clear that it just wasn’t productive at all. Other than a couple smolts and whitefish…these were strictly scenic outings.
6-23-01 Kim and I decided to go down mid-day to the Sky at Sultan and try the Cracker Bar again. We knew a mid-day start after several days of sunshine and no rain would not be the best conditions for fresh fish in front of us, but hey…it was a nice day! We drifted small sand shrimp pieces on Skagit Specials…only to entice one small whitefish. There were a few other anglers on the banks, most with small children in tow as a family outing. Several sleds and drift boats came in and a few launched. We didn’t see anyone hooking or showing fish around the launch to show their day’s success. I soon discovered that my waders had cracked rather severely on a worn boot fold and my right leg promptly filled with cold water J. We took some pictures, go here to see them, and sat on the gravel bar…enjoying our visit, the sun, and views during our afternoon on the river.
6-14-01 Late morning, 9:00 AM, start on the Sky at Sultan…partly sunny with no wind. Water running crystal clear about a foot lower than opening day. Started fishing the upper rapids before the main hole…no takers. Had the spot to myself, but after a few minutes I saw a fisherman walking out from down below on my same side with an 8# or so chrome steely. I continued to fish my favorite drift to no avail. Only sneaking in a couple hour shot…I started to move down with the bait till I was around the corner and a fellow that I got to that parking lot at the same time with that morning was walking towards me with another chrome specimen! I weighed it for him on the digital and it came in at 8.5# and he said it put up a real tussle. I finished off there not ever having so much as a nibble from a sculpin.
6-1-01 Opening day on the Sky at Sultan…on the river at daybreak…cloudy and cool, but not much wind…however, impending rain appears on the horizon coming in from the southwest. River full of water, but running fairly clear…probably 6 feet visibility. Lots…and I mean lots…of fishermen on the shore and in sleds with a few drift boats thrown in for good measure, but we all seemed to manage to wet a line with out crowding each other too much. I saw six boats drift down in front of me with steelhead on and I saw two landed. Fish appeared to be chrome 8 pounders or so. I didn’t touch a fish…nada, bupkes. That will teach me to try and use last year’s rock-candy chum roe and some freezer burned sand shrimp. Oh well, I just wanted to get on the river more than anything and if was real sweet…nearly forgot what it was like after a six month dry spell away from the river’s edge. The river still sang its song at the rapids, and the dense, lush summer undergrowth, with its damp, musty smell hung along the riverbanks promising a beautiful summer and fall. All manner of birds call out their song just out of site back in the thick growth all up and down the river. Timeless swirls eddy past carrying an occasional leaf or a smooth spot window offering a glimpse of the treasures below…the Sky is still there for us all to enjoy, still running just as it has for millennia and will for many more to come…nice to have something dependable to take all the cares away with it downstream.
12-18-00 I fished the Sky near Sultan this morning
drifting eggs and sand shrimp. Excellent
ruby-red starburst sunrise through a cold, damp, foggy mist…no wind. River had about five feet of visibility, and
was up a good couple feet from the last time I fished it. Two whitefish and three hours later…that was
it for me. I saw a guy on the far side
riprap, down river, pop two 10# or so dark fish...couldn't tell for sure what
they were, but definitely not chrome steelies from what I saw of them...but
they sure looked a lot better than my two dinky whitefish (back swimming of
course). River looked great...just need
some fish in numbers and we'll all be smiling.
There were quite a few bald eagles and blue herons cruising the place
too. Roughly half a dozen or so other
bank fishermen around me, plus 2 drift boats and 3 sleds working the river. What’s that…you say I’m in a
fish-catching-slump…naaaa! It’s just
the upcoming wedding…my mind is on rosier things!
12-5-00 Fished
the Sky near Sultan…again…I need to broaden my horizons I guess, but the
Sky offers everything a three hour time investment could hope for just a hop,
skip, and a jump away. Got on the river
just at first light…temperature was right at freezing as evidenced by the
constantly forming ice in my guides.
Low, dense fog shrouded the river that I shared with eight other fishermen,
three of which were in a drift boat pulled up on the bank just downstream from
me. The gin clear river was running
fairly low, without a sign of fish breaking the surface…just the constant,
soothing sound of the rapids. I threw
corky/yarn/sandshrimp/chum egg combinations all morning. I didn’t see any chums that still had a
pulse…just some real ripe ones on the bank, with additional stewing specimens
in the shallows…oh ya, did I mention how much more pungent odors are in
extremely cold air…mmmmmm nothing like the smell of rotting chum early in the
morning. We all gave it our best and
everyone around me left by 10:00am or so with nada, zilch, bupkes observed in
the way of a fish becoming attached to anyone’s line. That’s when the fishing got hot…NOT! An hour later or so I did entice a struggle with a small 
whitefish and released it…at least I got
my hands stinky! Anyway, I moved up the
river and got this nice shot if you’d like some Sky wallpaper (just click on
the thumbnail to download a wallpaper sized version). I really enjoyed the beautiful sunny morning after the fog burned
off, but didn’t touch another fish that day.
I did spot a lone summer steely torpedo moving briskly past me, about as
fast as a person walks, up the river on the seam between slow and fast
water. I could see the brilliant red
gill cover and stripe down the side below the light green back…magnificent
creatures! I have decided, and I 
know this will bring severe
criticism from my detractors, to reveal my secret watering hole on the Sky, but
I’ll just paste the thumbnail picture of it here for you to click on (let’s
just call it exhibit A) and let you bloodhounds (you know who you are) sniff it
out…enjoy!
11-29-00 Fished the Sky near Sultan…finally got to wet a line after our big move to new digs! Over a month between trips…hopefully I’m not setting a trend. I got a late 9:00am start after helping out with a couple early morning must-do projects. I put on a fresh spool of 10# Fireline to boot, and was pretty pumped to see if I could hook into a fresh steelhead. The fall colors are all gone for the most part, and snow on the mountains looked only a short distance away. The river was on the way down at 2,400CFS, with about 4-5 feet of light green visibility …perfect! The weather was steady light rain, gusty winds from the east, and a temp in the low 40’s. I had some Wizard’s Pro Cure prepared chum eggs freshly thawed out, but not air dried enough really…they were going to be sling-off specials, so I just threw corky/yarn/sand shrimp pieces…especially after realizing I’d underestimated the chill effect of a stiff 15-20mph steady breeze coming down the valley out of the mountains. I didn’t layer up near enough and the wind was cutting through me like a knife, so getting my wool gloves all gooey with too wet of eggs wasn’t real appealing. I know…not prepared is not good, but getting on the river seemed my only priority that morning. Anyway, I pretty much just pounded the same stretch of water for about two hours and that I know of never touched a fish. Six other fishermen came and went around me and they suffered the same fate as far as I noticed. I’m sure there were some fish in front of us, the conditions were excellent, but no takers. I noticed a few tired, moldy-growths-in-tow chums along the fringes of the faster water near shore, and in fact I nearly accidentally stepped on a big, nasty buck …I’m not sure which of us was startled the most, him or me, but he sure lit out of there a lot faster than my reactions would allow. The wind was blowing so hard I had a hard time getting acceptable distance on my cast without using more weight than I like to use, and that may well be what was keeping me from picking up a strike. I may hit it again on 12-1…a little better prepared and possibly try a little further up river for a change of pace, although I’m still not familiar with the river at all further upstream, which will probably make it an exploration/learning trip if I do.
10-25-00 Fished the Sky at the Sultan River hole at dawn. After two weeks without wetting a line it was nice to be back on the river, with the fall colors at peak and the caressing sounds of the rapids I drew my sword…ok G. Loomis, whatever. Gin clear water was flowing around two feet higher than summer low. Foggy. Saw some chums doing the Hoodsport flying dogfish routine in the frog water above and below the rapids. I started off targeting steelhead in the fast water with my sand shrimp…no takers…nada…bupkes, so I put on a chartreuse corky/yarn chum tidbit and tossed that till I figured out that my chum presentation skills were not up to par as I knew I had a bunch of chum holding in the slow deep water in front of me by their surface antics, but still no action. I saw a jr. high aged kid (is school out today?) across from me pull a dark 4# or so fish (looked like a silver) up on the bank…hooked in the tail with his skillfully yanked buzz bomb. After giving a quick look around to make sure (he thought) that nobody was looking, he drug the fish up on the bank and summarily smashed its head in with a rock. Shortly thereafter a tall, long haired gal came walking down to the bank by me about eleven…wearing tennis shoes, HOT PANTS, and a jacket, toting lots of fishing gear…she quizzed me on how well I was pulling fish out ‘a the river and I told her that I’d caught so many that I’d lost track (of course referring to my entire fishing career)…and she proceeded to go 30 yards down river, gear up and WADE OUT IN THE RIVER with icy cold water swirling around her bare legs while I stood there in my 5mm neoprene winter waders. I ASSUMED that would last about 5 minutes tops, but she was still standing out there an hour later…smoking a cigarette…go figure. I only had a couple hours sleep the night before, so I decided that some days just aren’t about catching…only fishing, so I moseyed upriver and checked out the view down into the deep hole under the Mann road bridge with my x-ray polarizing glasses (while hanging over the center bridge railing) and OH-BOY the chums are definitely in…probably 30 or so 12# and up toothy critters on a wolf hunt in around the big logjam at the center bridge support. Hmmm, maybe I can get back down there this weekend with Kim…hmmm. Ok, tie up a few green corky-yarn combos…read chumming 101, again…
10-8-00 I fished the Carbon one hole down
from the hatchery deadline about noon with Kim and my Dad. The weather was mostly cloudy, warm, and
muggy. Kim hooked one after about ten
minutes drifting eggs under a foam tube bobber right next to shore in water
that looked like non-fat milk. She was
keeping the bobber in slower moving water at the edge of the faster current. She hooked a second fish about 45 minutes
later, but that one came off. My Dad
hooked a fish in the next hole down from us, but it came off when it got into
the riprap along the bank wall. I never
hooked a fish, but watching Kim catch her first silver in the river drift
fishing made the day for me! We all had
a nice time…along with about a million other fisher people…some with dark fish,
some with nothing. Kim had the
brightest fish, albeit a little on the small side, of any fish we saw people
carrying out. Kim was tickled with her
performance as you can tell by her proud, yet subdued smile in the picture at
right. We went through six skeins of
uncured, fresh silver eggs for the one fish, but since we won’t be on the river
again for a while, I think we made good use of them.
10-4-00 Started
at day break at the treatment plant hole on the Carbon. I saw the river was real muddy and made the
(wrong) decision for us to abandon the Carbon and go try the Green in Auburn
below the 277th bridge, which had opened on October 1st. The Green was medium flow 
and
pretty clear, but the only fish that we’re rolling were real small silver
jacks. There were lots of fishermen
with nothing except a couple puny silvers…so we decided to go back to the
Carbon at the hatchery deadline hole for a little combat fishing. Dad and I started on the Carbon one hole
down from the hatchery deadline hole finally about 10 AM after all the driving
around. The weather was warm and clear
with no wind. We tried regular drift fishing
first, and I hooked one fish right next to the bank in about five minutes…about
a 3-pound chrome hen and realized that not only was the river fishable, but
that it was red hot fishing to boot! My
Dad tried further down stream and then up by the bridge at Voight’s Creek…all
to no avail unfortunately, but I think he enjoyed getting out on the
river. I switched to a 6”foam bobber,
about 5’ of leader with 2 small split shot just 6” above a #2 Gami octopus
hook, on 10# fluorocarbon leader and proceeded to drift it through the same
slow side water at the head of the hole next to the main fast water coming
in. I kept seeing fish tail up there,
so I knew 
they were pretty well stacked in
there. I hooked and landed two more
chrome fish in there…all about the same size hens (EGGS!). We left that spot about 3 PM and then I came
back down just before dark at the treatment hole and hooked a much bigger fish,
probably about six pounds or so, right next to shore at my feet after I saw it
tail up in the slack eddy behind a rock just in front of me. I had to drift my bobber/bait combo through
there about a dozen times before it snapped it up, and then all I got out of
the deal was a bunch of tail thrashing, a quick run up stream and out popped my
hook…he won! I was blessed with a
beautiful sunset panorama of Mt. Rainier behind the river…so I whipped out the
digital and snapped one for us all (notice the shark fin cutting across to the
left…hmmmm…he must have been hungry for?) Carbon
River and Mt Rainier.
10-3-00 Fished the Sky at Sultan River hole this Tuesday. There had been heavy rain over the weekend and the river had gone banzai, filling to the brim and washing away the trees, dead salmon, and all of the accumulated garbage from the hot summer’s beach picnic use…and it all went rushing down to the Everett Bay. It was nice to have a clean river bank to start from this morning, with no malodorous salmon carcasses here and there. There appeared to be a few silvers rolling, but I never got a good look at any to see if they were fresh fish just run up or tired salmon that had already been up this far for awhile. The water was about 1.5’ higher than the last time I fished it, and you could see where it had pushed big stumps down the gravel bars at the high water mark and they had dug big trenches into the gravel like bulldozers. The water was already running pretty clear, just a little tinge of green color to keep the fish in the biting mood. Low fog till 9, then clear as a bell…no wind. There were several sleds on the river this morning, one of which I saw offload several 3 to 4# fish at the launch, which I would imagine were silvers. I started fishing in the fast deep slot I like at the upper end of the hole, just above another guy already there that was throwing some kind of spinner on a spinning rod. I made probably a dozen casts with my usual orange-yellow small corky/three colors yarn tufts/small piece of sand shrimp when I hooked another 10 pound or so chrome steelhead. This fish was something else…it made the traditional head long, line stripping run across in front of me, which of course was followed by the obligatory end-over-end Minute Man Missile jump in an attempt to throw the hook. This is where it gets interesting now…the fish apparently ran right back at me after the jump and I would have bet a $100 I saw my corky come flying out of his mouth and that I had lost him. I even gave a few terse words to whoever would listen and whipped my tip and slack line to the water in disgust at losing a nice steely like that, when all of a sudden my pole tip rips around and line starts peeling off against the drag and the steelhead leapt into the air again followed by several more jumps with powerful runs up and down the river. I finally got him settled down and proceeded to back him down the hole into slower, easier to manage current…just holding him firm in the current for around another 5 minutes till he was only 20’ or so off shore and then he suddenly came off…without nary a headshake or any other reason to blame the sudden disengagement. I thanked my good fortune for the encounter and continued on fishing…only to catch and release one steely smolt after that. It was a beautiful birthday morning for me though…awesome. Back at the parking lot I saw a couple fishermen with two silvers, one fish probably two pounds and the other maybe four pounds and both pretty dark…not bright by any stretch.
9-19-00 Fished the Sky at Sultan River hole. Lots of dark silvers rolling. Very low, gin clear water. Foggy till 9, then partly cloudy, with cool, light breeze. Caught several steely smolts and one feisty little white fish (all back swimming)…all of them hooked on corky and small piece of sand shrimp in the fast upper slot.
I never did hook a good fish that day or see anyone else catch anything.
8-13-00 Fished the Sky at Sultan River hole
with lots of small, bright silvers rolling.
Low, gin clear water that definitely had the fish skittish. Low clouds all morning. Fished my usual hole and then went back to
the car to leave about 9. Decided to
walk through farmer’s field and fish further upstream. Had a good fish on for just an instant…don’t
know what it was. Went back to car to
leave at 10…decided to go back down to the fast slot at the Sultan River/Sky
hole where a guy had been fishing all morning (never saw him hook anything) to
see if I could do a better job. There
was no one in sight in any direction when I started fishing again. After just a few casts I hooked a hatchery
10.6# steelhead and landed it. It’s the
one in my fish pictures that I’m holding up in front of the fridge with Scooter
in the background.
7-15-00 Took Kim and Tony down to the Sky and
fished under the bridge at Sultan where Tony and I had hooked/landed a
steelhead the week before. It was
cloudy and the gin clear water was about six inches lower. The hole was almost too shallow now to
fish. We saw a few guide boats running
up and down the river, but didn’t see anything hooked. Kim read a book on the gravel bar while Tony
and I tried our best. We fished a
couple hours and called it good…no fish that day.
7-6-00 Got on the river about 8:00 AM, with the sun just getting on the clear, summer high water. In just a few minutes Tony and I popped a 9#+ hatchery, chrome buck steely under the bridge just upriver on the Sky from where the Sultan River comes in. It took a small red corky with small piece of sand shrimp. Tony was tickled to have handled his first steelhead.