In this month's newsletter I am going to cover one of my favorite new fisheries, Skagit River Sockeye. Last year was my first time targeting these salt fresh fish, and I am now addicted to put it lightly. These Sockeye are hours from the salt water and really put up a tussle on Steelhead gear. Another awesome thing about this fishery is that it gives the shore bound angler a great chance to tangle with a Sockeye. There is some great bank access in the towns of Mount Vernon and Burlington, and although it may be crowded, there will be plenty of fish to catch.
The first point I want to make, something that was a learning curve for me, is that Sockeye are running up the river VERY close to shore. They are gonna be skirting their way up the river close to the bank in 2-4' of water. If you are anchored far from shore or casting into the middle of the channel, you are gonna miss your chance at a lot of fish. One of my top producing spots was on the inside of a turn in 3.5' of water. The bank had overhanging tree branches and bushes and most of my fish were caught within 5' of the shore. My most productive rod was on the one that was almost touching the trees on most days. When fishing from the bank keep this in mind, try to find bank that drop sharply into 3-5' of water and fish very close to the bank. When fishing from a boat I also like to create “The Wall Of Death.” What that means is to have multiple rods behind the boat at the same distance and make it very hard for fish to swim passed. Sockeye are highly curious and very aggressive and having multiple set ups in their faces can result in more then one fish on at a time.
Onto the business side of things. My ideal Sockeye rod is my 8-17 9' Medium Heavy casting rod built by Dave at NW Rods. This pole has enough backbone to deal with heavy lead and divers but has a soft enough tip to detect light bites and the forgiveness to boat soft mouth Sockeye. I pair this with a high quality casting reel with a good drag system, spooled with 30 pound braided line. Some may think this rod is a little over kill but a 10 pound Sockeye can really work you over in the river. Its also nice to have to power to quickly boat (and release) the incidental Summer Chinook or even a Sturgeon as well. I then rig a weight slider onto the end of my line with a 12” 10# mono dropper. At the end of the dropper I will run a 3-4oz weight, a Brads Mud Bug diver, Or a size 30 Jet Diver depending on river flows. I will normally run my inside back rods with lead and have my outside rods running a diver. The diver will give your gear a little extra action as well. I then attach a 6' leader of 20# Flourocarbon to the swivel at the end of my mainline. I run a double hook set up with a small Spin-Glo above 3 medium sized beads or a Macks Lure Shrimp RIg. Both add some floatation as well as some color to your presentation. On the hooks I like to run a whole small Sandshrimp. I run the back hook thru the top of the head and use the bait loop on the top hook to secure it to the belly. Also put one or two half-hitches on the tail to keep everything straight and keep it on the line. Before it hits the water I like to dip it into some Kokanee/Sockeye Super Dipping Sauce. Scent will help get the fish really honed into your gear as the come up behind the boat, and the Sandshrimp/Sauce combo proved to be a killer on the river for me last year. If you don't feel like messing with sandshrimp you can also buy some store bought white prawns and cure them up in some Borax-o-Fire.
Another thing I learned last year the help put fish in the boat was to really watch my rods. Sometimes these fish will really hammer your gear, other times they bite like a goldfish and will be there and gone before you know it. Many of the fish I boated were very lite biters, sometimes just barley pulling on the line or picking up the bait and swimming forward resulting in a slack line. I got to the point were if it looked like a fish I set the hook, and more times then not I was great with some headshakes at the end of the line.
Long story short- Fish shallow, keep things fresh, and watch your pole! I hope this information helps you guys out and I look forward to seeing some of you out there chasing these silver bullets!
