Skagit Sockeye!

[Salmon King]

I'm looking for a report on the Sockeye opener on the Skagit today....

Nothing in the report section...yet.

I wanted to go but talked myself out of it. Didn't feel like sharing a sandbar with 2509 of my "closest" friends.
Guess I'm just getting too old for combat fishing anymore...

[Jakefish]

I'll give a report here since I didn't actually fish. I knew I couldn't go early since I didn't bother to pick up any sand shrimp the day before. Went to the train bridge around 7:30 to check it out and spoke with a friend who said nothing had been caught there yet. Hung around and watched for 30 minutes or so, nothing. Went looking for some shrimp, didn't find any. Went to the bar in Mt. Vernon (Young's Bar) and watched/ talked some more. One fish was caught there this morning, and another fish lost. A friend caught a nice bull trout that we all thought was a sockeye until he got it to the net. All in all, a quiet morning. Maybe 1 fish for 50 anglers I saw. Quite a few boats on the river, didn't see them get any. No bars are showing yet, so that makes finding a spot difficult, but not impossible. Still no fish counts for the Baker River trap up on WDFW page, so who knows how many fish are actually in the river so far. The color looked good - maybe 2 fee of visibility, a green tint with a bit of glacial silt. When I went home at 10:30, I had decided there was no reason to try to find shrimp to fish. Maybe I'll give it a go next weekend. You didn't miss out.

[countryboy87]

Its been super slow... Very few fish being caught but should only get better with time.. I've managed one so far out of 4 days fishing so its motivation to keep making the drive up.

[Salmon King]

Thanks...good to know someone is at least catching.
I haven't had a bite yet....

[Dave M]

Hoping to get up there this weekend. If the bars are not showing yet, is there space on the banks? And does anyone know what time the soccer fields open?

[riverhunter]

Sockeye I mean soccer fields open around 7 or 8. Varys by day because sometimes the person in charge of opening them shows up late

[countryboy87]

sockeye fields have been staying open and theres been some good pushes of fish coming thru last few days.. good luck finding shrimp in the area

[Dave M]

Cool, thanks for the info. I should be able to get shrimp in Auburn so no problem there.

[countryboy87]

Gonna need 6-10 oz pyramids and only cast 25 ft max.. Its ripping thru there. and for some reason if you get there and the gates are closed you can drive up to the boat launch on gardner rd .. park at the dike and walk downstream..

[spokey9]

So what's the standard plunking rig? I haven't plunked since I was a kid tbh. Just asking for a basic description of sizes not anybody's "secret" rig lol.

[Jakefish]

So what's the standard plunking rig? I haven't plunked since I was a kid tbh. Just asking for a basic description of sizes not anybody's "secret" rig lol.

This great thread has all the info you could ever want: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=21825

[dj2loud]

How's everyone liking the closure of the skagit so there isn't anyone on the river to have gear conflict with the natives... Since when are the natives fishing up to the rockport cascade river bridge??????? Something tells me the natives are running way up river to catch the fish this year... why just not go to the trap at baker and pull them, it's not like they haven't in the past....

[spokey9]

If they got them out of the trap then we'd know they only got half the harvestable fish. By running nets they can sell unreported fish along the roadside and still collect at the trap if needed to get their "half"

[Dave M]

Not only are the bars not showing yet, at the train bridge, they are fishing from the parking lot. I am willing to bet even if you do hook a fish, landing it without a 10ft long net is going to be difficult.
Pretty much the same at the kickball fields, fishing from the bank. Over at the boat launch there was a little room and no brush or trees in the way, but the few guys there had seen nothing. Saw a couple boats, but wasn't around long enough to see any fish caught.

[dj2loud]

I went out with a buddy yesterday and anchored up over by the 536 bridge, not a single taker... With only 29 being reported so far at the trap we will be lucky to get anything by the 15th, dismal numbers all week being able to boat and net only 2 in 5 days... They were on the small side, And we anchored in multiple spots from 536 up past the fields.... Fish are there just not hungry... Would think the nets would be pulling em in but haven't seen them either ( of course we can't fish where the nets are........)

[riverhunter]

Numbers on the skagit are not looking that great as of now of course that could change any moment but on contrary lake washington seems to be doing ok. Hope that keeps up and gets better as we could get a fishery there! Keep them fingers crossed

[Jakefish]

Numbers on the skagit are not looking that great as of now of course that could change any moment but on contrary lake washington seems to be doing ok. Hope that keeps up and gets better as we could get a fishery there! Keep them fingers crossed

I've definitely seen more fish caught this year than last year on the Skagit and I've caught 1 and missed a couple in 3 trips (as opposed to no action at all in 3 trips last year), so I'd say the numbers are just fine. I think they are just taking longer to get to the trap this year.

[riverhunter]

I'm sure its doing fine but I was talking numbers in the trap not being numbers being caught. Haven't been up there as of yet but last year I did decent with the 2 prior years just killing em. I was just implying that hopefully we get a big enough sockeye run to try down in lake washington for them!!

[dj2loud]

Anyone make a trip and catch any? Any ideas as im thinking to fishing it thursday.....

[dj2loud]

season extended to the 21st.... Any reports to share??