I drove down to go fishing at the Skook and what did I see on my way...9 turkeys and then 36 elk with at least 2 spikes in the group. I get to the end of the road and there is only 1 truck parked there. I started fishing and the guy from the truck came over and said that he had hooked some and seen some, too. He was leaving but had been there since before daylight. I got there at 8am. It was cold but not freezing. There were a few clouds in the sky and it was going to be a nice day. The river was down quite a bit since I was there Feb. 14th. The gage height was 6.05 feet and the flow was 194 cfs. The visibility was maybe 18 inches. The level of the water was up from the previous day’s rain or the release of water from the dam. A couple of other people came and went and I watched 4 otters playing and rubbing their faces on a downed tree (there was moss on it). It was getting time to start to leave so I went over to where the first guy had said he saw fish. I was way on top, casting down to the river to see if there were any fish. I was watching the way the corky acted in the water. It was just above a ripple. Another fisherman comes by and I am hooked on some grass below me and as we are talking he sees a fish. This fish looked about 3 foot long and had some bulk to it. It was a light gray color like a steelhead but by the top fin and tail it had some yellow. This yellow is like the fungus I have seen on salmon that were very dark. The man there also mentioned that maybe it was a salmon. But it is late for them and also this fish wasn’t dark. It was big though. There had been fish jumping occasionally all morning. There is also 1-3 inch smolt in the river. On the way home the elk had disappeared but I saw the turkeys again further up Johnson Creek. All in all a nice day without catching.

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