Well Lady and I had a few hours to ourselves and headed up to the Upper Skykomish, and I'm glad we did. Just when you thought the river couldn't get any lower it does, but it still has fish.
We walked down and there was one other guy fishing, and that's it. After about ten minutes, and five casts, I hook into a fighter on a pink bead. Fish on! He makes a run upstream and what do you know, gets hung up in some line on the bottom. I pull, he pulls back but I can't get him out. We see him jump, but try as I might I can't get it loose. So I end up breaking off, and leaving the fish out there. As I'm reeling in, we see the fish jumping around in the same spot. So my new fishing buddy throws his bobber out and drifts through the same slot as I'm reeling in, and wouldn't you know it, he catches that line, and somehow manages to get it unhooked from whatever rock was out there, and we manage to land the fish after a few spirited runs with just his jig tangled up around some braid tangled up around my leader! I waded out and kicked the fish to shore, and we decided it was a joint effort and we both helped land the fish.
Being a nice guy, he let me mark the fish, which is making my wife happy right now as it gets grilled up. Either of us could have marked it, but it was still really cool to have that sort of teamwork to bring in a fish.
There is a lot of line out there on the bottom, and I couldn't help but notice that it's not just leaders, but a bunch of mainline as well. Make sure you guys check your mainline for nicks and wear, as those weak spots will have you breaking off yards of line when you get snagged. When you do get snagged, pull against your reel, not your rod, holding the drag and pointing it at the rock. This way you will be able to put all that pressure on your leader and hopefully not leave a bunch of line on the bottom right in the prime drift.
There are still fish out there, so let's go get 'em!
Nate Treat Fishing
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"Specializing in Fishing Instruction and Shore Guiding on Washington's Rivers."
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