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Skykomish River Report
Snohomish County, WA

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12/28/2016
Steelhead
All Day
12/28/2016
5
4926

"Getting Away" has been hard this year. With the season in full swing, the sky has become incredibly crowded regardless of when you fish. Everywhere you look, there are anglers in boats and on the bank testing their knowledge and luck against steelhead. I prefer to look to the fringes. It seems that when I see less people on the river, my success is improved exponentially. Funny how that works.

It comes down to pressure- and finding the least pressured water (that holds fish) possible. This is a heightened challenge with the year that we are experiencing. I have struggled with this lately; a few of my frequented spots are apparently now hit daily by several anglers. And to no surprise, every 5th day they'll hold a fish. Or less. I'm not one to play with the odds.

I ventured to the Wallace today upon seeing the sight at the Sky, and the Wallace was a zoo and a half. Not up by the hatchery, either.
A zoo for a river of its size, mind you, but still. I caught a 14" cutthroat, that was cool. He went back.

So, I took a drive and explored a bit. My day was five hours in with one non-target fish landed, so I just wanted to escape, enjoy nature, and catch something.

I put away my float rod altogether and ran light with my 8-foot UL.

First came a bull trout of 20", slim but aggressive. Up a couple yards I hooked and landed a semi-bright ~10lb coho. Two casts later I hooked a slightly darker coho and he abused a weak spot in my 8lb mono. First fish I've broken off in a long time.

Up a run, I landed a surprise 16" resident rainbow.
Then, this happened.

The next cast I launched out, and a savage strike followed. The fish stayed deep and had some weight, but didn't flop and spin like a coho. It took me four minutes to even see the fish apart from chrome flashes- I Id'd it a Native Steelhead. Six more minutes of being teased by her scarred sides, I was rewarded with tailing a large, scarred winter fish. I didn't measure or weigh it and it never left the water. Barbless hooks help. I was afraid mine would slip, but it held.

And then the next cast, I had an even more savage take and the fish immediately rocketed to the surface and went violently airborne... one, two, three, four times in quick succession. I had just landed my PB fish and then, the next cast, I hooked one even bigger. Again, the barbless hook held... and I managed to tail my second fish. Again, it never left the water, and aside from being momentarily immobilized for a couple of pictures, wasn't handled at all.

Remember that anywhere on the Sky or its tributaries, regardless of the season, you are in steelhead water. Please handle the water and fish with care, never take them unnecessarily out of the water, barbless hooks are preferred, and bait is discouraged.

So a banner day, two beautiful wild steelhead and a handful of other river friends.


Comments

Mike Carey
12/28/2016 7:29:00 PM
great report, thanks!
Ian Horning
12/29/2016 4:29:00 AM
@primetime It is more likely that anyone who catches a fish with bait, regardless of how they handle the fish, has a greater chance of killing the fish than with virtually any other lure type. But don't listen to my "elitist" views, listen to the people who actually have studied this. A recent study found that the mid-range mortality of fish caught with bait was 10% versus a 1-3% rate from lures and flies. I'm just not trying to kill fish. So yeah, I discourage bait for those reasons.
http://online.fliphtml5.com/xjqqa/fmsu/#p=1

Ironic that you want me to keep my opinion to myself but you have no problem wanting to share your own.
RichieRich
12/29/2016 6:25:00 AM
Right on Ian, tell him like it is
tele_maniac
12/29/2016 11:29:00 AM
Beautiful Fish!!!
cscottchurch
12/29/2016 11:33:00 AM
@PrimeTime, as a matter of fact, I HAVE caught, handled, & released countless steelhead on bait, lures, and flies, including 20 lb. class fish, and have been doing so for more than 40 years... and virtually every word of what Mr. Horning said is correct. Mortality rates in released fish are determined by a variety of factors including hook size, hooking location (deep or shallow), bait vs. artificial lures, and barbed vs. barbless hooks, all of which are interrelated. While barbless hooks don't appear to impact hooking location and wound severity at statistically significant levels, they significantly reduce handling time and damage prior to release, and the use of artificial lures over bait significantly reduces mortality rates due both wound severity and handling. If you want references with numbers, here are 3 peer-reviewed studies you can start with, including one meta-analysis of several other such studies (Taylor & White, 1992; Diggles & Ernst, 1997; DuBois & Pleski, 2007).

And BTW, I have a news flash for you... The definition of "bias" is not "pisses me off." Equating the two as you have done is a basic logical fallacy known as Poisoning the Well that wouldn't get past any high school logic student (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_the_well). To credibly demonstrate bias in these studies, or those from the Wild Steelhead Coalition, you need to do something that it would appear you haven't done to date--visit a library, learn something about fisheries biology and management, and assume some responsibility for stewarding the resource.

Perhaps if you spent more time in these activities rather than casting aspersions about the knowledge and sportsmanship of "elitists" like Mr. Horning, you might acquire some of both yourself... and in so doing, earn the right to share the river with men like him.

REFERENCES

Diggles, B. K. & I. Ernst. 1997. "Hooking mortality of two species of shallow-water reef fish caught by recreational angling methods." Marine and Freshwater Research 48(6) 479 - 483. Available online at http://www.publish.csiro.au/mf/MF96108. Accessed Dec. 29. 2016.

DuBois, R.B. & J.M. Pleski. 2007. "Hook Shedding and Mortality of Deeply Hooked Brook Trout Caught with Bait on Barbed and Barbless Hooks." North American Journal of Fisheries Management, Vol. 27(4). Available online at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1577/M06-276.1. Accessed Dec. 29. 2016.

Taylor, M.J. & K.R. White. 1992. "A Meta-Analysis of Hooking Mortality of Nonanadromous Trout." North American Journal of Fisheries Management, Vol. 12(4). Available online at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1577/1548-8675(1992)012%3C0760%3AAMAOHM%3E2.3.CO%3B2. Accessed Dec. 29. 2016.
cscottchurch
12/29/2016 12:57:00 PM
PS - A simple check of Mr. Horning's Wild Steelhead Coalition link reveals that it is not just a "a snapshot from from their magazine," but a 20-page PDF report that draws on *numerous* case studies, statistically significant datasets, well-characterized methods, and extensive citations to peer-reviewed scientific research throughout. The content is presented in a web-based interactive FlipHTML5 format that should've been straightforward for you to navigate. Had you bothered to examine it closely before responding, you might have noticed that.

Just sayin'...
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Available Guide

Available Fishing Guide:
Website: MoonsGuideService

Phone: (509) 860-6497