Northwest Fishing Reports

So, I'm from Pennsylvania and have family in the sultan area. Each year I visit for 8 days and we hit the stream for 5-6 straight days normally fishing from sultan up to gold bar. This will be more 4th year in a row and her is my track record.

Each trip was between July 4-18 each year
2014- zero fish
2013- 12 steelhead and 1 king
2012- 9 steelhead and 1 king
All fish are caught on spoons and dink floats with a jig. Spoons are my favorite


Here are my questions. Some stupid simple
1. Why was 2014 in July so bad?
2. I use a spinning rod. What pound/type line to you use and pound leader line?
3. What are your go to lures or setup for middle of July? I'll be there July 10-18 this year.
4. I spend most of my time at reiter. This year I want to try somewhere else. Any suggestion?
5. Anyone know the 2015 forecast for summer steelie on the sky?

Thank you in advance for anyone willing to offer me help.

1. Not sure. Could be river conditions or crappy returns.
2. I use straight 10lb test for spoons. No leader. If I run a float/jig, then I use 8lb leader.
3. I use spoons 90% of the time. If the water is low and clear then I go to more subtle finishes and smaller spoons.
4. Anywhere on the upper river is good.
5. Nope.

Are there any fish above rieter towards index? Also what type of line do you use? Brand? Braided? mono?

Last year was decent for summer fish, if you fished either the mouth of the wallace, or at Reiter. The fish head straight to the hatcheries, so if you fish anywhere else, your pretty much fishing empty water.

It will be the same thing this year, except for we have NO water, it's going to be low and clear all year long. There is no snow pack. That may hold them up in the lower river longer, but it'll mean 8 lbs fluoro carbon all round.

Get to Reiter first thing in the morning and claim your rock. Then you'll catch something. The steelhead fishery on the SKykomish is pretty weak. There are not a lot of fish, and there are a ton of anglers fishing for them. My advice if you want to get a decent fishery is get yourself a fly rod and fish the NF of the Stilly, because the fly fishing only keeps the prerssure to a minimum. TIT still gets crappy returns, just like every stream in puget sound, but less pressure means better chances.

If you want to catch steelhead, play elsewhere. I'm being honest here, once you fish an actual steelhead run, you're going to know what I mean. Any of the columbia tribs, the coast, the Chehalis tribs, anything that doesn't go into the sound. You have to be really really tuned into it to be able to catch fish reliably on the Skykomish. Which means gas, and time, and more gas, and time. You have to work ten times harder to get fish, because there are so few of them.

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