Snohomish River, WA (Pink Salmon)

The Snohomish River is formed by the joining of the Snoqualmie and Skykomish Rivers. This river is big and if you have a boat great for salmon fishing. If you don't have a boat you can do what we tried. I should mentioned that encase you didn't know the farther from the ocean a fish gets the more it "spawns-out". Salmon in the ocean are nice and chrome but as they spawn they turn darker colors and male pink salmon even grow a large hump on their back, aka where the term "humpies" come from. I should also mention that pink salmon are not great eating unless smoked or put in a dip. Baked in the oven or cooked on the bbq does not result in some good salmon eating. With all that said what we tried was to go for some nice chrome pinks as far down the river as we could. This brought use to Lowell Farm's where the river is effected by the ocean tides. The difference on the river tide and the ocean tide is about one hour we learned. We also learned that you want to find a good low tide. The low tide we fished was a +6 afternoon tide. We should have tried to fish the +0.5 morning tide instead. The lower the tide the smaller the river gets and the more condensed the fish are. We had no luck throwing buzz bombs or jigs. A local guy says that is the ticket depending on how far the fish are. If you can get real close to them throw a jig, but if the fish are a ways away then use a 2" pink buzz bomb. (He did manage to catch one)

Summary:
Location: Snohomish River, near Lowell Farms, WA
Time: 3:30pm - 5:00pm
Rod: Spinning Salmon Rod
Tackle: Pink Jig and 2" Pink Buzz Bomb
Fish: 0
Species: Pink Salmon
Biggest Fish: N/A
Smallest Fish: N/A
Rating: 7/10

(Forgot to snap any pictures)

Skykomish River, WA (Pink Salmon)

SEPTEMBER 10,16,17, & 18, 2011
Salmon fishing is fun and there are many ways to fish for salmon. September is the time when pink salmon run up the rivers through out the Puget Sound. My river of choice is the Skykomish or Snoqualmie river because they are both fly fishing friendly.

When fishing for pinks on the fly use a pink fly. When fishing for pinks go pink. I used both a pink marabou and a pink bunny leach. keep them between an 1.5" - 2" and you'll do good. I used my both my 5wt rod and my 8wt rod. Humpies range from about 3-6# in the Puget Sound. A five weight was a little light with the current of the river and an 8wt maybe big but probably ok. Ideally I would say use a 7 wt., and fish 10# line. Your going to snag a few so the extra line weight helps. The only day I actually fly fished for humpies was the first day. I hooked into 2 but lost them both. What I did catch however was a very nice Rainbow Cutthroat.

The rest of the days I used my salmon spinning rod. I fished with my buddy Dalton, his brother Kevin, and another buddy of mine Ben. We fished buzz bombs, dick nite's, jigs, and spoons. The most snags came with the jigs and the spoons or dick nite's were all clean hook-ups. I also had a clean hook-up on a bobber with a jig below. Some people used sand shrimp as bait and others worms. Pretty much though if you threw something pink and had patients you would hook up sooner or later.

Summary:
Location: Skykomish River, near mouth of Sultan River, WA
Time: various times of day
Rod: 5 wt w/ sinking tip, 8 wt with sinking tip, spinning rod 8-12lb medium action.
Tackle: Pink Marabou and Pink Bunny Leach on the fly or pink buzz bomb, dick nite's, jig, and spoon on the spinner
Fish: 7 legal
Species: Pink Salmon
Biggest Fish: 8#
Smallest Fish: 3#
Rating: 7/10

 Nice Buck

 Walk to the River

 Dalton

 Skykomish River

 Pink Salmon Fight on 5 wt.

 Still Fighting and Laughing

 Search and Rescue Testing their Boats

 Lost The Fish

 Mouth of Sultan River under train Bridge

 Evening Skyline

 Ben

 The Drive In

 Ben with a Hen

 Nice Hen I Caught

Margaret Lake, WA

My buddy Dalton was raised in the city of Duvall east of Bellevue, Washington. The cool thing about the area between the Sammamish Plateau and the Cascades is there is a valley that offers numerous rivers and lakes to fish. This particular day started with Dalton and I fishing on the Skykomish River. I have forgot to mention where I have fished. There are numerous places, but popular spots of mine are right out of the East side of Monroe, the mouth of the Sultan River near Sultan, near the corrections facility, and haven't tried yet but looks good by high bridge (this is where the Snoqualmie and Skykomish meet). Anyways, Dalton and I took a break from fishing and went back to his house in Duvall where we loaded up a small duck hunting boat that we could go fish the local lakes. We headed up to Lake Margaret which is located Northeast of Duvall. The shore of the lake is private except for the small public fishing area where you can launch your watercraft. Getting in the boat at first we had no luck. Finally getting the fish finder to work we discovered the fish were way deep with the warm weather we had been having. I was able to hook into on nice rainbow eventually on the woolly bugger. Most the time we were skooting around with no real luck; a few bites here and there. What I learned was that the deepest part of the lake we found was about 40' deep a ways off from the private beach they have for the locals. Most of the fish were hanging out between 22' and 30' of water in the deeper parts of the lake. Dalton has told me that trolling power bait or spoons work well. It was late in the season and a majority of the fish had been caught and the rest were deep. There seamed to be a good population fish still.

Summary:
Location: Lake Margaret, near Duvall, WA
Time: 1:00pm - 3:00pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: 8 black woolly bugger with a  14 sand shrimp yellow dropper;  wine/brown/green woolly bugger, and emergers.
Fish: 1
Species: Rainbow
Biggest Fish: 13"
Smallest Fish: N/A
Rating: 7/10

 Getting in the Water

 Nice Planted Rainbow

Davis Lake, WA

After searching for an hour or so for Cougar Lake, I gave up and found my way to Davis Lake. This lake was a pretty lake and there wasn't that many people there. In total: 4 on the bank, 5 on the water (two boats), and I. This lake opens to bait fishing and retentions rule in the beginning of September. Prior to that the lake is selective gear rules only with no retention. This could be a really fun lake of catch and release before September I am guessing. With the same set up as I had at Big Twin Lake (black woolly bugger with a yellow sand shrimp). I trolled out on the lake in my float tube. With the setting sun and how day I assume the fish where deep. I had a handful of bites and after about 2 hours on the lake was able to land one fish. I called it a day and cooked a steak on the beach. If you want to cheat and catch lots of fish here, use some Berkley power bait and sink it a foot off the bottom.

Summary:
Location: Davis Lake, East of Winthrop, WA
Time: 5:00pm - 7:00pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: 8 black woolly bugger with a  14 sand shrimp yellow dropper; would use a 14 marabou yellow, wine/brown/green woolly bugger, and emergers. (Fished from float tube)
Fish: 1
Species: Rainbow
Biggest Fish: 14"
Smallest Fish: 14"
Rating: 7/10

 Davis Lake

 Davis Lake

 Davis Lake, with a nice house

 Davis Lake, from the float tube

 Davis Lake

Campbell Lake, Wa

The fish population of this lake was actually zeroed from the 2010/2011 winter. The lake froze completely and the fish didn't make it. Use to be a great lake to fish says the lady I met on the Big Twin Lake, but there are no more fish.

Summary:
Location: Campbell Lake, east of Winthrop, WA
Time: 4:00pm
Rod: N/A
Tackle: N/A
Fish: 0
Species: N/A
Biggest Fish: N/A
Smallest Fish: N/A
Rating: 0/10

 Campbell Lake

Methow River, WA

The Methow River is a beautiful river in the Okanogan County of Washington state. This river has jumped to my favorite river fished in Washington for trout. I wish I had more time. I certainly will e spending atleast a full weekend on this river next summer.

This trip supports the reason I started blogging about my fishing. I have never been to the Methow River before in my life. I can find some information on what I should maybe fish with but no real exact details of how and where. (If I leave anything out or you have further questions, comment and I'll respond back) With that this is what I have learned. Leaving Seattle after 8:30pm I was scheduled to pull into Methow, WA sometime after midnight. Depending on where you live and what part of the river you want to go to there are multiple ways to get to the Methow River so google or bing directions before you go. Either way plan on the trip taking you between 3.5 - 4.5 hours on way from Seattle area. I wanted to see the majority of the river so I took the shortest route to Methow, WA and headed to Winthrop, WA.

After arriving in Methow, I needed to find a place to pull over and sleep. I slept at the Foggy Dew Campground which is located off of Gold Creek, a tributary of the Methow River. There are multiple campgrounds, rv sites, and motels up and down this river. Sleeping in my car I awoke around sunrise. I headed back along the Methow and started to follow the river north. Pulling into Winthrop around 8am the local fly shop was closed to kill time until it opened I went to Big Twin Lake. Once the shop had opened I spoke with the gentleman running the shop. What I already knew is this river fishes similar to most Eastern Washington Rivers. Nymph stones with a dropper and dry-fish hoppers, stimulators, rogues, pmd's, mayflies, and caddis. What I learned is that you need to throw big bugs with bigger line than what I expected. A 5 wt. rod is a light rod for this river. You probably want to bring your 6 wt. The bugs I had predicted where correct, but you also can use a dropper under any of your bigger foam bodies. Another change I needed to make to my set up was much heavier leaders. Instead of my usual 6x or 5x, I needed atleast a 4x and likely even a 3x. As he said, "The fish don't care too much about the line size, they're big, and the water is fast enough." Lastly, I didn't know where to fish. He told me to start at the bridge just above the fly shop and work my way down river to Twisp. Where ever you can access the river is a good place to fish. Sounded easy enough. Another piece of information he gave me is the river picks up for t big hoppers and foam bodies as the weather warms up. Starting at 11am on the river was a good time  oget on the water.

Off I went, but the bridge was slammed with people. I drove further down and found a good place to pull off. Crossing into the middle of the river I fished the cuts along the roadside of the river and whatever pools of water I could find. In clear running water, trout like to be hidden as not to be eaten by birds of prey. Fish cuts, and rapids that aren't white and atleast thigh high, or pools shortly after rapids and the edges of the rapids. Fishing for about two hours on a quarter mile stretch of river I managed  white fish and one beautiful rainbow. I saw a lot of fish and was amazed by the river habitat and scores of big fish I could see. One of the white fish was the biggest white fish I have ever caught (guessing around 3.5#).

Anxious to try more river I got back in my car and headed south. Turns out I was a little lazy and more anxious to find out what else there was to fish in the area after a good morning at Big Twin Lake. So I started to explore again. It was also was about 100 degrees outside.

Small Recap of what I learned: This river fished like many rivers east of the Cascades only a bit bigger. Use a bigger tippet and a bigger bug. My foam bodies and stones were sz 6's, my droppers were sz 10 or 12, my tippet was 3x with a 4x and 5x leader between bugs. My 5 wt. rod Gus did well, but the fish seamed safer on the 6 wt.

Summary:
Location: Methow River, between Winthrop and Twisp, WA
Time: 12pm-2:30pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line and 6wt with sinking tip
Tackle: Used a big foam bodied stone with size 10 copper john dropper on the 5wt and a black stone nymph with a sz 12 rainbow warrior on the 6 wt.
Fish: 3
Species: Rainbow and white fish
Biggest Fish: 20" - ish (whitefish), 17" Rainbow
Smallest Fish: 16" (whitefish)
Rating: 9/10

 Fish on the hook

 Methow River

Big Twin Lake, WA

This trip was a wild trip. Sometime Sunday night I figured out that I would have Labor Day off. So what did I do? I jump in my van and drove to the North Central part of the state. I have heard many a times that the Methow River is a great river to fish. So I went to check it out. After pulling in sometime after midnight, I slept in my car at Foggy Dew Camp Ground. Waking up to sunlight and having no idea where I should fish on the river I headed further north up the river to the city of Winthrop. The fly shop wasn't to open until 9 or 10am and it was only 8am. In passing the tie I started to explore a bit coming across Twin Lakes. Big Twin Lake is still a small lake. There is a camp and RV site along the northern part of the lake as well. As I approached the lake an older woman getting out of the water told me I was about 2 hours late but could still give it a try. By now it was late summer and the water was well above 70 degrees. In these conditions fishing in the early morning produce the most fish near the surface. She also gave me a little clue that her yellow marabou was working the best. With that I hurried myself into the water with a black woolly bugger trailed by the only small yellow fly I had, a sand shrimp. Fishing for a little over an hour I produced several bites and landed 3 fish. The average size fish in this lake ranges from 14-17". There are also triploid that can get even bigger. If you can fish in the early morning when fishing in late summer. Getting to the water after or around 9am you need to go deep. I used a sinking tip with a 9 foot leader to get my bugs down. The most action seamed to be found on the south west side of the lake.

Summary:
Location: Big Twin Lake, Southwest of Winthrop, WA
Time: 9:00am-11:am
Rod: 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: 8 black woolly bugger with a  14 sand shrimp yellow dropper; would use a 14 marabou yellow, wine/brown/green woolly bugger, and emergers. (Fished from float tube)
Fish: 3
Species: Rainbow
Biggest Fish: 16"
Smallest Fish: 13"
Rating: 7.5/10

 Big Twin Lake

 Damsel Fly on Rod Tip

 From the Water of Big Twin Lake

Middle Fork Snoqualmie River, WA

Finally, I fished the Middle Fork after driving past it and fishing the Taylor several times. This river is great. Reminds me of the Washougal River, on the Washington and Oregon border. Another premature, Cascade river, the water was cool and the weather was great. My good buddy Sean and I took the day away from the city to sit by the river, catch some fish, and have a couple hot dogs at the end of the day. Stopping by the Creekside fly shop in Issaquah on the way out the gentlemen working their told us the fish would be slow to rise in the middle of the day. Being as we only had time to kill and weather to enjoy we fished a small section of the river slowly but thoroughly. Starting at mid day and finishing to a setting sun I caught many fish, while my buddy lounged on a rock formed into a chair. The man was right in that the fish really don't like to surface during the day but I found my ways around this. He made it seem like it wouldn't be worth my time but I beg the differ. On a river where fish will surface for most bugs small and close to resident bugs there are two solutions to catching fish during the day. The first is letting you dry bug sink and drifting it under the surface, and the other being nymphing. Both worked and both caught fish. There are bigger fish in the Middle Fork than on the South Fork or Taylor River. I saw several fish over 12" and most fish caught were 8" or better. Nymphing I used a black stone with a copper emerger for a dropper. Strip this set up through deeper holes where you can see fish and more fish will emerge for the chase. As I mentioned earlier, any small dry bug will work that is a common pattern (Elk Hair Caddis, Mosquito, Parachute Adams, and Black Nat). when your bug sinks at the end of the drift let it swing to the shore and you might get a sub surface bite on the line.

Summary:
Location: Middle Fork Snoqualmie River, exit 34 off I-90, go North on 468th to Middle Fork Rd, follow road to river
Time: 2-8pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line and 5 wt w; sinking tip
Tackle: Stone Nymph, Emergers, Olive/Tan Elk Hair Caddis, Mosquito, Parachute Adams, and Black Nat
Fish: 20+
Species: Cutthroat Rainbow
Biggest Fish: 12"
Smallest Fish: 4"
Rating: 8/10

 Can you see Sean?

 Middle Fork Snoqualmie River

 Middle Fork Snoqualmie River

 Middle Fork Snoqualmie River

 Rock Chair

Middle Fork Snoqualmie River

Taylor River, WA

Had no real intentions of fishing this river this day but after mountain biking got cut short what else are you going to do but grill and fish. So I hit the Taylor River again in a new location near the picnic area of the Middle Fork Trail head parking lot. Caught several fish on Gus. Not a hole lot to update on this river except that moving down river increased the average size of the fish and tried some new bugs that all worked. If you try to mountain bike the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Trail, it is not easy. The trail is wet, muddy, and the ground is very loose. Mix that with the possibility of fishing instead and you might not bike as long as you planned. At least I did not. I plan to post every time I fish so here was another quick outing.

Summary:
Location: Taylor River, 12 miles from exit 34 off I-90, go North on 468th to Middle Fork Rd, follow road to river
Time: 4:30-8pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line
Tackle: Olive Elk Hair Caddis, Mosquito, Parachute Adams, and Black Nat
Fish: 7
Species: Cutthroat Rainbow
Biggest Fish: 10"
Smallest Fish: 4"
Rating: 7.5/10

 Break on the Trail

 Picnic Area

 Taylor River

 It wasn't this dark, we still had to cross the river...

Tolt River, WA

Planned today to go mountain bike the Middle Fork Trail, along the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River, but ended up with a late start to the day after an oil change and finding a bike for my buddy. He works in Redmond, so I pulled out my map to find where I could go. Originally, I planned to fish the North Fork Snoqualmie River, but with little time I ventured out to the Tolt River just east of Carnation. This river is much like other rivers flowing out of the Cascades towards the Puget Sound; cold water, crystal clear, large smooth rocks, and lots of trees along the shore. I ventured near the end of the Tolt River road to a public fishing pull out nestled between some local resident housing. There is a trail here that follows the river, how far I do not know, I made it about a quarter of a mile down river. Fishing with Gus and an Olive Elk Hair Caddis I managed 4 fish in the hour I was there. This river has some good size to it and like most other Northern Cascade Rivers finding a deeper hole or pockets behind boulders was not too difficult. The trip was short but the fishing worth it. I plan to come back another day with more time and find the bigger fish.

Summary:
Location: Tolt River, East of Carnation, WA
Time: 12:45 - 1:45pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line
Tackle: 12 brown elk hair caddis, I would recommend a Parachute Adams, Mosquito or Royal Coachman as well
Fish: 4
Species: Cutthroat & Rainbow
Biggest Fish: 10"
Smallest Fish: 7"
Rating: 7.5/10

 Tolt River

Tolt River