Before the rain decided to flood all of our rivers for the rest of the year I made a few trips out to new fishing spots. The first was on the upper Skykomish river on a very chilly day. It doesn't show that well in the pictures but there were lots of fun ice formations along the river. Oddly I didn't run into any other fishermen but there were plenty of white water kayakers who had clearly lost their minds... The second trip was to the upper Quinault river, right on the edge of the Olympic National Park. I went with my coworker/guide and we managed to catch a small salmonid sampler of steelhead, coho, and sockeye. Any day you can hook some salmon and spot an elk herd is going to be a good day! The final trip was to the Snoqualmie for hatchery steelhead but Kat and I were there a little too early in the season. Not a single local was out on the river... but that was much better than combat fishing.
Skykomish: Tried to catch steelhead but ended up releasing a couple coho.
Quinault: That spotted green and silver lure caught all the fish in this post and then some. Sadly it met its demise on the Snoqualmie the following week. The coho in the bottom left was at least 2X bigger than any coho I had caught previously. Everyone swam away to make more salmon for next year. Sensei landed and released his two sockeye so fast that I didn't get there in time for any pics.
Snoqualmie: Not even phantom bites on this fishing trip but we were right below the beautiful Snoqualmie falls. No fish ladders for the lazy salmon who don't want to swim up the falls but they do have a cool, underground hydro power plant built in 1899 and still running.
Skykomish: Tried to catch steelhead but ended up releasing a couple coho.
Quinault: That spotted green and silver lure caught all the fish in this post and then some. Sadly it met its demise on the Snoqualmie the following week. The coho in the bottom left was at least 2X bigger than any coho I had caught previously. Everyone swam away to make more salmon for next year. Sensei landed and released his two sockeye so fast that I didn't get there in time for any pics.
Snoqualmie: Not even phantom bites on this fishing trip but we were right below the beautiful Snoqualmie falls. No fish ladders for the lazy salmon who don't want to swim up the falls but they do have a cool, underground hydro power plant built in 1899 and still running.
