With the wife on back to back to back work trips, the calendar opened up for an excessive amount of fishing and ducking house projects. Its clear that without adult supervision I revert to a man child in the blink of an eye. In the interest of not letting writing about fishing keep me from fishing, I have combined everything into one post. Below are the highlights from the
seven trips in
eight days. Yea, its a sickness...
Wynoochee/Humptulips Combo:
Started on the upper Wynoochee via a logging road that my guide had scouted out on Google Earth. The walk down to the river was a little steeper and brushier than we anticipated but I figure donating blood to the forest gods can only help improve the fishing. On the way down there were black raspberries and thimble berries for sustenance. For those keeping track at home, just on the Wynoochee trips the berry count is up to six: blueberries, salmon berries, blackberries, red huckleberries, black raspberries and thimble berries. Still waiting on the salal and evergreen huckleberries to ripen and that will complete the Olympic Mountains berry bingo. The focus on berries is to distract from the lack of any fish pictures... Hooked a couple small trout but no keepers.
For the Humptulips trip I was excited to try out my new sand shrimp gun. Sand shrimp hang out in the ocean but they are still very popular with the fish once they reach the rivers. Unfortunately they are also very popular with fishermen. During the summer and fall in Seattle you need to know what day the shrimp are delivered to the local sporting good store and make sure you get there before lunch if you want to have bait for the weekend. I started in Grays Harbor hoping to find the critters near the plant but all I found was mud and worms. I finally ended up on the beach in Ocean City for a typical summer day of fog and wind. Tragically the store must have sold me the wrong shells for my shrimp gun because I kept pulling up razor clams. After 20 clams and only two shrimp I conceded and headed up to the river. The shrimp were stolen off the hook in no time but I did manage to hook into a big, feisty steelhead on a spinner (8+ lbs). It pulled off some impressive aerial maneuvers and right when I thought I had survived to the victory lap, it slipped the hook... I kept the tears inside but there were plenty of them.
Skykomish:
Three trips into the Cascades looking for steelhead closer to home met with the same fate but I did have a very successful sand shrimp collection on the Sound. Oak got to join on two of the three river visits but he had to sit out the final trip due to playing just a little too hard.
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| Showing off, defending me against kayakers, and investigating an asphalt road turned into a boulder road by the North Fork of the Sky |
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| The shrimp gun. Kayaks, paddle boards, and row boats getting into the opening weekend of crab season (I'm not alone!). A hundred sand shrimp make a very compelling argument for a bait fridge. |
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| Even got to see a couple Boeing planes in progress headed to Everett. The second picture is not mine but from two years ago when a shipment didn't stay on the tracks in Montana. |
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| I am a big fan of my new phone's camera. Makes it look like I know what I am doing. |
Skagit River:
There is a brief window every summer for lounging on a beach and targeting sockeye that are on their way to Baker Lake. The killer is that first light is the most promising time and that means getting up at 3:30 am to be on the river before 5:00 am... I conned Prof Orange into joining me on Sunday even though I have failed as a guide every time we try for salmon. It was the most futile fishing experience I can remember. Out of the 20+ people on our river bar, nobody caught a fish and no sockeye were rolling.
To prove to myself that this was an anomaly, I headed back out this morning. Same result for me but I did get to see one fish landed and another put up a good fight before slipping the hook. With my faith restored that the sockeye did not suddenly go extinct I will probably be back next weekend. Sleep deprivation never gets old...
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| My only catch on the Skagit |
Wow, if you made it this far you are to be commended on your perseverance. Thanks for humoring me and I hope you had a great 4th of July! I am off to watch the fireworks.
