Started the second week with more optimism that my past performance would warrant. The 3:30am start times were also starting to wear on me so only three attempts at the fishies on this round. Started with two trips to the Humptulips for steelhead and finished up on the Skagit looking for sockeye.
Day 1: A lazy strategy of hanging around the fish hatchery resulted in another steelhead strikeout but I saw enough activity near dark to bring me back the next afternoon.
Day 2: Resolved to get further down river than anyone else would ever bother. The theory (since disproved) being that maybe a few fish with questionable judgement hadn't made it up to the hatchery yet due to low water. After a lot of wading back and forth I made it 2.5 miles downriver and almost all of it was new territory. Bald eagles, two beaver, and an otter joined me on the quest but all were moving too quickly for me to catch up close.
Day 5: Kat wrapped up her travels but sadly for her, she was now eligible to be drafted into the sand shrimp digging brigade:
Day 6: Convinced Kat that last week's failure was a fluke, we did the way too early start, and the unfathomable happened: skunked again...
**Programming Note**
Since I am so far behind I can say with confidence that there will be lots of fish in the next post! If you get a bigger kick out of my inept flailing then it would be wise to skip the next installment and return for my first alpine lake trip where balance is restored.
Day 1: A lazy strategy of hanging around the fish hatchery resulted in another steelhead strikeout but I saw enough activity near dark to bring me back the next afternoon.
Day 2: Resolved to get further down river than anyone else would ever bother. The theory (since disproved) being that maybe a few fish with questionable judgement hadn't made it up to the hatchery yet due to low water. After a lot of wading back and forth I made it 2.5 miles downriver and almost all of it was new territory. Bald eagles, two beaver, and an otter joined me on the quest but all were moving too quickly for me to catch up close.
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| It looks like rain but that is actually a swarm of trout and/or salmon smolts going to town on the bugs |
Day 5: Kat wrapped up her travels but sadly for her, she was now eligible to be drafted into the sand shrimp digging brigade:
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| We perfected our underwater shrimping and I am caught on camera bragging to Oak about the triple shrimp on a single pull. |
Day 6: Convinced Kat that last week's failure was a fluke, we did the way too early start, and the unfathomable happened: skunked again...
**Programming Note**
Since I am so far behind I can say with confidence that there will be lots of fish in the next post! If you get a bigger kick out of my inept flailing then it would be wise to skip the next installment and return for my first alpine lake trip where balance is restored.