Chris,

no reason to wait till opening day. Leave the rods home. Get someone to run up to Ben Howard with you and take out at lewis street. That would take about 45 minutes max. Its all wide and deep since right now the river is about 8.25 feet which is like winter water. lots of area to train in. learning to read the water and how deep it is underneath is the important part, beside boat control.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/wa/nwis/uv?site_no=12134500

Then run up to the sultan. no fishing and its about two hours back down to ben Howard.

It will be tempting to fish from the 522 down but its a long ride and there is one private pay take out between lewis street and snohomish town launch. Its a farm below Thomas's Eddie and its a side road a couple miles up from the mouth of the Pilchuck.

High bridge on the snoqualmie is tweakerville and dead heads are common to the confluence.

The snoqualmie Plumb landing to Fall city has one shute with big rollers but it only looks mean. Granted that river has a lot more bottom boulders in the upper section. By the time you hit the golf course, its open and boring.

Section between Fall City and Carnation is loaded with trees and frog water. I dont recommend it.