I am interested in fishing for native char (dollies and bulls). Any suggestions for a "boatless" person? I was thinking of trying the Sauk or Sky, but am open to any suggestions.

I don't usually target dollies and bulls until February after I need a change of pace from winter steelheading. I fish for them in the salt off the beach. Between February and May the dollies and bulls enter the salt and are in there "sea-run" mode. These fish are a blast to angle for and usually I'm the only one on the beach fishing for them. It's strictly catch and release in the salt now for these fish. Although in the rivers your allowed to bonk them and account them towards your daily trout limit of 2 adults. Boy our fisheries management is screwed up! I haven't killed a dolly or cutt in about out 10 years.

The method I use is small 3-4" plug cut herring on a 6-pound leader with two 1/0 barbless Gamakatsu's. I use nothing more than a sampo swivel for weight. You only need to cast 10 yrds off of the beach! The third week of March has been the peak lately. I usually hit the beach 1-1/2 hours before the high tide and 1 hour after. During the peak 10-12 fish hookups are common, and continuos hookups can be the norm. The fish range from 16 - 28 inches. I caught a couple in the 6-7 pound range last spring and have lost bigger ones in the past.

Where? Try Kayak County Park just past the north end of the Tulalip Indian Reservation or any of the public beaches on Camano Is. I usually fish the east side of Camano.

I hope this helps...
Good Luck!!

While there are some dollies in the Skykomish I think you'd be much more likely to connect in the Sauk and Skagit where they are present in much greater numbers. They spend most of the year in fresh water, dropping down to salt water in the spring to follow the descending chum and humpy fry and feeding there until fall when they return to the river. Most of the fish are in the rivers now and pretty well spread throughout the system. While it is legal to keep two dollies over twenty inches in some rivers (the Skagit and Sauk among them), most people let 'em all go. When I used to fish gear, years ago, I usually caught them on spoons, but they respond very well to flies and I haven't fished for them any other way for the last thirty years.

There are tons of Dollies in the Skagit system. I would advise C&R on them this time of year beacuse they are spawners and post spawners right now and they have also been feeding on salmon eggs which makes them taste like crap. I haven't kept any Dollies in a long time but when I did it was in June or July, shortly after they arrive from the salt.

Justin
CEO, Sauk River Steelhead Ranch

Thanks for all of the help! I'm almost always a C&R guy on natives regardless of the regs, and always C&R on char. Any specific places to try on the Skagit (or Sky) system for a bank angler? I prefer flies, but don't mind throwing spoons either.

Egg patterns (glo-bugs, etc.) work well this time of the year. Pale pink, tan or white flesh flies (rabbit strip or marabou) can be pretty effective. Later on, small baitfish patterns are more productive. I tie a Thunder Creek style fly with tail hair from a fox squirrel that makes a pretty good imitation of a coho or cutthroat fry. If the water is dirty I go to my fallback, a four-inch long, white rabbit strip string leech with a stinger hook and lead dumbbell eyes (nasty thing to try to cast). If you need more information on the flies, e-mail me. So far as places to bank fish go, almost any place you can get access to the river and the water looks right should do. The Sauk has some good water upstream from Hatchery Creek and you might try the hole below The mouth of the Suiattle (cross the bridge, park and hike up the bar). On the Skagit, the bars at Grandy Creek, Swift Creek and Bacon Creek have all been productive at times. Good luck.

Bobber down,

Very intresting report. I know of a USFW Biologist who wrote to a group a few months back. He was searching for information recreational anglers had on catching char in the salt. I am sure he would be intrested in talking to you more if you would be willing.

DaveD

Looking through my journal it seems they take a fly best in the summer, but in the winter I've had a lot of dollies come to a rubber worm. I've never in my life kept one--what do they taste like when they're fresh? I only have the following to go by:

"They tend to be more naive about biting fishhooks, and less feisty after doing so, which makes them less popular with anglers out for a challenge, and more popular with ones simply out for a fish. Flavor is excellent."
--Daniel Matthews, Cascade/Olympic Natural History


[This message has been edited by fishkisser99 (edited 12-02-2000).]

Fishkisser,
Since I don't want to advocate killing and eating Dolly Varden, I have a few qualms about what I'm going to write here. I haven't killed a Dolly since some time in the early 'seventies, but I can vouch for their flavor. A fresh-run dolly, just up from saltwater, will have meat as pink as any salmon or steelhead, and just as tasty. Since they are quite oily, they smoke up very nicely as well. The Dolly's unfortunate reputation seems to date from the period when the legislature of the then Territory of Alaska placed a bounty on them. They were suspected of being responsible for the decline of salmon runs; the rigorous scientific reasoning of this body is revealed in the fact that, at the same time, they also proposed a bounty on bald eagles. The bounties were paid on Dolly Varden tails strung on wire hoops, fifty to a hundred at a time. One of the favorite methods of acquiring these tails was to chum a pool with salmon eggs then toss in a lit stick of dynamite. Everything that washed up in the next riffle had its tail added to the hoop (after all, one dried fish tail looks pretty much like any other). In the backcountry, where hard cash was at a premium, these fishtail hoops were regarded as legal tender and led Frank Dufresne to write a hilarious story about a fisheries biologist and a poker game.

I agree, please release these fish. You can see what has happened to the native Steelhead runs when we let them be bonked and taken home. Lets not get to that point with Dolly's.
thanks.

Dave D:

If the USFW Bio would like to pick my brain on the trends of these fish and my observations over the years he/she can contact me at my e-mail account under my viewer profile.

For the guys on the board went and chased steelhead at Bush Pt. today (10/4). Fished hard for 4-5 hours and not even a tap or signs of fish anywhere. Never even saw a seal either! A guy would think that they would be just all over out there, guess not. Oh well, beautiful day anyway.