ive been fishing it for 1 week not 1 winter steeley whats the deel ive tryed every thing from the tiny squids and popwer bait 2 floting eggs and casting spoons and spinners but nothin seems 2 work and im starting 2 get very mad because ive herd of tuns of steelhead being cauct on the skagit with a wingbober and sandshrimp i ges ill try qwaurkies to morrow if u now what works tell me please

Stick with it Kory-the mighty Skagit is bound to give up one or two for you. Banged a few last week using cured eggs. There are some nice Dolly's up there as well. Rockport area/Concrete/MarbleMount/Cascade. Good Luck brah.
By the way Kory, if your interested,offline=email, I can give you the name of a bud-who guides and lives in Rockport. Not to take anything from Bob, as I have enjoyed fishing with him as well a few times.

[This message has been edited by Coho (edited 12-27-2000).]

Kory I saw a ten pound clipped fish get plunked out of the lower two days ago, while I was scouting the river. Dude was using a purple Spin-n-Glo and sandshrimp. Maybe it's time to get a good forked stick and bell?

thanks for the info ill try the spinan glo

Sorry, I can't say I know anything about bad luck on the Skagit.

Kory,

Sounds like you've got the Skagit hex. The hex seems to afflict some anglers and not others. The Skagit is not the mightiest river flowing into Puget Sound without reason. You see, the Skagit is a spiritual river; it has moods and isn't always generous, and it sometimes whimsically places its hex on unlucky anglers. There are three alternatives. One, you can give up and quit fishing the Skagit and go fish other rivers. Two, you can tough it out and hope the hex goes away in a few seasons. Or three, you can get tough and meet the Skagit on its own spiritual terms.

To do this, you have to cleanse your mind, body, and spirit. Only way to do this is a good old fashioned spirit quest swim in the Skagit. So get yourself bare-assed naked on one of the more secluded gravel bars on the middle Skagit and take a good bone-chillin' polar bear swim. You will be at one with the Skagit; you will be the Skagit; the Skagit will be you. While you're at it, wash your official fishing clothes out, too, and get all the bad ju-ju out of them.

If you survive, and after you warm back up - oh, did I mention, it's a good idea to take a spare change of clothes along? and it's not a bad idea to build a nice beach fire before immersion, either - take your steelheading tackle up some little creek, like Cumberland or O'Toole, to a nice spiritual little pool, and wash all the bad Karma off your tackle. No sense doing this thing half way. Clean your spin-n-glo bobbers, hooks, and leaders.

Then you will be spiritually, not to mention hygenically, cleansed, and worthy of fishing the Skagit for its steelhead. If you don't have them already, get yourself some spin-n-glos. If the river is off color, get size 4 clown colored. For 3 to 4 feet of visibility, get size 6 clown (orange and chartruese). For clear water, get size 6 pink ones. String the appropriate bobber on your leader and thread a sand shrimp tail on the hook. Of course, steelhead streamer flies work well also, but you don't seem quite up to that just yet.

Then fish with reverence the holiest of holy waters, and all that is the Skagit's will also be yours. Now the Skagit is a large river, and the fish do not live everywhere within it. How will you know such holy waters? When you become the Skagit, and the Skagit becomes you, you will have that knowledge as part of your living spirit. When you have it, it just is. And that is where the steelhead live. And steelhead are so much easier to catch when your Karma is good, and you put your hook where the fish lives.

Of course, you must remain humble and be generous. Carefully release all wild steelhead, cutthroat, and even most Dollys; or the Skagit may become offended and re-visit the hex on you.

If you do all this and still do not catch a steelhead, then either there are no steelhead, or you remain spiritually sullied beyond what spiritual swimming in the river can cure. You would need a mind, spirit, and life altering experience to get your head right. To get your head right, I would suggest scriptural reading, beginning with the collective writings of Roderick Haig-Brown, The River Why?, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. These could help.

Oh, you mentioned that you are getting mad and angry at the Skagit. By this point, you probably understand that the Skagit doesn't take well to such moods on your part. As part of developing and cleansing your Karma, you must remain ever appreciative of the Skagit, whether you catch fish or not. The Skagit wants to be appreciated in all its glory, from its lowest, coldest, clear flows, to the muddiest high water it engenders. Never, ever, cast your bait or lure into the Skagit with a dark thought in your mind. If ever you have a dark thought while on the Skagit, immediately back off. Leave the river. Go away and work on improving your Karma. Return to the Skagit only when your mindset and Karma are positive.

Good luck.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

P.S. I thought about labeling this post as tic (tongue in cheek), but on further thought, I think not. If you're fishing hard and not catching fish, something is amiss.

Salmo g. these words you speak should not be taken lightly-there is truth in them. My wife and I cleansed our karma in the upper reaches of the Skagit. The result was --how do you say in America ----shrinkage??? or butt ass cold--. Mind and body felt the powers. Yet,extremities had little blood flow. Greatfully, we were blessed with the Great Dolly Lama-(s) that day. Its waters flow through my mind in good spirit, and thankfully from both my wife and myself the blood too still flows.

Kory,

Skagit fish don't see much popwer bait or qwaurkies, I can't understand why you're not catching any.

The fish due back this year on the Skagit are from a big 450,000 smolt plant. They dump these smolts in Bacon Creek, Cascade River, Baker River, Grandy Creek, and Barnaby Slough, among others. Try access points near these areas, and don't give up - these brats will return through Jan and Feb.

I journeyed out to the Cascade on Wed. My partner and I each hooked one, he lost his, mine was 7 pounds.

There were NETS stretched across the mouth of the Cascade when I left, which I had never seen before. A friend went there today and talked to the main hatchery guy, Steve I think. He said that they also netted the MOUTH of the hatchery creek, infuriating many people, including himself. There was nothing he could do to stop them.

Oh well, better now while they are predominantly hatchery then the Sauk in March when it's closed down, right?

Have any of the 50,000 fisherman fishing the Skykomish over the holidays caught anything?

TK

i dont think that my karma is the problem i caught lots of summerruns and silvers not my bad karma i think due 2 the rivers lownes and clearness there just a bit harder 2 cach thats all


[This message has been edited by kory bromels (edited 12-31-2000).]