Hey folks,

I'll be camping in a place called "Silver Fir" on August 3-5, and I know it's near the Nooksack River.

Are there any good fishing opportunities, at that time, on this river? Any summerrun steelhead? Trout? Suckers? Anything? I can be armed with either conventional or fly gear, and really would like to fish during this time.

Would greatly appreciate it if any of you Nooksack Gurus out there would lend me a hand and donate some info. I *promise* I won't catch too many of your fish and give away the hot spot! Also, any of you care to join me out on the Nooksack during those days?

Thanks in advance for any information,

Parker,

Since I've taken a lot from your posts in the past, I will try to do my best. I used to work on the banks of the South Fork of the "sack" and fished it all the time ,but I recently changed jobs and I now work in the Seattle area.

Supposedly there are some wild summer run Steelhead in the river, but after many days chasing them I am not so sure. The only thing I ever hooked in the summer months were some "Dollies". In August the river is closed for Salmon.

However the one thing that might be worth your time is flyfishing for trout ABOVE the falls on the North Fork or ABOVE the diversion dam on the middle fork. No big fish, but I have done O.K. and it is a beautiful river.

Best o' Luck

Paul

P.S. Now October "That's a different story" as pappa used to say.

[ 06-20-2001: Message edited by: paul in b'ham ]

You can fish for 'steelhead' and catch a nookie or two...lets just hope that it doesnt come from one of the locals.

Easy there, Sparkey! You wouldn't want to insinuate anything!

about the fishing or the locals???

Here's my two cents. The south fork does have a nice run of summer run Steelhead but the state has closed all the best water for them because of the poachers that took the Springs, I use to have some amazing days up there, . By August most of the fish are up in the canyon holes which is closed water now. I have been told there are a few Summer fish and Springs in the Middle fork and there is some neat water just above the Mosquito Lake Bridge about ten to fifteen miles from the mouth, it's really neat canyon water and I'm sure you'll be able to find something up there. Most everything below that is braided and pretty skinney water, especially in August. If you try to fish the North Fork good luck unless you get above the falls. There are some glacier creeks right around the falls that dump really ugly dirty water in when the weather is warm so you're going to have to get above that to get any visibility and once above the falls you won't get any slabs since the falls in impassable for migrating fish. Do yourself a favor and either go up to the Skagit and camp or cross the border and fish the Fraser for Sockeye's!

Hey COD, when are you and Kevin hooking up with Bob for some of the Kasilof First Run King action on a fly rod? That sounds like a hoot.

I've been begging Bob to let me use a fly rod for some of those Second Run Kings, but he keeps telling me no!

Parker

Robbo SRBC enforcer strikes again......When we gonna see you and your girlfriend on T.V. brah??

Tight lines

Kevin

SRBC

LOL! Been busier than a two legged swamp donkey!

We had a great time with Bob, but the fish seemed to be hitting the plugs before they got to our backbounced bait on the fly sticks. I think Bob likes to land the second runners, which may be why he says "no". Those fish are seriously hot!

As for the girlfriend, our new lab pup chewed her head off the other day! Bad Dog...Bad!!!

Fishbreath,

I used to fish the summer runs way up the S. Fork, hitting from logging roads from Lyman off Hwy. 20.

The fish were small, 4-6 lbs., but MAN! talk about some hot little fish.

Skating flies put me and my two buddies into six fish in one hole, four for me! They were actually racing each other for the flies.

I never would have given up that spot to anyone, but thanks to the yahoos who were up there poaching salmon in the summer it's closed, so not a secret worth keeping anymore.

Talk about a serious bummer. You could hit six or seven holes, catch two or three native summer runs, a couple of kings, big kings, a few dollies, and even the occasional humpy on the odd years.

A great example of a few bad apples ruining the whole barrel for the rest of us.

Anyway, you can still hit a few of the nates at the cable hole, and I suppose up to Skookum Creek, where it's closed above, you may find a few holes with fish, though I haven't.

Fish on...

Todd.

That's ok Robbo, as I don't own a fly rod big enough for the 2nd run kings!

Also, I don't think Bob would let me on his boat if I showed up with a fly-rod in hand. Either that, or he'd drop me off with the bear someplace on the riverbank!

Almost a month away for the big trip! Gettin' excited!

I have fished a pair of lakes that are waaaaaay up high near that area. Near the snow shed at Silver Fir there is forest road 3065.(page 110 of the WA atlas & gazatteer)That road will take you up to Twin Lakes. There are two gin clear lakes that are nestled in a saddle between Winchester and Goat mountain. The lakes sit at about 4500 feet, so there may still be some snow. This is a 4WD road, unless they have improved it in the last 6 years, but bring your camera. The view down the valley is awesome.

Bring a very light fly rod,5 wt max. I fished floating black ants for brookies up to 12 inches. They were very agressive fish, so if you have kids this would be a great way to introduce them to fly fishing. They can see the fish quite clearly for sight casting and they can practice their hooksets. I would release all of the fish, and crimp the barbs.

Hope this helps. Sorry if I got anyone excited by mentioning "gin" and "goat".

At one time there was a fall silver fishery. Slayed 'em on homemade spinners.

Andy, former Bellinghamster.

Parker, you need to get on the lower Nutsack, I mean Nooksack, NOW!!! I drove over it today on my way to and fro' and it was dialed with that cup of coffee with three creamers color to it

Thanks, again for the tix, El Parquito. Just had to rib you about the Nooksack thing since you won't be around to piledrive the sturgies with me that weekend

Hey Todd,

Back to that upper South Fork. The first season after they closed it I fish the lower river HARD! I figured as good as it was up above it had to be ok below, WRONG. I floated it four or five times in different sections and I came to this conclusion. The best holding water during the summer is just above where it is legal to fish. There just isn't any really good deep slots for these fish to hold up until you get in to the canyons and of course now thats all closed. The key to fishing it now is to be there when they come through but since it's not like it's a huge run it will be a lot more of a hit or miss. During June and early July I use to consistently catch anywhere from five to twenty fish up there in a few hours. Talk about excellent fishing! I would hear about guys going up to Alaska and catching lots of fish and I would just smile cause I had as good or better fishing right here. I even had one day that I hooked eighteen summer runs within two hours and they were all about twelve to fourteen pounds! It was fabulous. The last year I fished it I saw the writting on the wall so we took a video camera in and shot the battles. I think we hooked somewhere around thirty fish that day. One of the best things about it was most of the time I was up there all alone. Boy do I miss that fishing!!!!!