Holy smokes, some of the tailouts on the Sky are PAVED with pinks.

Not that I could catch one. Sheesh, I spent more time untangling my braided line and watching Crabin Fever release fish than I did fishing. Had one on that tried to toss my dicknite and pencil lead into my eye but other than that and a couple of taps, zilch.

Great day on the river regardless. At least my "client" had some success. Here's Steve scoping out another humpy dorsal fin to snag:




Just kidding. Steve schooled me, so I'm getting in my digs now while he can't reach me.

Hey SW
Let me tell ya it was great to be the "client " for a change, drifting down a nice quite river. My "guide" putting me in some nice holes and best of all, pretending like he is untangling his reel the whole time just to give his "client " first crack at the fish. More days like that and I'll have to trade in the Wellcraft and downriggers for a set of oars!...Wait a minute...I should have both ...honey, where is the checkbook?

Thanks for the great day!

Looks like the river level fell nicely after the rains.

I had similar luck on the Snohomish. Now, I don't feel so bad. It was both cool and frustrating to watch the pinks flying upstream, 7-8 wide with lockjaw!

We had a couple on, but didn't land them. On the hand, the only boats near us that caught fish had kids in the boat. Maybe that was our problem.

On another note, I did have one accomplishment on Saturday. I pulled one heck of a wad of fishing line off the bottom and disposed of it in my garbage bag. Then, on Sunday, I helped a person with a clogged pump to the bank. One of his passengers was holding onto a snag. Shouldn't these two accomplishments help my fishing Karma?

If not, maybe a little rain will help.

Goldfish the Sky really never got very high...2000cfm was about max., and about twice what it was on Sunday. We could have used another 4" of water in a couple places. Luckily my passenger had his boots on...it gave him an opportunity to get out and stretch.

Skywalker,

Pinks that high up in the river are stale and are usually tight-lipped. We found plenty of fresh biters down in the Snohomish on Saturday. If you have weekdays open, I'd launch your drifter at Maple st. and row up to just above the Pilchuck, or down to the pilings just below the Hwy. 9 bridge.

p.s. in a week or two that hole in your photo will be filled with silver. Unfortunately you may experience the same lot's 'o fish/no biters syndrome.

Yeah, 4salt, I'm waiting for 'em. What I'd really like to do is drift Ben Howard to Tualco where they're not quite so tight lipped, but that Tualco take out....nothing doing. No way I'm getting back up and over that 4 foot bank of sand.

Maybe I should just bite the bullet and pick up a 4hp for the boat so that Snohomish stretch is doable during any tide.

To answer the original question of where are they going. I was surprised to find pinks waaay up in The Beckler, The Tye and The Foss. I know they are supposedly lower river spawners,but I see some every fall when I'm up on those rivers.