I just posted this question to http://www.washingtonflyfishing.com as well--those of you not familiar with that site may want to check it out.

On to the question. I'm a newbie and have only caught one Dolly, and that was by accident on the Nooksack (illegal to target them there anyway). I'd like to target them on the Skagit, and would like to know if any of you experienced folks have input as to which time of day is best, if any (remember, I'm a newbie, so if this is a stupid question, sorry ).

I've asked 3 people and received 3 different answers, so I'm looking for more of a consensus. The answers I've gotten are: 1) early morning only, 2) evening, and 3) anytime--dollies are "madmen" and will feed anytime on anything.

Help narrowing this down is much appreciated!

First....

...let's get out of the way the conversation as to what these fish should be called....

...they're Bull Trout.

Second....throw hardware anywhere a bully can see it and it will slam it, morning, noon or night.

search the archives for "dolly varden" and you'll see what I mean about the name. What we've always been told these fish are is not what these fish are.

Zambi:

I agree with StlhdH20, they will whack hardware with reckless abandon...

That said, if you want to chase some on the Skagit, keep in mind the min. retention size is 20". I tried to eat one last fall...tastes like dog food..so best thing is to release them all gently (no matter the size), IMHO.

The ones I've been seeing in the Skagit lately are smaller fish than I saw last fall/winter, most in the 12"-14" category. I don't target them (hence, I won't be fishing till late Sept. when the Coho start to come in), and if I catch a few incidentally while chasing steelhead or Coho then they just get released.

They do give a good battle for a few min., and would be fun on a bug rod.

Mike

Thanks guys!

Though I do like to eat fish, I am planning on releasing them regardless of size.

I don't fish the Skagit at all, but on the Hoh, the bull trout seem to also hammer hardware with reckless abandon. I fish during the day and do not see why they wouldn't strike just as readily in low light conditions. Water conditions do not seem to deter them from striking, even if there is a lot of glacial runoff. They will hit surprisingly "large" spoons and spinners. As for flies, i'd probably use something that had some flashabou, silver tinsel, beadhead, eyes, etc.

Quite some time ago I worked on a commercial fishing vessel out of Alaska.The boat was I will guess built around the 1920-1930's so the head was not up to todays standards, it basically was a toilet with a bowl shaped like a funnel with plumbing going down and out the side of the hull. To flush it you dumped a bucket of water in it and away goes the waste into the waters of where ever you happen to be, which at the time I'm referring to happen to be right in front of a large school of dolly varden/bull trout so I will have to agree with #3 dollies/bull trout are madmen they will feed on anything anytime!! I saw it plain as day with my own two eyes. As for anybody wanting to eat one I never have but I'm sure they taste like shiat. I apologize if anyone is in the middle of dinner or has a weak stomach but I had to tell the story and it is 100% true. For those of you thinking about a new super bait or scents after reading this forget it I don't remember what we had for dinner the previous night.

That may have something to do with them feeding on rotten humpy and chum carcasses. My dad has always told me they taste nasty, so I've never kept one.
Dollies will smack anything that will fit in their mouth. Sometimes they'll hit things that won't fit in their mouth too. I've caught the most on pink worms, followed by spoons and dark woolley buggers.

Wooly bugger, marabou and bunny leeches, muddler minnows, zonkers, and large smolt patterns. Fish these off a sink-tip line, type III or IV depending on the water. Try dead drifting, striping, and swinging.

Oh, and glad to hear that you are releasing them. All bull trout/dollies should be released regardless of what some people think. They really don't eat that many salmon smolts (studies have shown that large coho smolts eat more salmon smolts). Large populations of these fish mean that the river is "healthy" and able to support many large fish. Also they grow real slowly and have low spawning rates.

Wow, you guys are great--thanks to all!

Now I need to figure out how to make an oblong brown jig I suppose I could try to tie some of the real thing onto a hook (gives new meaning to the term "wooly bugger")...

Seriously, though--thanks again, everyone.

Zambi

The first Dolly I ever caught was on the upper Quinault River. I had just hooked an 7" cutt when the 26" Dolly came up and swallowed it. They are definitely voracious eaters! I've had them try this more than once!

Umm',..fishjunky,.. ya need to get yer facts straight on the Dollie / Bull-Trout not eating the smolt thing. Maybe the study you read was for somewhere else, but as far as the Skagit System goes they are "smolt eatin' fools!!" For a prime example you can witness first hand of what I'm saying; try goin up to the Cascade River when they're releasing smolt. Then tell us what you saw. They're like those raptors in Jurassic Park...hungry and smart hunters.

I've caught and released 100's of these hard fightin' char and I can tell ya they can certainly turn a mediocre day of fishing into a great one rather quickly.

-For Fall through Winter fishing; try eggs for gear guys, egg patterns or flesh flies for the fly guys.
-From Spring through Summer they are indeed keying in on fry and smolt and even white-fish (had one last year burp up a 4-5 inch whitey on me after hitting my spoon) Gear guys try spoons or spinners. Fly guys try smolt & streamer patterns.

Gettin near spawning time for them now on the Skagit System and they do move up into the upper stretches of the system,..thats where you'll find the largest concentration of them.

Howdy John!

Welcome back to the lower 48...hope you had a great season up north.

Mike

Last March, I swam the Skagit, (in a drysuit) from just downriver of marblemount of past the bridge at the steelhead park. There were a ton of dollies in that river. I only saw one steelhead, but an absolute ton of dollies.

FishingKing –
Often hear that there are not many large “Dollies” in the Skagit any more. I was wondering what kind of size range of fish you saw and whether many were say over 5# or 24” or larger? Suspect that there may be more “large” fish than many folks think.

Thanks
S malma

Went up to the skagit yesterday and had a pretty decent day. Caught roughly 15 to 16 dollies the biggest I would say would be 26 inches on down. Not bad throwing a blue fox spinner that is all used. Hooked into a chinook up there. Pretty ugly looking thing really really dark fought great though. Anybody hooking into any steelies up there caught a few steelhead smolt but if you are just looking to have fun catching fish then that is the place to go. Dollies do taste like dog poo that definatly is not a rumor I can vouch for that yuck but surely the dollies will hit anything and are great fighting fish when you can get them in larger sizes I thought I hooked onto a steelhead when I got my larger dollie.