Well I got a chance to fish the Snohomish today with a gracious host and another friend. We launched at Highbridge and fished a "zipperlip" below the 522 bridge...(hint hint)

I have read postings from Dave Vedder who wonders why the fish in the don't bite and I have read the endless debates over who is flossing and who is not.

Well we were fishing in a spot loaded with Coho. Secondly we were fishing in a tested manner what would require actual biters. We got skunked but had 6 chances to get a fish with all 6 coming unbuttoned early on. I did observe a couple of boats doing quite well and saw said boats back at the parking lot. The common thread amongst the successful anglers was a 7-8' leader and often times corkies and yarn. I watched carefully the techniques of the guys outfishing all of the other 6 boats in the same hole. They all had similar technique of occasionally jerking back on the rod and reeling fast.

Let the flaming begin....All you 50 fish a day guys must have found the only aggressive biters or maybe your techniques and gear were similar to the folks I saw doing the best catching...

A real fun day on a new stretch of water for me. I usually don't get skunked like that but it happens.

Oh and by the way....almost all the fish I saw were getting colored and some were quite dark. A "chromer" was nowhere to be seen.

How is the boating on that stretch of river?? A friend of mne wants me to take him there but I am a novice jet boater and am afraid.

Also, does one anchor or what??

Could someone please tell me whats so bad about flossing, its not like flossed fish are reeled in backwards. Sometimes it just works.

Down from the 522 as you approach Thomas Eddy it gets pretty hairy. There is an area with a lot of logs and shallow water that has my heart in my throat every time I run it. But that's about the only bad spot. Just have to proceed with caution and you'll be fine.

Sorry to hear you did not put one in the box. The technique you were watching is an Alaska technique for flossing. Just another form of snagging, but you can talk yourself into telling the world it was a biter. The leader length helps drastically, does not matter if it is a corkie or dick nite. The Dick Nite is the talk of the town because it is a spoon and all the rock wall fishermen can claim big numbers and call themselves the "expert" Dick Niters. Just the thought of 15 boats in a 4 boat hole keeps me from even going down there even though I can almost see the hole from my house and have "fished" it for 30 years. I just hope we get enough water to push them up river and some peace in their last weeks.
I cannot imagine how many fish have been taken out of that hole without regard to the fish or the sport.
I have heard the fish cops have been watching that hole.

With a little practice, the act of flossing is a perfectly legal and responsible way to fish. You drift just like you would for anything else and with the right angle of the bedangle, ones' hook might just place itself right in the fishes mouth. Then a "jerk" is perfectly legal. If it's a single hook, who the frig cares if the fish hit it or if the hook hit the fish. If it's happens to be sunk anywhere other than the mouth, kindly release it. Otherwise enjoy the ensuing battle. Silvers are perplexing in the snohomish system. If a non-traditional method needs to be employed, so be it.

O sheeet,here we go again!!!

No one said it was not legal. But fishing is about outsmarting the fish and getting them to bite or attack. It just seems that the "new young" additude is "does not matter how" just bonk a bunch. Not the way I was raised to respect the sport.

this will probably ruffle some feathers but here goes. what if there was a maximum leader length? would that stop the flossing debate? nah people would just say your useing wrong something else!!

I dont see any harm in flossing, no the fish dont bite it but it still take plenty of skill to do it right. My thinking is that flossing is not snagging because it hooks them inthe mouth. Any other oppinions?

Barnettm, most people anchor or beach their boat on the Snohomish. A few people troll some sections, but I've almost never seen anyone boondog or pull plugs.

It may or may not be obvious, but the river hazards change a lot based on flow. Right now, it is almost 9000 cfs or about 4 ft on the gage height. That extra 2 ft from a flow of 3000 cfs is a huge difference. Needless to say, if the flow is down aroud 1000 it is basically 0 on the gage or 4 ft less deep! If you stay on step, it is not impossible, but harder to hang up at the higher flows. You still have to know when you can come off step.

Finally, you might want to consider hiring a guide to give you some pointers when you want to learn a new river. I'm sure Three Rivers can hook you up in that respect, and may be worth the piece of mind.

Yes, I get sick of purists.......You bet I can give a damn about flossing, and would become quite upset if someone were to give me ANY crap on the river. To be quite honest I could care less if people pulled them in by their ass........They would be OFF THE RIVER faster. I run a 18-24 inch leader, and release all foul hooked fish, but I think it should be a choice, not a law.

I am a primitive archer, and like challenge. Would this give me the right to call a modern rifle hunter with a scope a ........flosser of deer???? Deer/salmon dead is dead.

Oh, to you citizen game wardens......Please call the game department when you see a offense, as your loud mouth really ruins my day of the river!!! Confrontation on the river is NOT your place, and a simple recording of licences on a vehicle will HOPEFULLY get the same response, and not ruin a peacefull weekend......thanks!

Chumster

thanks for the info, fellas.

Flossing or tribal netting, you pick!

Regardless of what folks think is a "choice" or not...

The law allows for keeping a fish that is hooked from the gill plates forward.

My personal opinion is that this is a stupid law that encourages snagging, but that is what the law is at present.

That being said...

The law also says that "snagging" is illegal, and defines "snagging" as intentionally hooking, or attempting to hook, a fish without the fish "voluntarily" taking the hook into its mouth...this is in addition to attempting to hook a fish somewhere other than the mouth.

Whether you think it ought to be a "choice" or not is irrelevant...intentionally trying to take a fish by hooking it in the mouth, or anywhere else, without the fish voluntarily taking the hook into its mouth, is snagging.

Is it difficult, perhaps even impossible, to enforce the anti-snagging rules against a flosser?

Yes, it is difficult, or even impossible.

Does this make it right?

Of course not.

Intentionally flossing is illegal...it's not that way everywhere, i.e., in B.C. it is legal and culturally acceptable to floss fish.

This isn't to say that flossing doesn't have its own aspects of art or difficulty...clearly some are much better at it than others, without hooking fish in the ass repeatedly.

However, in Washington, it is, by definition, against the law.

If it's that important for you to catch a fish that you must employ snagging (which flossing is, by definition in Washington), then I think you ought to think really hard about why you are out fishing.

Fish on...

Todd

IN BC , especially on the Fraser River, there are alot 12' rods....not for the sport so much but because using them allows an angler to use a 12' leader which is what they do.

Yesterday we tried all the traditional methods for Silvers that I know are successful in most rivers where the Coho actually attack the lure and "bite" it or whether the leader swept into their mouths as it swept past. . I did notice by watching others and doing it myself , that the "bite" usually happened early in the drift. Right after the dropper weight hit the bottom and started to hop over the rocks. I suspect that is when the leader sweeps by the weight on the way to being totally downstream. With those 7-8' leaders the time is lengthened and the sweep is bigger allowing a better chance of a "hook up".

We had no luck with plugs either at anchor or boondogging even in the hole with so many fish in it you could walk across them. We didn't try what I heard worked on the Snohomish and that was corkie and yarn (most likely with a long leader). We did have our only luck on Dick Nites and I cannot testify whether they attacked them or not. When hooked they shot out of the water and put on a show. I suppose using those tiny trout hooks had something to do with losing all of the ones we hooked.

The only thing I know for sure is that the guys boating most of the fish were using really long leaders and were jerking alot and reeling fast. I would say they cast and let the weight hit the bottom and then jerked and if they had nothing they would immediately reel in fast and do the proceedure over again. Whatever you want to call it that was the winning formula yesterday.

Wrong! Yes there are lots of long rods in B.C. and yes there are lots of flossers, but you have jumped to another erroneous conclusion. Long rods were and are very popular because the vast majority of B.C. rivers and salmon anglers use floats which dictate long rods.

I have fished in B.C. extensively for more than 20 years and can tell you that overall their river etiquette and ethics are excellent. In recent years, especially since sockeye were open for retention, snagging/flossing has increased and a horde of “new” anglers has come on the scene. Many B.C. anglers who consider flossing sockeye acceptable would never dream of doing it for coho or chinook. T Many consider the sockeye as a food fish and believe that any from of harvest is acceptable for food fish.

But they use long rods because that's what the stores carry and that's what the need to fish floats when they are fishing for other fish with floats.

grandpa - Here's just my personal experience from that River.

Early on in September, when the coho are first coming in, they will readily bite Wiggle Warts and Dick Nites. They are all chromer fish, and very aggressive.

Now, that being said, starting about October, those silly fish get some serious lock jaw. They darken up pretty quickly and are hard to get to bite. You can still get them to take a wrapped K-15 in the Sky later in October. Once the Snoho get's a big push of water and the fish all move up in to the Sky, they will bite again on the dropping river, but once the river cleans and clears up, they get lock jaw.

You can have big numbers on the Snoho, but it usually is early on with aggressive fish. By now, there usually is a big push of water and all the coho are up river in the Sky. If the fish are in the Snoho now, I bet they'd have some serious lock jaw.

Flossing =meat fishermen. Could'nt sleep at night if I did. The Duck