I've heard a few reports those fish that swim up the puyallup from commencement bay have already showed up in the carbon river near orting. Is this true? and where do I go to get into some action? I've heard they are stacking thick in the river there. I might have to take a look. Does anyone know whats up down there? know of directions or hotspots on where to fish the carbon? let me know....thanks!

I was @ the Carbon River yesterday and saw only two very dark fish being caught, both were released. It has been pretty slow in the mornings. Can you do me a favor and any one who goes up there take a trash bag and pick some of the garbage up. I only had a small grocery bag but managed to fill it up in less then ten minutes. Good Luck

Aerofly, Thanks for the reminder about carrying a trash bag. If we all took just a small plastic grocery bag every trip it would soon start showing up in cleaner places to fish. That would be doing us all a favor! Every little bit helps!

I was there yesterday from 4:00pm till 6:30pm. I had one brief hook up (probably on the back) but nothing else. Saw only 4 other hook ups. All the fish I've seen here are dark. A buddy says he pulled to nice fish out Sunday. It doesn't seem to me to be that productive right now. That could change at any moment.

I was there Saturday just long enough to walk from the Grange back into the center of town and count at least 300 people lining the banks. Say two fish lost while on my little walk. Too many in the crowd for me.

Fished down below lastnight, nothing going on,, will be checking the river everynight,, They'll show up...

Fished down below lastnight, nothing going on,, will be checking the river everynight,, They'll show up...

Head down lower lots of silvers and very little pressure.

Timber,,,, Lower on the carbon? down by the tree farm? Ive been fishing down by river road,,, This is my first yr fishing this river,,, Appreciate your help..
http://www.nwfishing.net

Steelheaddue,
If you are fishing around River Road then you are fishing the Puyallup, not the Carbon.
The carbon and the Puyallup come together upriver off the old hyway into Orting. There are 2 Christmas tree farms, one on either side of the river. Very easy walking from the bridge down to the mouth. Parking up river can be a bit of a problem at times. Seems to be less access every year.


------------------
elmtree (woody)

LOL,,, No, im fishing in orting,,, little road that dead ends,, its called river road.. Im not quite that far gone, YET! anyway, so your fishing close to the mouth then huh? ya going today?

Fish where the carbon and puyallup come together.Fish the shallow fast water for silvers.I havent hooked but 2 kings in the last few days but silvers are a different story they are in think.Try eggs or orange combos of any kind.TM

Thanks for the info so far. I fish all over the place, probably drove by and blinked missing the whole town of Orting...lol What type of set-up are people hitting the silvers on? Can sleds be dropped in?

"Sleds" you must be joking. The carbon is not much more that a large creek. Managed to get 2 nice king hens over the weekend in town. Did not see much being caught.
Sharp hooks.
Rivernut

FISHED FOR A COUPLE HOURS LAST NIGHT BUT KNEW IT WAS MOSTLY A WASTE OF TIME, RIVER TURNED TO MUD DUE TO RAINS. SHOULD BE OUT FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS. LEFT AT 745 PM, PAST NUMEROUS PEOPLE HEADING IN TO "NIGHT FISH!!!" WITH VISIBILITY SO POOR, IT WOULD ONLY BE SNAGGING. AFTER ALL THE OPENING DAY FISH GOT CAUGHT(SNAGGED) OUT, FISHING HAS BEEN SOMEWHAT POOR ON THE CARBON COMPARED TO LAST YEAR. REGARDS DH

Can anyone help me with explicit directions to good fishing on the carbon river? I would coming from Seattle.

I am new to the sport so would appreciate any advice....I already know to pickup my own trash and bring an extra trash bag for "leftover" trash.

Thanks,
S

Spent the morning down on the carbon. No action in the first 3 hours so I got out my garbage sack and picked up some trash. I filled a whole hefty steel sack in about 15 minutes. Shame on you slobs (if the shoe doesn't fit.....). I was getting ready to leave when I noticed the folks up in the zoo where getting some good action so I went up to the mouth and checked it out. While I was there I hooked into 4 different fish. All were nice bright fresh fish brought in by the rising water. One fish was broken off for me when some jerk decided to take his two and leave by wading across the slot right through my line. He even looked right at me fighting the fish before stepping out into my line. I lost two other fish all on my own and bonked a very nice hen of about 28 pounds. A special thanks to the three nice young men who agreed to carry out the garbage I collected earlier in the day. All in all this was one of the better days on this river up until the water got too chunky to fish. Fish cops were on hand today also.One of these officers told me that he will recomend the river be closed to all fishing between the end of steelheading on March 31 and the opening of salmon on September 1. I think this would be a very good thing as there hasn't been a sumer run steelhead in this river for at least 25 years.
Any thoughts???????
grumpy

[This message has been edited by grumpyr (edited 09-10-2000).]

Why close it?Leave it open for some good C&R before the zoo starts.my 2 cents...b-bouncer

b-bounce,

I think the problem is that "good C&R on the Carbon" is an oxymoron.

Hey, Ted, you know that 4/0 trebles are legal in that area for dillweeds that wade through line? They fight better when they're hooked in the head, or so I've heard.

Fish on........

I would think that most folks would C&R in the right manner so it can stay open.But then again there is a few morons that wouldn't.From what I seen this year everyone seem to do a good job of C&R.Besides what difference would it make look at the carbon now it is a zoo.A guy cant even find a place to park.Most folks that would fish it before you could keep any would more then likely be fishermen that would do a good job of C&R....

Finally got down to fish the carbon for the 1st time today. Parked and walked in by the grange.( nice long walk ) Talked with a local as he walked in and he kinda gave me a few tips on where to go. We got down to the river and it was chocolate milk. The local guy looked disappointed. He was saying that the river is up alot higher then it was the day before when he said alot of fish were caught.

Anyways we walked about 1/4 mile downriver and waded across to the other side and headed up toward the bridge. From what the local was saying your not supposed to be fishing under or around the bridge.( of course there was about 5 guys down in there )
So we stayed clear of the bridge.

We watched one guy hit a small silver. He keeped it...it was REALLY small. Up by the bridge there was a kid with a big afro. He snagged a small king, maybe 7 lbs, very dark and keeped it. Shame on him!

I'de say there was about 40-50 folks down in there during the afternoon. Me and my partner fished the entire drift all the way back down to where we walked across.

I ended up hooking a nice slab down by where the trail splits off and there is a bench sitting there. After that me and my partner headed down to the tail out where I hooked another. That was all the fish we saw today.

The locals all said it would be alot better if the river was down some more.

I got one tip for the locals. If your fishing in a spot for a long time and nothing is happening. Move on!

Your alot more likely to hit a fish if you cover water. People were looking at me and my partner like "What the heck are they doing???" We were simply making 3 or 4 cast, moving downstream a few feet and doing it again. This way we cover alot more water. I don't know about anyone else, I usually fish from a sled and I can't stand sitting in one spot. I have to cover water, especially fishing somewhere where I've never been.

Thumbs up on the locals! They were very friendly.

Hey Dan,
if you want to see something cool, just hook one of those dillweeds in the as* and watch him peel upstream. YEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAW what a ride.
8 Footer, I know what you mean about covering more water. When this river is low the fish seem to stack up just below the rapids but when the level comes up a little they start to shoot up to the hatchery. That's when you will have your best luck moving around a little. I think you can walk all the way from the mouth of Voights creek down to the mouth of the Carbon if you were so inclined, I know I've fished an awfull lot of this river that way. But when the Kings stack up and the fishermen are shoulder to shoulder, you'll have a hard time
convincing me it's time to take a stroll.
Any way, good to see you met up with some of hte good ones. I'll be back down there on Saturday as long as the river isn't to chunky to fish.
Ted

River was pretty high and dirty on monday according to the locals. I'm not used to calling 2-3 ft high. It was chocolate soup, I wouldnt normally fish that, eh, I drove all that way, might as well. but from what I hear, its the norm there. I figured where all the honey holes are. Its where the locals accumulate...hehe.

Some of them folks were stunned when they saw me catch a fish where they said there normally there isnt any water.

Anyone been down on the carbon this week? I was up on the Samish, not much going on there.

Went down for a few hours on sunday. The flow was still up a bit with good (lots) color. saw around 2 dozen kings landed. I personnaly would have bonked only about 2 of these. These were definetly fish you wouldn't lay on the bar for fear of losing track of them. Oh well, at least they're easy to butcher, one good shake and out pops the bones.
On a sadder note. We, (Snow White and I) lost her father to cancer monday evening.
Probably won't be getting out much this weekend so good luck to you all.
GRUMPYR

Sorry to hear of your loss Grumpyr!!!TM

Sorry to hear about the cancer! My sympathy goes out to ya! My father-n-law passed away from it, and I just recently had a scare myself.

sorry for you're lost our prayers are with you and you're family

------------------
Row Quietly and fish a Cataraft }<<(('>----<'))>>{
Release all Wild Fish

Sorry for your loss. STRIKE ZONE