The wimpy rain the rivers got this weekend moved a bunch of thise kegged-up fish we were hearing about in the bay, to include a bunch of chums. I got one nice hooknose coho buck down low on the Wynoochee Sunday, but upstream was a chum show, and nobody was biting. Same story today on another local trib. One blushy coho and a gold-hued chinook just after daybreak, then absolutely nothing, despite a good mix of kings, coho, and chums around.

The rain later this week will move everything that hasn't moved yet from the early component of the run, and looking at that net schedule, that may be the last hurrah for a while. Maybe we'll get a monster blowout that forces even the nets out. One can hope.

It's been an interesting season so far. I've lived and fished 'round here for about 27 years, and this is, by far, the longest I have seen the Chehalis tribs so low for so long. Any hint of rain has moved fish, and if you were lucky enough to be out when that happened, you did well. The tidal fishery was pretty good to me in September, but it's been tough since then. After that first bunch moved on the late September "rain," there just didn't seem to be enough water to keep a steady movement going.

For sure, fish have made it upstream. I tried to go cutthroat fishing on the East Fork Satsop the other day, and the water was red with salmon in any spot with a bit of depth, so I decided I shouldn't fish. Certainly no worries about re-seeding the hatchery or the gravel, and there's a fair amount of future pet food up there to boot. Only question is what will be left for us to fish for after the net slaughter has taken its course.