Gee I finally get a day on the river and when I check in I find all kinds of things have broken loose.

Salmo has it pretty much correct. The char populations in the North Puget Sound region have increased substantially since 1990 (when the size limit was raised to 20 inches and bag limit reduced to 2). Spawning redds counts on the South Fork Sauk (Skagit system) jumped from less than 10 per year pre-regulation to the 150 -200 range the last couple years. On the North Fork Sky counts jumped from the 40 to 50 range to more than 300 last year and 500 this year.

Not only are there more fish there are more larger ones. The truly large fish are often 8 to 12 years old. With the continued increasing escapements we can expect to see even more large fish over the next decade.

In Western Washington both Dolly Varden and bull trout are found. While it is generally true that bull true aren't anadromous and Dolly Varden are the exact opposite appears to be the case here. The Dolly Varden are found only in head water streams and never get very large (generally less than 10") - The fish above Sol Duc Falls would be an example. The vast majority of our char appear to be bull trout including the anadromous fish. For example geentic informtion from a tagged fish that was recoveried in Puget Sound clear showed the fish was a bull trout. These animals are quite complex and resist our efforts to put them in nice neat "boxes".

My experience with "Dollies" (they will always be Dollies when I have my fly rod in hand) is that they are an excellent game fish. When caught with appriopate size gear (I generally use 4 or 5 weight fly rods) they can be a handful. I have caught both sea-run cutthroat and "Dollies" side by side many times. I would say that a 14 inch char would be a match for a 16 to 18 inch cutthroat. "Dollies" typically aren't the jumpers or runners that steelhead are though I have some jump as many a 5 times and others run as far as 80 yards into my backing. The fish caught in early winter aren't the best fighters as they have just finished spawning and haven't full recoveried

I'm clearly bias when it comes to our native char as I consider them to be the most complex and interesting of all our salmonids and hands down my favorite fish.

Tight lines
Smalma