C/22,

Here's a little info about sockeye...though there are others here who can tell you lots more than me...

Sockeye rarely thrive in rivers without lakes or significant beaver ponds in their system. This means places like the Quinault, Cedar River, Baker River, Lk. Wenatchee, and Lake Osooyoos have the more famous runs in Washington. While those systems all have lakes, there's a pretty good run in the Sol Duc, too, but I believe the juveniles rear in beaver ponds in the upper watershed. The sockeye in the Fraser River use various lakes in the Fraser River watershed, like Harrison Lake.

The reason that they generally need lakes in the system is that sockeye young do best if they have a lake they can migrate down to and rear in for a year or more before heading out to the salt.

That being said, I've caught sockeye in the Nooksack, Green, Sauk, Toutle, and Skykomish Rivers, too.

Supposedly they don't hit well in rivers, but I've caught them on pretty much everything at some point, with spinners or shrimp seeming to be the most productive. When they've opened the Baker River for sockeye I've caught them on modified Lk. Washington rigs, i.e., a brass Stee-Lee spoon with no hook and a twelve inch leader with a bare red 1/0 Gamakatsu hook behind it.

Hmmm....what else? They're pretty darn tasty, and fight pretty well, when fresh, for their size. They like to jump, and I've seen them in Lk. Washington clear the water and take a dodger and cannon ball out of the water with them. Pretty good for a fish that runs three to seven pounds.

Hopefully you'll get more from some others...

Fish on...

Todd.