Smalma, The fish that you are refering to caught on the fly the last day of the season were definately not fished for or caught off of spawning water and were caught in more fast moving traditional holding type water as Nailknot could attest to. Both males had not yet spawned, although one was indeed milting.
( I would not ever purposely fish on or target spawning fish and can distinguish spawning water from holding or traveling water )

Lunchtime, didn't mean to stew about things I know I cannot personally change, ( try not to be negative about things) just a sore spot with me; and I wasn't pin pointing the Swift Creek Drift or pitting fly vs.. gear, said the "area" meaning actually the area from Swift Creek down to Rockport where redds are far more visible than in the Swift Creek Drift. (especially the dewatered ones)

Run timing was also pretty screwed up this year on our wild fish, (pretty much all our runs)
They came, but in their own due time,..seems to be getting a little later each year.

We traditionaly see our first push of upper Skagit system Natives in late January & the first few weeks of February,...then it goes dead for a few weeks. These fish are upper trib fish. This year they just didn't materialize till' a bit later, either that or they screamed right by us and we didn't see em'. Generally they are the bigger fish. This year, a good sign perhaps, over 80% of the fish caught were in the 6-10 pound range, another 10 + % 10 to 12 pound range.

And I also personally agree with Nailknot on the upper Skagit above Marblemount going to no bait & barbs, right along with the upper Sauk above Darrington starting in Feb. ( BUT THEN AGAIN,.. how much more govt. control in our lives do we really need?!?! How's about educating the masses first on the fragility of somthing we take so precious, and after that letting us make our own decisions on how we live our lives. Hopefully integrity will win over!!)
:rolleyes: Aw man,...there I went and did it,..starting to jones already. Only 3 more weeks till AK, only 3 more weeks till AK

My 2 cents!!