TC,

I don’t believe either Psych 101 or Pavlov’s dog are directly applicable here. Fish psychology is decidedly different than human psychology because fish have less brain, and what parts they do have in common with humans is still less developed than the human brain. The result is that to the extent that fish “think,” they think differently. While it’s reasonable to believe that fish don’t enjoy being hooked, they don’t experience it mentally the way you would, and consequently they don’t learn from it the way you would. Trout, and therefore probably steelhead, do become more selective after having been hooked several times. However, only a few steelhead are hooked more than once, altho individual steelhead have been identified as having been hooked and caught 3 times. (An exception might be the Thompson River, where the run size is often small over the past decade or so, fishing conditions optimal, and angling pressure quite intense.) I think the result is that steelhead don’t learn very much from being hooked because it doesn’t occur frequently enough for most of them. And to the extent they would learn from it, they would become more selective about biting bait and lures - that is what trout, for which there is more direct knowledge, are known to do. I see no evidence that steelhead would turn around and migrate back downstream to the middle Skagit River. The steelhead do not know that the Dalles bridge is the fishing boundary line. I suspect the observations made by your friends over the past couple months is the result of being observant, or coincidence. Skagit and Sauk steelhead have been holding in the middle river - often until after the April 30 closing date - for many years. They do so because it’s good holding water, but it is not where the preponderance of them will spawn. Yes, steelhead do spawn as far down as the bar below the Hwy 9 bridge, and very occasionally the Johnson bar near Burlington, but well over 80% of the steelhead run spawns upstream of the Dalles bridge. They probably always have and probably always will. That’s because that is where the best spawning habitat is, and importantly, the best early juvenile colonization habitat is. Biology and ecological necessity far outweigh the effects of steelhead fishing activity and the CNR fishing regulations in determining where and why steelhead spawn in the river system.

Another consideration about where the CNR fishery is located relates to the uncontrollable effect of the Miner’s Creek slide on the Baker River. If there is a flood year, the Baker will puke turbidity into the Skagit, causing fishing conditions downstream of the Baker to be marginal or worse much of the time. If a flood year and a middle river season coincided, then the fish would have no worries that year from anglers.

Regarding Sauk Bar, the major changes there occurred from the 1990 and then the 1995/96 floods. The quantity of good holding water has been less ever since, but it’s still one of the better pools on the river, just not the premier place it once was. I didn’t notice much change from the October 2003 flood, but I was only up there once this season.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.