Smalma

As to the number of fisherman on the river targeting chums this year, the number is down dramtically. The number did peak a few years ago and many people were braving the bad weather at this time of year because you could actually catch fish, even if you weren't very good at it. I see very few boats on the water this year and I try to talk with every one of them that passes my place. Only a few have caught chums, until recently (this week) more coho were being landed than chums, now it's no fish, or very few. Typically the people fishing this year are the more experianced hard core types, that for the most part know how to catch chums. The plunkers on the Snohomish never even had much luck, if you check out the areas on the Snohomish where normally the banks are packed with people, there are no fisherman and no fish rolling. I expected that after some of the recent high water there would be an influx of new chums and things would get back to a somewhat normal number of fish, but I saw no new fish enter the system.