Ickstream Steel -
A couple of observations from the area in this discussion that would seem to support Todd's information.

In 1983 a 106 summer steelhead in mid-July were floy tagged at the trap and haul facility at Sunset Falls on the South Fork of the Skykomish. During the course of the summer with the exception of a single fish that re-entered the trap (apparently it went over the falls only to return to the trap). With the first significant fall rains (that year in early October) there were 16 "recaptures" of those tagged fish in a few days. Those recaptures were more or less equall split to being caught by anglers in front of Reiter and entering the creek/trap at Reiter.

During the summer and early fall it is common to see a fair number of summer steelhead in the upper reaches of the North Fork Skykomish. At the end of the summer the vast majority of the fish will be clipped hatchery fish. However with the beginning of the fall rains both the numbers and the % of clipped fish drop until by the first of November while there are fewer fish the vast majority of the fish are non-clipped fish - the hatchery fish left and the wild fish stayed.

Have seen similar behaviors in other North Puget Sound basins. In each case an upswing in fishing at hatchery terminal areas on fish that have obivously been in the river for some time immediately follows the apparent disappearance of those up river hatchery fish. In most years there also appears to be second movement of hatchery summer fish to hatchery terminal areas just prior to the onset of their spawning.

Tight lines
Curt