This is no way a "dis" against Beezer or the group sponsoring the chum derby on the Sky this weekend. I know this organization, as well as the proceeds from the derby, are definately for fish enhancement. This is not a blood-thirsty club of "sportsmen".

Although most guys have no or little respect for the chummers, I love them because they show up in good numbers and actually bite, a rarity for Snohomish system salmon. I have probably kept 2 in the past 8 years. Them and the pinks are my favorite by far, I could give a crap about bringing a river salmon home.

I'm wondering if it may have been better to wait a little later in the season for such a derby, so as to ascertain the size of the run. The amount of fish the river right now is pretty scary compared to most years.

I have bad feelings about this years run. The majority of the fish in the river right now came up two weeks ago in the high water. We should be catching double digit numbers of bright fish daily by now - not the case this year. We did good two weeks ago, but it has slowed way down....couple of dark fish per day at best. Some small groups of fish travelling through periodically, but way slower than normal year. Yes, they may be coming in huge numbers because it is still early.

Unlike the silvers though, these guys are not bashful about coming up in the 5 foot water level. They do not stack up below 522 bridge and wait for a rain. Their clock is ticking, they move upriver and get the job done fast.

Remember the three 100 year floods the Sky experienced between 1990-1996? What fish (spawning beds)takes the brunt of these floods that invariably happen the last week in November? What happens three years later (I think they are 3 year fish) when their meager run of offspring come back and everybody (commercial, tribal, sport)harvests them just like they do in normal runs? What happens three years later when the adults return from that year?

Although the brilliant and talented Dept. of F&W shuts down Sky coho and odd-year humpies in a heartbeat due to their "estimated" run size, they wouldn't shut down Sky chums if only 1,000 made it back. Please keep this in mind when you bank/boat that 15 pound hen.

I know, I'm a worrywart.

TK