Nice job, Homey! You got a couple good
runs and a headshake outta this one.

OP my a$$.

Looking at that run makes me want to "mix" a drink.

posted by Todd:
posted by DoubleHaul:
Looks like DoubleHaul and I are both "in the mix" for a prize!

Fish on...

Todd

I was going to say, if that's an OP river I need a drag on whatever your smokin'.

"Just like OP wannabes (Seattleites) thinking they know the OP!"

Also know as metrosexuals :p

Can someone please explain where the mixer is? So far I've been told it's:
a. The mouth of the Sauk.
b. A hole below the mouth where the dirty Sauk water gets mixed with the usually clearer Skagit water.
c. Tricky to float through at times.

They can't all be true. I've floated to Faber's a few times and never saw any water that was tricky. Where is it?

H2H has described it correctly. A lot of fly guys have called Sauk Bar the Mixer for years, but the bar is upstream of the Mixer. If you see the Mixer when the Sauk is running dirty and the Skagit is clear, it's pretty obvious how it came by the name.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Thanks. I guess it is both the mouth of the Sauk (old channel) and below the mouth (new channel).

That old channel running into the Skagit just above the Mixer is McCloud Slough.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

I think that from where the picture is taken, if you took a big leap off that cliff, you'd roll ass over teakettle all the way to the river and end up in the Mixer, which is directly below the photographer.

The last time I fished that area out of a drift boat, there were about fifteen flyflingers on the fly bar, mainly smoking cigars and drinking, watching each other cast.

We hooked up a single, followed by a double, against the cut bank on the opposite side...you've never seen a crowd of flyfishers with two handers run and stumble across the rocks as fast as they all did! For a minute or two, it looked like Blue Creek, but for flyfishermen!

After a few minutes they got their wits back about them and settled back down to a more sedate flyfishing pace.

I've never hooked up in the actual "Mixer" itself, though I always hear stories of monsters coming out of there. If there is anywhere in the area that would hold 30# steelhead, that would be the spot.

Damn near need a downrigger to get down to them, though!

Any more pics, Homer?

Fish on...

Todd

Todd,

Sauk Bar (fly bar) has a lot less prime steelhead holding water than it did prior to the 1990 flood. And it changed again after the 95/96 floods. It's still a pretty good spot, but nothing like the days when it could kick out double digit hookups. I've found the left bank to fish pretty good since the mid to late 90s, when I can safely wade and cast from that bank. Definitely a two-handed spot, tho.

The Mixer can and does produce fish, but not from the deep hole at the top. A friend of mine hooked one on a fly from the right bank years ago when there was just a bit of a riffle formed there, but over the years that has been low percentage water. The better bet has been among the bolders and pockets toward the lower end along the left bank. I never hooked any there, but boon doggers have caught many.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Hey Todd,

How come I get the feeling you are embellishing your story a might? here.

Kerry,

You just keep telling yourself that...after all, it's not about catching, just the experience, right?

Salmo,

I've caught fish in the tailout in the boulders...makes for great spoon water if someone doesn't mind rowing to keep you in place for a while. The stories I hear are of dredging them out of the head of the pool...not the easiest place to fish.

Fish on...

Todd

Todd,

Yeah it is about the experience but I don't think I would be stumbling all over myself to see someone else's experience. The Sauk bar is over rated. Hell the Skagit is over rated. Everyone knows those fly guys never catch fish. Makes me wonder why we even bother.

I love pullin' 'em right off the side of them sleds and drift boats. You should see their eyes when they realize a fly chucker just took a fish off the port side right under their nose.

I think that hole is pretty "level dependent"...when the water is up a bit, not only is it hard to fish the cut bank (damn near impossible), all the fish are sitting off the fly bar anyway.

When the water's down a bit, it's the other way around.

I agree with you, however, that there are no more steelhead in the Sauk or Skagit, and that the flyflingers didn't catch any even when the fish were still there.

We'd all be better off just to fish there every other summer for humpies!



Fish on...

Todd

Todd,

I have been telling people that for years. The only fish worth going after in the Skagit are humpies or chummies.

Those humpies are a blast on a fly rod!