Its been a long time since I've gone. I'm living out here in marysville, gut wondering if the skagit have a return? If so when? I was around eight when I went. I can't remember what river we went to. Thanks J.C.B

So far as I know (and I can't lay my hands on my favorite reference right now) there is no run of eulachon (Columbia River smelt) in the Skagit, Though they do occur in some of the major river systems farther north in British Columbia (Skeena, Nass). There are several other varieties of smelt in Puget Sound and along the coast, and most, if not all of them spawn on the saltwater beaches or in brackish water.

Ha, finally found my reference! Inland Fishes of Washington (Wydoski and Whitney, UW Press, 1979)lists the Nooksack as having a run of eulachon. They also list another anadromous smelt, the Longfin smelt (Spyrinchus thaleichthys), as being common from northern California to northern BC, including a landlocked population in Lake Washington. It's small size (3.5 to 5.0 inches) and the difficulty of locating large numbers of them have kept them from becoming a target of commercial or sport fishermen. It apparently spawns earlier than the eulachon, normally from October to December.