What a mess this last flood has left!

Went out on Wed. and checked the ramps from Hamilton to Marblemount. Lots of new snags in the river; old holes filled in, new ones yet to be found.

Hamilton Ramp: Filled in quite a bit. Ramp itself has 6"-8" of silt that settled on it, and it remains shallow off the end of the ramp for ? feet. OK for 2WD's dropping in drift boats, because you can dump your boat a few feet from the water and shove it down the (now) steep drop off to the water. If you have a sled, I would suggest launching with 4 wheel drive only...

Vis. at Hamilton was less than 12" on Wed. I don't see any improvement as of late last night.

Birdsview ramp: Nearly a carbon copy of Hamilton. Filled in quite a bit. Ramp itself has 6"-8" of silt that settled on it, and it remains shallow off the end of the ramp for ? feet. OK for 2WD's dropping in drift boats, because you can dump your boat a few feet from the water and shove it down the (now) steep drop off to the water. If you have a sled, I would suggest launching with 4 wheel drive only. This ramp now has a very steep drop the last 5 feet to the water.

Vis. at Birdsview is 12" or less as of Wed. night.

Baker River: Not accessible at this time.

Fabers: Several inches of silt have settled on the ramp itself. Suggest 4 WD only for launching sleds here.

Vis. is 12" to 18"..murky.

Rockport: Ramp is improving. May be siutable for 2 WD trucks with posi...but I wouldn't try the Buick on it yet.

Vis. at Rockport is improving...my guess (as of Wed.) is about 2' of murky vis.

Marblemount: Best ramp at this time. OK for 2 WD. Vis is 2'+ and clearing. The Cascade is running pretty murky..color is improving, but it is causing some clouding of the Skagit at the Big Eddy and below.

It seems they are still releasing a lot of water from Ross Lake and Baker Lake, and they are holding the levels fairly high, with occasional dips when they shut down for a short time. Skagit at Concrete is still over 19', and not dropping very fast.

The hatchery at the Cascade tells me they are still gettting a few hatchery steelhead back, and that they had a very good run this year, and have collected over 650,000 eggs. (What this means in the long run, I have no idea..)

Mike

SMOBER for: Four weeks, two days, 19 hours, 20 minutes and 13 seconds. 1078 cigarettes not smoked, saving $215.64. Life saved: 3 days, 17 hours, 50 minutes.

Thanks alot Mike, I fish up there often this time of year. The sad thing is the sauk was just recovering from last october's nightmare
and from what I hear is silted in all over again.
Is your new DB a hyde or a clack. My buddy has a 16 foot hyde and we drift the skagit
alot between marblemount and concrete. I will say hi if I see you out this winter. I would also if I may, PM you for last minute reports in the coming months. Good luck and see you on the river.
Chrome

Hi Chrome:

Glad the report was helpful.

If your drifting the Rockport/Concrete run, you might be wary of a new channel that was created in this last flood. I saw it on the news, and apparently it sits just above Jackman Creek area, and cuts in towards Hwy. 20.

My boat is a Clacka...the one in my avatar image. Always glad to provide whatever confusing info I can on the state of the river.

Mike

Four weeks, two days, 22 hours, 44 minutes and 26 seconds. 1083 cigarettes not smoked, saving $216.63. Life saved: 3 days, 18 hours, 15 minutes.

Much of the sand in the Sauk from last year has been washed out. The problem is that it's been replaced with more sand that was up higher in the system.

Mike, explain how far above Jackman you are talking. Do you mean that side channel that goes back towards the houses at the bend a 1/4 mile up (if your going up stream from jackman) or did another cut across the island and the beach?

What's happened above the Sauk bar/fly bar? Did that massive spit dissapear? And finally how's the approach into the fly bar now?

Morning Mark...I'm fishing today..so can't sleep...never fails.

The area that got changed was off of Moen Road. I have not driven through there to see what happened, but you can read/hear about it at:

http://www.komotv.com/news/story.asp?id=35001

"What's happened above the Sauk bar/fly bar? Did that massive spit dissapear? And finally how's the approach into the fly bar now?"

Dunno. Haven't driven the south side road, or gone up on the hill, yet.

Mike

One month, 16 hours, 32 minutes and 34 seconds. 1109 cigarettes not smoked, saving $221.82. Life saved: 3 days, 20 hours, 25 minutes.

I talked to the WDFW guy clearing the ramp at Fabors north just before the Christmas holidays. He said he was also going to clear Hamilton that day.
Checked out the ramps a day or so after and they were awesome.

Hope he can get back up there soon. He mentioned that he looks after something like 130 sites and has to share a tractor with another region that is to small for the jobs anyways. This time he stated he just rented a backhoe for the jobs.

I was up there yesterday and today. Rockport, Baker, and Birdsview all have a foot or so of silt and or sand covering the launching areas. Some 4WD trucks were launching boats at Rockport this morning. I didn't take my boat up this time, as the river's still too high for enjoyable fishing.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Mike & Mark

I'll be up there Monday and take a few pic's.
Moen Rd. thing can be seen on the South Skagit Hwy. side

Rip Tide

Brad has a big area to cover

H2H,

It looks like he made it up there, both Hamilton and Fabors North were all cleaned up.

If you see him tell him thanks!

Rip Tide:

Your right...the concrete portion of the Hamilton ramp is clean,....but the approach is still a total mess of mud and silt.

Same goes for Birdsview.

It really doesn't look like anyone worked on the ramp at Hamilton...just the river dropped and the high water washed off some of the silt from the concrete portion of the ramp.

I was, barely, able to yank the boat out at Hamilton with my Buick. Hoping they get to them in the next couple weeks before the stuff gets really icky.

Mike