Needless to say it was not a steallar year of winter run fishing for most.I'd rate the over all season with a D+.The hatchery run a C+ the native run a D-With that said here are my final #'s for the season.
Hooked 19 Landed 15 out of 15 trips 2 trips were ofer's.Had a 79% hook to land ratio.Now onto "SPRINGERS" which so far we are 1 fish for two trips 10 hours total.It will get better.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

Hatchery fish...didn't hardly even fish for 'em, but ended up catching a few anyways...caught first wild fish way back in November on a coastal zipperlip, and managed to average well over a fish a day from January thru last weekend, when I spent most of my time rowing and didn't reel any fish up myself.

Two fish right about 20 pounds, the second biggest hen I've ever caught, and all the rest ranging from little to teeners...

Jan-March was about average for me, I'd say, but April gets an F- because I won't get to do my month long sojourn on the Sauk.

Still some time to pad the numbers on the OP for a while, yet...traffic gets a lot leaner with all the dudes headin' south to chase springers

Fish on...

Todd

An F- is what you get when you fail the class AND eat all the paste, right?

"April" might be able to get out of the basement and up into "D" range, but only if I catch a bunch of fish over the next couple of weeks. The lack of the Sauk/Skagit fishery is like failing to take the mid-term, though...no matter how good the rest is, you still can't do more than barely pass

Thats fricken funny.

I think I need to go to alternative school.
They don't use grades there right?

I thought paste eating was an elective?

I think it's called UC Santa Cruz down here....

No,but sniffing glue was extra credit @ Renton high.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

Without having counted the days, I would say that I probably fished for winter steel close to twice as much this year as I did last. I only landed about 20% more fish though. The lack of results is probably what kept me coming back for more each weekend

The hatchery season, at least in my few attempts, was more or less a total bust. I missed the big push on the Bogey/Calawah since it happened well before it usually does. A few trips to the usual spots in my neck of the woods were strangely unproductive despite ideal conditions and timing. I seemed to miss fish by a few days in either direction a few different times.

I did better with natives this year than the last few, but not impressive numbers by any means when considering the time invested. F-the worm. When I finally gave it up, I managed to hook a few more fish.

Guess that 20-pounder will have to wait until next year.

This past weekend was officially my last pursuing the steel. Gotta hang up the rods for a while and get my butt in shape for the mountaineering season. Plan to sneak a fair amount of fishing time in between work trips in AK come June and July. Can't wait. Maybe a day or two on the salt between now and then if things align and time permits.

Another one bites the dust.

My cost per pound is probably somewhere around $50/lb At this rate, I'm gonna have to take up golf.

I am really, really glad I don't know what my cost per pound is. I would finally realize why I am always broke.

My fishing trips are like gas mileage in a tank. Gallons per mile instead of miles per gallon...outings per fish instead of fish per outing.

You know what they say about steelheading though right? The guy having the most fun is the guy...actually i don't know what they say about steelheading.

So that was Ralph Wiggum's problem...he kept eating the paste.

"Cost per Pound" while sportfishing is not a number you want to use to justify your sport...

That would be like calculating "cost per session" of getting laid by going out and earning it...in the long run for most dudes it would just be cheaper to buy a hooker once a week and get it over with!

Fish on...

Todd

this was probably the worst hatchery year i've experienced in the 17 seasons i've fished for steelhead, only punched 2 fish. probably landed somewhere year 20 natives, though.

i can only hope the summer run fishing is a little better than last year, but i won't get my hopes up.

I guess considering all the talk this year about how bad things were I didn't do too bad. I personally managed to tag 26 or 27 hatchery brats and I know that I turned a couple downers loose and I hooked at least 10 or more brats that LDR'd. So I guess that I hooked around 40 brats my self. I know that we put 57 or 58 in my sled for the season in 24 days on the water.

I don't know what my problem was with wild fish this year. I had no problem hooking them just couldn't keep um pinned. I hooked 27 or 28 wild fish and I think I only landed 13 or 14 or them. My search for Ike fell short this year but only because he broke me off right at the beach. That about pissed me off. I think the highlight of my season was a weekend my buddy Scott and I hooked 22 fish on the hoh in 2 days in Feb. The early season for us on the Skagit started off really good and then it just fizzled towards that end. I guess the good news is that the plunkers down low were starting to do really good the last week that it was open so there are some fish on the way to spawn.

Overall I would have to rate it at a B-. There were definatly a few fish around if you fished the right rivers and looked in the right places.

Tim

early season was crap for me, I couldnt catch a cold, then it picked up and got hot. I landed 57 steelhead ths season 22 were hatcherys. The satsop is definatley a better bet in the later months, considering I only caught a handful of fish off of the nooch this year. after all of those fish I caught none broke 20 lbs. couple 17's and one 18.