Thinking about drifting either the Skagit or Sauk this weekend. Can anyone provide some information on floating from the Cascade River launch to Howard Miller in Rockport ? How long of a float and what hazzards if any ? Last I checked the river was at 3270 cfs..

Also,

Looking for the same info regarding the Sauk (from the first bridge just passed where the Suattle dumps in to the Government bridge)... how long and any hazzards ? Last check it was at 1620 cfs...

Thanks in advance..

Cascade to Rockport.... piece of cake, no advise on Sauk float. A better option for the Skagit might be Rockport to Baker River? Another piece of cake but you get the option of finding Sauk fish.

id go lower skagit this time of year, Fabers to Concrete is a good float and nothing to worry about...

Great info guys... Thanks again !

I concur, put your girlfriend on the sticks from Marblemount to Rockport so you can fish Not sure of river miles, but easy day float for sure. Rockport to Fabers is a half day, could probably do Marblemount to Fabers pretty easy. Never floated below that or the Sauk.

At the present flows, you'll probably bang bottom in a few places on the Sauk. The takeout you mentioned isn't much of a takeout at all. Unless you've got a beast of a 4wd, plan to drag the boat up to the road. Snow might still be an issue there too. The road has been plowed to the takeout and the snow was piled up pretty good on the sides of the road last week. It's not a long float at all.

I have never floated the entire stretch from Marblemount to Faber's in one day. A lot of the time I'll make a whole day out of Marblemount to Sutter. I suppose if you wanted to just row straight through and pitch float and jig or sidedrift the entire way, you could do it. I wouldn't dawdle too much though. If I was floating it this weekend I would do Rockport to Concrete but that's just me.

Back in the day (OK, just a few years ago ) we would sometimes float Bacon creek to Faber's on the Skagit... or Suiattle to Faber's on the Sauk in April!

They DID make for some pretty long days... but I never felt like we missed any prime water tryin' to make it on time?

We did Rockport to Concrete last weekend at LOW flow... and even fishing fairly hard, we coulda been done at about 2 p.m. if we wanted to.

Suiattle to the govt. bridge on the Sauk is too short a float IMO, unless you've only got a few hours to fish.

I did the Rockport to Concrete float yesterday in 8 hours in my Lavro.
Took plenty of time fishin all good waters.
Fishin is great but catchin is slow.

+1 for Fabers or Rockport to Concrete. The Sauk is too LOW.

If you were to do marb. to sutter and it takes you all day.....your pounding the water to much. These are wild fish.....they are biters. One or two drifts through a spot and you'll get the biters. This time of year you have plenty of time to do Marblemount to fabers. In another month when the days are longer you could go all the way to concrete fairly easily. I know those who have done darrington to fabors.........that is the marathon float.

Tim

Wow. Marblemount to Concrete huh? I guess to each his own. I feel great about my odds knowing that the people in front of me are covering water that effectively.

I'd second fishing from rockport to concrete at least. We pounded the upper river thursday. 4 people side drifting eggs, yarnie, pink worms and pulling plugs sun up to sun down. Fished from Rockport to a mile or so below concrete. That early push of up river natives are already blown through.

No fish caught, no fish saw, no fish heard. Seems to be a lull right now, I think we even fished too high. Never fished below Concrete, but if I were going again it'd probably be down around Lyman or Hamilton.

Just my two cents for ya

it might help if you knew how to fish.....

Yup.....if you know the river well that is plenty fine. I'll put my odds on that over pounding a short drift anyday. As big as the Skag is, the fish are usually still in very specific spots especially if the water is clear. If your casts are in the right spot then you'll hit a good percentage of the biters on the first pass. But then again I pry put in more days and know most of the spots better than most as I fish it it a lot more than most do because I am on it 20-40 days a year for steelhead and another 15-20 for salmon. Even when I am in the sled and can go through spots as many times as I want, probably 75% of our fish are on the first pass through a spot, so I like my odds of covering as much water as possible. Most of the time if you do hit a fish, you can row or drag the boat back up and hit it again. The trade off of going by a fish or two is offset by the amount of water that I cover.

Tim

P.s. Not trying to sound like a know it all just stating my experience fishing it as much as I do.

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Beautiful day on the river ! It was my first float on the Skagit. Thanks for everyone's input -- it was very helpful ! Yesterday was a blue-bird day for the most part.... 59 degrees ...a few clouds rolled in towards the later part of the day. River was gin clear and flowing about 3600 cfs...we had the river to ourselves...only saw one other drift boat and it was a family just out for a float and not fishing....i was on the stix most of the day -- My buddy caught and released this 10 lb Native Buck below Sutter Creek on a blue plug... thanks again for everyone's help...(first time posting photos on the site...hoped it worked !)

Sweet fish.....congrats. I know that water well and got blanked in there just a couple days ago fishing 4 rods. Not many around, kudos for getting that one.

Tim

Is that a Brittany sitting peacefully in the back seat and if so can I borrow some doggie downers?

p.s. Way to getter done!

Yeah, she's a 7 year old Brittany ("foose ") (probably mis-spell on the name)...she was a bit excited for the first mile or so, then fell asleep in the aft seat for most of the day.. my buddy has her trained pretty well..

I wish you could train BroodBuster's Brittany to fall asleep in the boat

Fish on...

Todd