Just curious if anyone has been fishing up that way lately. Not expecting anyone to share much, just curious. It's been a few weeks since I hiked into the North Fork Sky - nothing but a dolly on that trip (although beautiful day in a great setting). Come to think of it though, that was better than the last couple days I hit the Sky for kings/steel before they closed the Chinook season.

Thanks,
John

The policies regarding plants have been chainging for a while. For one they wont be planting hatchery fish in the south fork and they are not trucking them up stream either. NF, I dont know. The bulk of the fish are at or below reiter. Dont leave fish to find fish.

LB, are speaking from experience or just from what you read on the internet?

I've found that summer runs typically seek out colder water and most of the Reiter fish are found ABOVE, not below, the ponds during the summer months.

Hatchery fish on the S. Fork are now being hauled back down to Reiter but the wild steelhead (along with 4 species of salmon) are still being trucked above the falls.

Summer steelhead have always strayed beyond their imprinted creeks and even into different river systems....that's the beauty of summer runs, you'll find them in catchable numbers even in rivers that have no plants. N. Fork has no plants, but you can catch both hatchery and wild fish.....

All you need to do is spend time exploring...and to me it's the most fun and rewarding aspect of steelhead fishing.

Ike

Thanks Ike...that's kind of what I thought.

I was planning on hitting the North Fork and covering a lot of water, probably fishing size 3 spinners. Is that a pretty good basic plan or should I likely be slowing down and fishing water more thoroughly?

Ike,

option 3. Current and former bios

They also move upstream when the outflow from the ponds has been shut off and the creek water flows into the river about 1/4 mile above the parking lot. Winter fish also hang around upstream away from the crowds.

Its a small run of wild steelhead and I dont target them. He was talking about hatchery steelhead, nothing else. Fish anywhere you want. They will be leaving the gates open after escapement. Same number of sky smolt plants, but none in the tribs and the winter run plants have been cut heavily. No summer plants in the snoqualmie.

Yes, #3 spinners and float/jig are standard fare for summer runs....

Leadhead, the word "hatchery" is nowhere to be found in his original post. He asked about fishing the Upper Sky. What he didn't ask about was new hatchery policy or information about winter run hatchery steelhead, seeing as it is July and all....

Right.....

Wrong...

If you actually went to the Snoqualmie you would see (based on the people around you catching fish) it still receives plants or you could do a little research and confirm it...

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/harvest/08-09/smolts.htm

Ike

Goodluck with that, I didnt say anything about 08. According to the dept they are not planting summer runs in the snoqualmie.
Call Hatfield in region 4 at millcreek. Since wild steelhead are not open, that only leaves hatchery. North fork speciifes 2 hatchery steelhead.

SKYKOMISH Rive r (Snohomish
Co.) from Wallace River to 1,000'
downstream of Reiter Ponds outlet
(844)
ALL SPECIES - Aug 1-Nov. 30: night closure and anti-snagging rule.
Dolly Varden/Bull Trout June 1-Feb. 15 Min. size 20". May be retained as part of TROUT daily limit.
All Other TROUT June 1-Feb. 15 Min. size 14". Daily limit 2.
Other Game Fish June 1-Feb. 15 Statewide min. size/daily limit.
SALMON Sept. 1-Dec. 31 Min. size 12". Daily limit 2 COHO only.
from 1,000' downstream of Reiter
Ponds outlet to 1,500' upstream of
Reiter Ponds outlet
(844)
ALL SPECIES - Aug. 1-Nov. 30: night closure and anti-snagging rule. Aug. 1-Feb. 15: fishing from any
floating device prohibited.
Dolly Varden/Bull Trout Aug. 1-Feb. 15 Min. size 20". May be retained as part of TROUT daily limit.
All Other TROUT Aug. 1-Feb. 15 Min. size 14". Daily limit 2.
Other Game Fish Aug. 1-Feb. 15 Statewide min. size/daily limit.
SALMON Sept. 1-Dec. 31 Min. size 12". Daily limit 2 COHO only.
from 1,500' upstream of Reiter Ponds
outlet to confluence of North and
South forks
(844)
ALL SPECIES - Aug. 1-Nov. 30: night closure and anti-snagging rule.
Dolly Varden/Bull Trout June 1-Feb. 15 Min. size 20". May be retained as part of TROUT daily limit.
All Other TROUT June 1-Feb. 15 Min. size 14". Daily limit 2.
Other Game Fish June 1-Feb. 15 Statewide min. size/daily limit.
SALMON Sept. 1-Dec. 31 Min. size 12". Daily limit 2 COHO only.


SKYKOMISH RIVER, NORTH FORK
(Snohomish Co.) from mouth to 1,000'
downstream of Bear Creek Falls (846)
All Game Fish First Sat. in June-Feb. 15 Selective gear rules and catch-and-release except up to 2 hatchery steelhead may be retained.


from Deer Falls (about ¼ mile
upstream of Goblin Creek) upstream
(846)
All Game Fish First Sat. in June-Oct. 31 Statewide min. size/daily limit.
SKYKOMISH RIVER, SOUTH FORK
(King/Snohomish Co.) from mouth to
600' downstream of the Sunset Falls
Fishway (848)
ALL SPECIES - Aug. 1-Nov. 30: night closure and anti-snagging rule.
TROUT First Sat. in June-Feb. 15 Min. size 14". Daily limit 2.
Other Game Fish First Sat. in June-Feb. 15 Statewide min. size/daily limit.
from Sunset Falls upstream
(848)
TROUT First Sat. in June-Nov. 30 Min. size 14". Daily limit 2. Selective gear rules. Internal combustion
motors prohibited.
Other Game Fish First Sat. in June-Nov. 30 Statewide min. size/daily limit. Selective gear rules. Internal
combustion motors prohibited.
WHITEFISH Dec. 1-Feb. 28 No min. size. Daily limit 15 WHITEFISH only.
All tributaries to the SOUTH FORK
SKYKOMISH RIVER upstream of
Sunset Falls, including their tributaries
All SPECIES - selective gear rules. Internal combustion motors prohibited.
TROUT First Sat. in June-Nov. 30 Min. size 14". Daily limit 2.
Other Game Fish First Sat. in June-Nov. 30 Statewide min. size/daily limit.
TYE RIVER (King Co.) continuation of
SOUTH FORK SKYKOMISH RIVER
beginning from Foss River upstream to
Alpine Falls
TROUT First Sat. in June-Oct. 31 Min. size 14". Daily limit 2. Selective gear rules. Internal combustion
motors prohibited.
Other Game Fish First Sat. in June-Oct. 31 Statewide min. size/daily limit. Selective gear rules. Internal
combustion motors prohibited.
WHITEFISH Nov. 1-Feb. 28 No min. size. Daily limit 15 WHITEFISH only.

Next time I call them, I'll ask if we can name the river after you.

Seriously? Ike just nailed you to a 2x4 and that's what you come up with for your defense?

Wow. Why not just admit defeat? Oh yeah, it's the IntarNet and no one knows you're a dog on the IntarNet.....

On a more serious note, If you (or maybe the original poster) were fishing on the Snocrummy TODAY, what year class data of smolt release would YOU want to look up?

Not '08?????

Personally, I'd shoot for '05 or '04 as I only target 30+ pound summer runs these days.

I think they're not planting summer runs in the Raging River any more, and they stopped planting them in the Tolt long ago, since neither have collection facilities...

That being said, you can catch clipped Skamania summer runs virtually everywhere, as they are virtually everywhere until the fall rains come, and they all head back to their hatchery of origin. The closer your river of choice is to a hatchery, even if your river doesn't have one, the more you'll find. My favorite handful of "hatchery" runs in the summer are on rivers that haven't been planted with summer runs, some for decades.

Unlike their Chambers Creek cousins, the Skamania hatchery steelhead enter the rivers many months before they are ready to spawn, and their distribution is statewide, at least until they start feeling the urge to hit the hatcheries, which, like I said above, is usually the first good rain in October.

That's why we get the big run of "swinters" in October and November wherever there are summer run hatchery programs, those fish have been all over the place since May, but all of those randomly straying fish head back out to the Sound and head up their origin river in the late fall.

Fish on...

Todd

Holy Crap! You two guys are really smart! I wish I knew all that stuff you could find in the regs. Maybe you could just give NMIF the help he asked for. JMHO.

Mr. Ripley, do you know of any tagging/marking studies which support (or better yet verify) the information you just posted? I'm not necessarily disputing the information, I just haven't seen any good data to indicate that hatchery strays "unstray." Would be nice to believe they did, as I'd say the propensity of Skamania fish to mingle uninvited with fragile native populations is anything but "beautiful"...

-IS

I was told the same as Todd. No collection, no smolts. Im hoping that at least the remainder of the tribs will benefit from less smolt predation and competition. There are going to be a lot less fish in the winter run. Much of it is due to the budget, so lobbying may get some fish back. A couple high water events and the lower river is going to be empty of winter hatchery steelhead.
Getting those guys to close the gate after the escapement is reached might prolong the Reiter fishery to the closing date.

The green will be worse. No plants above Soos creek, because Palmer is closed and there is no collection except for the icy creek and Im pretty sure he told me they are not going to use that. Auburn sports is planning a meeting in September with the dept and are working on the details.

Ickstream Steel -
A couple of observations from the area in this discussion that would seem to support Todd's information.

In 1983 a 106 summer steelhead in mid-July were floy tagged at the trap and haul facility at Sunset Falls on the South Fork of the Skykomish. During the course of the summer with the exception of a single fish that re-entered the trap (apparently it went over the falls only to return to the trap). With the first significant fall rains (that year in early October) there were 16 "recaptures" of those tagged fish in a few days. Those recaptures were more or less equall split to being caught by anglers in front of Reiter and entering the creek/trap at Reiter.

During the summer and early fall it is common to see a fair number of summer steelhead in the upper reaches of the North Fork Skykomish. At the end of the summer the vast majority of the fish will be clipped hatchery fish. However with the beginning of the fall rains both the numbers and the % of clipped fish drop until by the first of November while there are fewer fish the vast majority of the fish are non-clipped fish - the hatchery fish left and the wild fish stayed.

Have seen similar behaviors in other North Puget Sound basins. In each case an upswing in fishing at hatchery terminal areas on fish that have obivously been in the river for some time immediately follows the apparent disappearance of those up river hatchery fish. In most years there also appears to be second movement of hatchery summer fish to hatchery terminal areas just prior to the onset of their spawning.

Tight lines
Curt