As promised, here's the report from our day of fishing on the lower Quinalt with Robin Rhoades.
We launched just above Cook Creek and fished approx 5 miles of water to Chow Chow. The river was low, but due to the previous days rains, the river had come up a tad and the visibility was about 4 feet.
We hooked and landed 9 fish. Ok, so I didn't catch a 25+ pounder, but naturally I landed the largest of the day, which probably topped the scales around 12 lbs. I got 2, Justin got 2, and Robin kicked our butt's with 5. Most of the fish were down river brights, but a few of the fish were fresh. Robin really couldn't explain the quantity of down river fish, but we suspect that the low water has everything to do with it. 2 of the fish were definitely natives and released. 3 definite hatchery fish were kept. The other 4 down river fish were released as well. Since the Quinalts do not clip the adipose fin on their fish, we had to go on the conditon of the dorsal fin to determine nativeness or not. It wasn't a problem on this day.
Boondogging and side drifting was the norm and the fish seemed more interested in whole shrimp than they did roe or partial shrimp tails/heads. Pink, pearl pink, and burnt orange with red flakes seemed to do the trick.
In all, it was a great day on the Quinalt with Robin! Besides the sunshine, the 3 bull elk, the otters, the eagles, and the steelhead, we really couldn't have asked for more.
Pictures will be available (by Monday) once I get the filme developed.
http://staff.washington.edu/parker/pictureoftheweek.html Tight Lines.
Parker
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