Steelhead fishery to open on Skagit, Sauk rivers

It is ONLY catch and release BUT it is a fishery.....

The following address will give you the information...


https://fortress.wa.gov/dfw/erules/efishrules/erule.jsp?id=2110

Good luck..............

Hard work has finally paid off today! Hats off tonight to Occupy Skagit for all the hard work and for bringing this dream to fruition! Can't wait!

Wow that is fantastic!!!

At last!

What a long haul for those Occupy folks. . .great job. Their work may serve as a template on how to get a fishery back after it's been discontinued due to concern x, but the numbers show it's recovering,

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Knowledgeable folks have no issue with the Skagit being CNR. It's been that way since 1981. After a four year closure from 1977 through 1980, due to low spawning escapements caused by over fishing, the Skagit and Sauk were re-opened to fishing for wild steelhead, but most of the fishery since then has been CNR. Much better for anglers who are more interested in fishing for steelhead than in eating them.

Sg

Of those last few years when it was open for C & R is was a very relaxed fishery most of the time. If I floated the lower Sauk, most of the time I was the only boat on the river during the April fishery. And on the Skagit it was pretty quite too, I could always find water that was virgin water or away from other boaters. However after having it closed for a number of years and the rest of Puget Sound rivers closed, I'm thinking it's going to be a completely different story this time around. If it's crazy busy I'm not going to bother but it is nice to finally see one fishery actually opening up for us. We've lost so much opportunity up this way.

Glad to see the skagit and sauk opened back up if even for a little while. I think that
except for a few old hands up there not many fish will be caught. Unless you know the water well it is tough fishing. Sauk is going to blow up to around 10,000 and will
be really tough. Like Deke Hogan used to say a fish every three days or so Was a good average. Good luck to all that go.

SG:

I go back to the OLD DAYS......50's and 60's, when the Skagit was one of the premium rivers in the whole State. When 50+ salmon were common
place and lots of winter run steelhead, plunking was the common way of fishing.....then.

Wasn't making fun of "catch and release", today it is what it is.

Drifterwa.............Bill

Too bad you have to use the oars to boondog it, but that's the way it always was before Clancy showed us how to use kickers to do the same thing. The guy on the oars always had to work his ass off because he wanted a line in the water too.

BUT, good to see some of it open up, as brief as it will be.