Sauk, Whitechuck, etc.

You really can't go wrong with driving from Rockport to Darrington. The river is right alongside for most of the route. Do take the old road when the highy spilts, as it has more access to the river. And south, going upstream the road is right along for a good bit of the drive. It all depends if you want to fish bigger water and deeper glides, or smaller, faster water.

If you wanted to try for Dollies, I would fish the deep pools. Dollies hang out there, where they don't have to work so hard. And they like their water ice cold.

I would fish buggers, bunny leeches, and muddlers/sculpin patterns. And fish them on the bottom.

Generally the easiest time to catch dollies is with egg patterns when the salmon are spawning.

Good luck, and have fun!

I forgot what I was supposed to remember.

I don't know about the White Chuck as the last time I was up there about a week ago it was running white. Lots of snow melt and glacier run off. I tried it once in the summer and quickly lost interest in fishing there. Now if you want to fish the upper Sauk that is another very good place to fish. Just follow the Mountain loop Hiway and after you get about to Bedal Campground and beyond you can access the river many places. From there to Barlow pass is good fishing. Summer run Steelhead,Cutts,Dollies. and a few RB thrown in. But a good map is very useful. And you also have the N/F of the Sauk but the fish are alittle smaller. There is a falls on that river so when you fish above the falls you don't have to worry about smolts.

This is just about one of my favorite places to fish in the summer time. Good water and not tomany people in the middle of the week when I go there.

Jim

Thanks guys for your help, hopefully I'll have a chance to meet/fish with some of you. I was a charter boat captain in Maine during the summer and worked on a boat in Key West during the winter for the past 3 years so I haven't had much of a chance to do any freshwater fly fishing recently, but that's about to change! I can't wait to hook my first steelhead, even if it does take 5 years to hook one!