[SAVE STILLY NATES]

Hey guys,
I'm heading to fish the skagit or the sauk river on tuesday and wednesday. I have only fished it a few times so i need some help. I will be fishing for dolly's and src's. Any fly suggestions and places to fish? A PM would be great to keep the information on the low side. Thanks in advance! :thumb:

Jake

 

[Dan Soltau]

white and gray streamers, go big for the dollies and keep it smaller for the src's. the way to separate the dollies is to fish something on the upwards of 6 inches, that should prevent un-necessary death to the src's. i wouldnt put the src levels at a large level in those streams, but the dollies in there are a fun and rewarding fishery. check back on them just as the salmon have disappeared later on and the dollies will be nice and fat, plus they will really be on the lookout for little baby salmon/steelhead. tactically, you need to cover water for the dollies, if they dont eat it on the first go around then keep moving. alpha predators are decisive beasts and they also tend to spread out.

 

[13223]

I was up the Stilly yesterday afternoon. It was the color of a chocolate milk shake as were the feeder creeks/streams. Both forks of the stilly had a surprisingly amount of water in them when compared to 2 weeks ago. While I didn't go as far as Darrington I would venture to guess that the Sauk is about the same color, the Suiattle will be brown, and therefore, I would expect the Skagit below the Sauk to be pretty ugly. From the flows data from Weds thru today the Sauk went from about 300 cfs to about 1100 cfs.

Something to look into anyway as its a bit of a drive up there to find water of that color.

I like Reverse Spiders for the SRC. Snakey white and red colors for bulls. However, I've had bulls rise to dry flies before too. I'm guessing they will eat just about anything.

 

[Leopardbow]

I would definetly check the flows before heading up especially after yesterday.

 

[13223]

Pouring harder than a cow peeing on a flat rock in Arlington today. Not a good sign.

 

[Old Man]

You guys got RAIN????????????????????????.

 

[SAVE STILLY NATES]

TD, Thants a sweet pic of hazel on your avatar! And i was checking out the stilly yesterday just to see how high it was. It was pretty brown and high! I tie all my spiders so i have plenty of them, all i need now is to tie some streamers.

The skagit in burlington had good color yesterday so i dont think the sauk has too much color, but maybe it does today..

Yes old man we got rain. I know the dry side doesn't get that much rain but yes we get a lot of it.

 

[Smalma]

SSN -
Remember it takes a day or so for the water from the lower Sauk to reach the lower Skagit. Both the visibility and the river height will be issues to your success; at least until things settle down some. Fishing local rivers while rising or while unsettled is often a tough deal but especailly so if you are exploring new water.

BTW -
While some sea-run cutthroat can be found in the Sauk and upper Skagit the vast majority return to natal streams well down stream of the Sauk.

Tight lines
Curt

 

[SeaRun Fanatic]

Skagit is BLOWN. Won't recover by Wednesday.

 

[sroffe]

All the S rivers I crossed today looked like Chocolate Milk. Skagit, Stilly, Snohomish. I did see one lone fishermen below the Highway 9 bridge in Arlington this morning. I was hoping to get a fly wet this morning, it didn't happen.

 

[13223]

The weather report for this week I just read on the Weather Channel website doesn't look too good for this week.

When I took that picture it had been snowing off and on. I was wet through and starting to feel pretty cold. I went back to the truck to see if the coffee in my thermos was still warm. I was sipping the last cup and eating a piece of chocolate when the sun poked through and that rainbow came out bright and clear. I took the picture and didn't realize how much color was captured. I enjoy the picture a lot but I figure it is because of the memory of the day more than the picture.

There is a run within walking distance that I had a fish roll on a fly that I swung just below the surface on my first pass through the bucket at first light. I never got any more attention but that boil kept me going all morning. I was miserably wet and cold but thoroughly enjoying my time on the water.

 

[Smalma]

I see that the Skagit at Concrete is up 4 feet from Saturday and still rising. Suspect that without a major stretch of dry weather the best of the fall cutthroat fishing is behind us.

Tight lines
Curt

 

[KerryS]

You are likely right Curt, the "best" fishing might be over but, I will continue to chase them. If nothing else the added adversity of high water will create an opportunity to learn more of how the fish behave in this type of situation. Will they move up their spawning tribs or will they move up and stage at the mounth? Will they drop back down into the system and wait for the water to drop or hide out in different areas until river condition improves? I figure the higher flows will at the very least disperse the fish more through out the system but will more be found in certain areas? Lots of things to try and figure out.

 

[Smalma]

Kerry -
Right you - there is not end of fishing puzzles to solve. Those cutthroat can be both the easiest and most challenging of the anadormous fish we chase. After nearly a 1/2 century of chasing them I still find surprises and hope that I can continue expanding my knowledge.

A couple bits of info that will help with you explorations -

They still are months from spawning (peak spawning early next spring).

The majority of the spawning is tribs below the Baker.

While some of the pre-spawn fish will duck up the larger tribs with this high I feel that most will be hunkered down somewhere in the main river (mostly above tide water).

Most of the sub-adult cutthroat (sometimes called maiden fish) over winter in the lower 30 miles of the river (along with the sub-adult bulls). Rarely find this non-spawning fish much larger than 14 inches or so (most smaller) but between the cutts and bulls there can some decent sporadic fishing (later in the winter they can be joined with some kelts).

Have fun

Curt