On Saturday I had to drop a kid off in Grand Mound for the day so instead of driving back and forth from Skagit County I decided to spend the day exploring the area and pestering the local fish population. So maps, WDFW regs and information on all the local rivers in hand I headed out. After extensive scouting around I ended up fishing The Willapa, Chehalis and Skookumchuck Rivers (see respective reports).

After a success fishing the Wlllapa river I was driving east on highway 6 heading towards Chehalis and saw the sign for Rainbow falls State park. Being one that needs to know what’s at the end of the road I decided to check it out. On arriving at the park I wandered down to the falls, it is pretty but not a significant falls. But wait…there are hundreds of Chinook in the pool and run below the falls! Back to the car for a check of the regulations and after a thorough review I decided that it was open but you have to release the Chinook. No problem, I’ll just fish for Coho. I tied on a chartreuse and silver spinner and sent it flying…instant wham-o and I figured that I had huge silver on. Wrong,,,it turned out to be a bright Chinook and 20 minutes later I was able to release a 25-30 pound wild hen. I also fished a float/jig combo for a while but I didn’t want to target the Chinook so I headed back to the car.

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