Spent the day on the water on the Sky and man, was it gorgeous out there. Started in the lower river throwing floats with roe and shrimp tails, and it was slow at first, but once we got the hang of it, we started to see a little action.

First take down was a lazy slide under the water until we saw the float do a few head shakes we set on it. Not sure what it was, because it didn't stick for long. But that put us in the mood. Fished around a bit and eventually ended up at the mouth of the Wallace and plunked for a while while we tied up some leaders. In the middle of twisting up some knots, the rod started sliding toward the water. By the time we got around to it, it did a little jump and said hello before swimming away.

The interesting thing was after that we had a visit from a harbor seal. All the way up at the mouth of the Wallace. That guy tore through the hole and I'm sure chased off our fish and then he started upstream on the Wallace. I've seen seals up the Snohomish near 522, but that far up the river was really something. So we knew that there were fish in the hole at some point, but after our seal friend tore through there, I'm sure that the fish had other plans.

Anyways, we went upstream to some other spots and nailed a few Dollies while throwing hardware, spoons and spinners. I never get tired of those guys, they're just so cool looking.

We worked our way upstream when we got caught up on a nice little take drifting so yarn balls. We didn't get too excited at first, it was coming in quick so we thought it was another dolly, but as soon as it caught sight of that gravel it did a double take and started screaming drag and causing a big ole ruckus. We didn't even see the fish for a good five minutes and it had our gear doubled over. I was actually pretty stoked because we were way above the Wallace so I thought for sure it was a big steel, but we swung it close to the bank and it did a tail flap and I saw the fork and knew it was a king.

Anyways, it was a solid fish and put up a nice fight, we brought it up to pose and let it swim on to the hatchery. Gorgeous fish though.

We had two more encounters with steelhead, but they've got harder mouths, and a weak hook set and a bum leader got in our way at that point, so none to the bank. With these fish you really have to give 'em a good tug to get a solid connection.

The water is in perfect shape right now, and we've seen a few good pushes of fish. With the water the way it is right now, fish are moving around, and we've been seeing them all throughout the system, so we haven't really had to fight the crowds upstream as much. You still have to work for your fish, but the fishing has been pretty darn fun lately. We've even been nailing some decent searun cutthroat on lighter tackle which has been a nice change of pace. Look for the flat spots and fish the edges and feed the fish!

Nate Treat Fishing
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"Specializing in Fishing Instruction and Shore Guiding on Washington's Rivers."
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