We fished the upper Skagit today with River Chrome Guide Service, in Dany’s drift boat, floating from Marblemount to the takeout at Swift Creek. The recent rains had brought the river up – a lot – and it was running high and dirty lower, but where we were it looked good, and was running at 5,800 cfs. The crack of dawn greeted us with partly sunny skies which last until around 10am when as predicted, the clouds came in and gave us on and off drizzles the rest of the day.

Danny started us off fishing just down and across from the Cascade River. We anchored up and started the day fishing with eggs under a float. In fairly short order I caught a couple fish, first a big, slightly colored buck, and then, after letting my gear do a long drift, I hooked a chrome at the tail out. I was using my own eggs and sweetened them with Pro Cure Bite Enhancer.

We had a bit of a lull and Danny was considering moving us, when rseas hit one, and then another fish. A couple chrome hens made it easy for Danny to decide to keep us at it. We stayed and fished this slot for another hour or so. We noticed the fish seemed to come in waves. They were also quite picky with the bait and really required a bit of patience to let them chew on the eggs for 3-5 seconds. When we were done there were ten coho in our boat (Danny was fishing also). We decided to move as Danny had a few twitching holes he wanted to show us. I must say, it was pretty impressive the number of fish we got. One of the best river coho bites I have ever experienced. As we fished we also saw pretty good shore action across from us. The fish are in thick!

We hit a couple holes floating down river, twitching jigs now, and got a few bites and a few fish, but overall it was not as fast as the egg bite. The rain was also starting to come down a little harder. We did hit one small hole that produced a nice dolly for rseas, and a sockeye for me. Pretty cool to catch a sockeye on a jig! With the harder rain it got a bit chilly, but I was fine, product testing Grays Harbor Unders, the long sleeve tops and full bottoms. They definitely kept me warm and dry!

As the morning stretched into early afternoon we came to the second to the last hole Danny wanted to show us. He decided to have us again float some eggs. This location was unreal! The second our eggs hit the water a coho would come up and grab it. One after another our floats would go under. Even with missed bites it took no time at all to limit out. The closest thing I can compare our fishing to was my childhood days catching bluegills, when the worm would hit the water and my red and white bobber would sink underwater, again and again.

We had such a fun day on the water! Danny has a few openings left in the coming weeks, but he also wants people to know that come November the Skagit will be kicking out non-Cascade hatchery fish that will be even bigger and feistier. So give him a call and get booked. You’ll be glad you did. River Chrome Guide Service.

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