Today was a few firsts for me. I had never tied my own jigs, I had never fished the Skykomish, and I had never fished with eggs. Might have been others, but let's start with that.

So, after a few youtube videos, visits to a couple of tackle shops, and a few more youtube videos, I was ready to tie a few jigs. They weren't as pretty as the ones in the youtube videos, but the river would be the real test. I needed something different than "Snaggers Eddy" and I had heard good things about the Sky, so I grabbed the inflatable kayak and headed out to drift the Sky.

I got a really early start as I had to be at work by 3. By the time I set up shuttle (mountain bike), found a place to put on (that wasn't to far to bike), and inflated the kayak, it was just light enough to put on.

Almost immediately I came upon a good looking hole to test my jigs in, but there was already someone fishing it from the bank. I didn't want to be rude, so I moved on. The next section of river looked great for drifting eggs, but I really wanted to try out the jigs. I finally came across a nice looking section fairly deep right along the bank. I anchored the boat and started twitching jigs. After a couple of casts I got a really hard hit and a couple twitches later on the same retrieve it hammered it. After a couple of long runs and wrapping itself in my line like it was spooling itself, I landed a nice hen. The excitement of landing my first coho on the Sky with my first hand tied jig left me shaking. I was now useless twitching a jig for a while so I decided to switch to eggs.

I had never fished with eggs, but someone gave me a bag of eggs and had found a number of bobbers while fishing the Snohomish. So once again relying on youtube and a knots app on my iPhone, I set up for eggs. I tied my own egg loop knot and bobber stop knot, but might buy both of those pre tied next time. First drift, the bobber goes down and I set the hook. It doesn't feel like much, and sure enough, it's a 12" (or so) trout. Next couple of drifts I get a couple of hits (nibbles) but I'm not sure when (or if) to set the hook. Then, near the end of a drift with nearly all my line out, the bobber goes down hard. I set the hook and the line goes slack, but the bobber is still down. The fish is coming straight at me faster than I can keep up with. From over 100 yards downstream it goes right past my boat. That is when I catch up and the fight begins. That's also when I hear a "snap", and my line goes completely loose. My line didn't snap, in fact it is now going out fast. I'm trying to figure out what happened when I look down and notice my bail had popped open. I get it closed and the fish is still there. Turns out that fish was never coming off. I couldn't even see the hook, just the line going down its throat. I had to cut the line and tie another egg loop knot. Another nice hen, my first on eggs. A couple more cast and another bobber down, but this time when I go to set the hook the bail fails to close. By the time I get the bail closed, no fish. Time to switch back to my other rod and twitching jigs.

By now my time is just about up so no more anchoring, just fishing while I drift. I'm getting close to the takeout anyway, and am happy with 2 fish. Just as I'm approaching the takeout I notice I'm passing a small, deep back eddy and grab my pole just in time to cast upstream right into the top of the hole. 2nd twitch, and the jig stops dead. I figure I'm snagged pretty good until the snag starts shaking its head and then starts rolling. I land this hook nosed buck just in time to land the boat. What a day.

The picture shows the fish along with the jig that caught it. The one without a jig is the one caught on eggs.

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