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This report comes in a couple days late... Dec. 10th was the day I fished.

December is that magical time of year when the weather cools down, roads freeze, and the holiday spirit runs rampant through the crowds. It is also the time of year that hatchery steelhead begin to creep into the rivers' higher reaches.

I love winter. The snow is beautiful to me, adding a frosty cap to the slumbering northwest greenery. Now that the river flows are more cooperative, it makes my journeying more doable and the fishing more productive.

If you know where to look, it's hard to get skunked on a winter's day. Bull trout are abundant this time of year and are my most common catch in the river, and the odd coho still lingers here and there. Of course a couple of grey ghosts haunt the frigid runs of the rivers as well. Even when the fishing doesn't go to plan, carrying a variety of presentations to chuck at faces will help you find what fish are eating or keyed in on.

Jig color has never really mattered very much for me. I find that 98% of time, the fish will bite the first jig that swims past it's face. Rarely have I switched jigs in a run and caught a fish on the second, third, or fourth color.

Or, there's this example. A jig swims past a steelhead. He doesn't bite. Another less conventional presentation swings by him. He crunches is. The fish is fought for six minutes before brought to the snow-covered shore.

Sometimes the fish come in "odd" ways, luckily for the angler. When analyzed, these odd methods have a clear attraction to the fish.

The moral of the story is that some steelhead don't want to bite a small floating morsel. They need something to piss them off or get in their face in order to want to eat.

I haven't heard any glowing reports from guys, mostly just a fish here and there up by the terminal fisheries... a lot of people, not much being caught. Unfortunately we are in the midst of perhaps the dullest winter season to date.

Being the year of the cutback in plants takes place, all rivers suffered in the PS region. I have heard from reputable sources that 600 hatchery returns will be a good target... not what we want to hear. Other locals met on the river have told me the same story.

I was happy to happen into one fish today along with my other friends of the river, the Bull Trout and Coho Salmon.

riverhunter

12/15/2016 10:48:00 AM

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/outdoors/2014/apr/25/state-settles-hatchery-steelhead-lawsuit/

Sorry to tell you this but you are misinformed well actually not sorry as that means steelhead should be returning in better numbers then you expect but still doesn't guarantee anything as ocean conditions determine how many fish actually grow big enough or survive to make it back. All puget sound rivers had to stop releasing fish with rivers connecting to the puget sound with the exception of the skykomish. Reiter ponds hatchery was allowed to continue to release fish for both summer and winter steelhead.I keep close tabs on that and was very informed of the lawsuit that happened. The link above this comment will prove what I am speaking of

Ian Horning

12/15/2016 6:42:00 PM

I have heard both sides. Looking online, 150k-ish fish were planted in the sky and 30k in the Wallace for Winter 2016, which is what I thought. Then when talking to locals and guys at tackle stores, they tell me otherwise- of the grim numbers I speak of. No Wallace fish and very few sky fish. So, I don't know what to believe, just trying to relay what I've heard to inform the anglers of the state of the steelhead.

Hopefully you're right and what I've heard is wrong.

riverhunter

12/15/2016 7:05:00 PM

I rarely go off hear say. Read the article. Down towards the bottom shows what both wdfw and the conservancy group agreed upon in 2014 in a court ruling.

Nerka

12/15/2016 7:55:00 PM

Ian,
Until the feds, state, tribes, commercials, and yes us anglers, can work together and figure out the serious "Cormorant condos" issue at the mouth of the Snohomish the fishing will continue to suffer... This includes putting back the habitat (log jams, riparian habitat, etc.) and removing the obstacles what our ancestors built when they first came here (dikes, the cormorant condo pilings lining the river). IMHO our hatcheries are pretty much spewing out a river conveyor belt buffet for the predators that can sit and look down in their nests on these pilings like a vulture and glut themselves. Of course this is old news and i'm just repeating it like a scratched record......record.......record...... Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa to all. I;m going fishing...
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=cormorant

Nerka

12/15/2016 8:09:00 PM

An added note, local legend and writer Bob Heirman (the park on the Snohomish named after him) wrote a book about Snohomish County and in it is his story and the pictures of the many 15 to 25 (with an occasional 30) pound steelhead him and many others routinely pulled out of the Pilchuck, Stilly, and Sky (I believe the limit back in the 30's to the 60's on most of the rivers was 3, quote me on that I could be wrong). Back then, the fishing for steelhead was like it is now during the pink runs today and you get the point....

Peduncle

12/16/2016 11:42:00 AM

A 600 fish escapement would be a stellar year at Reiter. They only see those numbers on high water years because of less opportunities to fish harvestable water.

Nice fish BTW

riverhunter

12/16/2016 12:23:00 PM

Yep 600 would be a good number on the sky. Most hatchery fish actually get caught before they even make it to the hatchery. The Wallace received about 1000 for summer runs most in part because the Wallace was closed up until mid to late oct

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