This first week of September has been an interesting one, from a fishing perspective. The week started with more rain than we’ve seen all summer – raising the river levels and making the water dirty and muddy.
But as the water level dropped the fishing improved greatly.
While the water was high fishing – both my own and reported by friends – was hard. You had to just about hit the fish in the nose with your lure in order to get a bite. The higher, colder, water also allowed the fish to spread out more – rather than stick to the deep holes they preferred while the water was low and hot.
As the water levels dropped fishing has taken off. In the lower Snohomish I heard several reports of good fishing, with bright chrome fish being caught. Higher in the system fishing has been gradually getting better as those new fish move up – taking the place of fish which have already moved farther up stream.
This picture is of a pair of hens caught at Fields Riffle by my friend Clinton Ford. He caught them on a homemade jig.
I’ve also heard reports of the odd coho being caught here and there – mostly by people using Dick Nites to target pinks.
At this point the Sound is largely emptied of pinks. We can expect excellent fishing for pinks in the river for the next several weeks.
For information on how to target pink salmon, please visit the Pink Salmon fishing page.
