Nice report and fish Tup:
The Skykomish and mother nature on Saturday
A Brief History: I have been friends with Silver Willy (Harvey) for about 30 years. From days long gone fishing the Nooksack in Ferndale where we were young and stupid, fishing for 20 minutes then doing donuts on the river with Harvey's dad's boat and drinking Schmidt ANIMAL beer, to a 20 year hiatus from fishing but not our friendship. We now each have beautiful boats, more rods and lures than we can count and not near enough time to spend together on the river. This would be our first time together or otherwise fishing in well over 1 month.
The report:
The drift: Sultan to Ben Howard
Boat traffic: Very light. 4 DB's, 1 toon and 1 sled.
Weather: No precipitation until we actually stepped into the boat. Then.....
Action: Dive bombed by huge bald eagle, 1 beautiful 10+ pound Skykomish River Native Steelhead, Expertly handled by Silver Willy, released to continue journey.
Details: Harvey provided the only fish action for the day and it was in the first hour of our drift. I watched him put a metallic green Tadpolly on and the thing looked money. I wasn't the only one that thought so. Harv barks out "fish on" and I'm not really sure what I was doing but looked at his rod bouncing wildly in the holder. I pulled my gear in and got ready with the net. I had to wait for the aerial shows and two long runs and then saw the extra fin. Away with the net, I took the Certified Pro from Harv and he took us to the beach. The dime bright metalhead was de-hooked, quickly photographed and released requiring no special attention as it screamed back to the deep of the river with nothing more than a sore upper lip. The picture is decieving but the fish is bigger than 10 pounds. Harvey is around 6' 3" and...I better not guess at his weight. :mrgreen: We both guessed closer to 12-14 pounds.
The only other action was a bald eagle that flew over our heads at about 20' from a tree. I'm not really sure what I was doing (didn't I say that earlier?) but I saw it fly accross the river. Only saw two today...
We talked to three other boats that all had success on natives (one taken right in front of us) but no keepers.
A very wet, but very good day on the river!!
The report:
The drift: Sultan to Ben Howard
Boat traffic: Very light. 4 DB's, 1 toon and 1 sled.
Weather: No precipitation until we actually stepped into the boat. Then.....
Action: Dive bombed by huge bald eagle, 1 beautiful 10+ pound Skykomish River Native Steelhead, Expertly handled by Silver Willy, released to continue journey.
Details: Harvey provided the only fish action for the day and it was in the first hour of our drift. I watched him put a metallic green Tadpolly on and the thing looked money. I wasn't the only one that thought so. Harv barks out "fish on" and I'm not really sure what I was doing but looked at his rod bouncing wildly in the holder. I pulled my gear in and got ready with the net. I had to wait for the aerial shows and two long runs and then saw the extra fin. Away with the net, I took the Certified Pro from Harv and he took us to the beach. The dime bright metalhead was de-hooked, quickly photographed and released requiring no special attention as it screamed back to the deep of the river with nothing more than a sore upper lip. The picture is decieving but the fish is bigger than 10 pounds. Harvey is around 6' 3" and...I better not guess at his weight. :mrgreen: We both guessed closer to 12-14 pounds.
The only other action was a bald eagle that flew over our heads at about 20' from a tree. I'm not really sure what I was doing (didn't I say that earlier?) but I saw it fly accross the river. Only saw two today...
We talked to three other boats that all had success on natives (one taken right in front of us) but no keepers.A very wet, but very good day on the river!!
Attachments
1 - 1 of 14 Posts
1 - 1 of 14 Posts
