by Jason Brooks, November 29, 2011

Minter Creek Madness is what I like to call it and for some reason every year during the 4 day break of Thanksgiving I find myself partaking in this “festival” of fishing fun. It started off with a rambunctious 6 year old needing to get out of the house on this extended weekend of rain. I thought about floating the Green River for a few moments until I checked the river levels and realized they weren’t too bad, but then the weather channel talked about showers, and, well, being stuck on a boat while getting rained on in late November might sound fun to you and me, but thinking about that 6 year old just wishing to wet a line I knew it wasn’t the best idea. So, I called my uncle, John Mazza and a fellow fishing nut, Andy Byrd (former guide now stuck in the 9 to 5 world of responsibility) and loaded up the gear. I warned them to wear waders, though the deepest water we would be in is a foot or two and hip boots would suffice, it’s the mud that causes the call for waders. I also told them this was more of a “fishing experience” than a fishing trip. They had no idea what they were in for.

The fishing at Minter is simple I explained to John and Andy. Any standard steelhead rod will do and either “drift” corkies or float jigs. Since this is a stream I rigged Ryan up with a slip bobber and a ¼ ounce purple and pink Glo Getter from Mack’s Lure and tipped it with some raw shrimp. The rest of us drifted size 14 corkies, I liked Red Rocket and John used bright greens. Andy tried a few variations including jigs, but ended up with a clown corkie and some red yarn.

With the tide on the way in I replaced my 3 shot slinky weight to just a ¼ ounce split shot to get it to drift. The bite was fierce and what makes it the most difficult to catch fish here is the fact that you will be fishing from 15 feet to 2 feet in front of your rod tip, so setting the hook is almost impossible. I highly recommend wearing glasses of some sort for eye protection because of this and the close “combat” fishing.

It didn’t take long for us to start catching fish. Though most of the ones I hooked were fouled. I attribute this to the massive amounts of fish in such a small waterway, and the fact that my hook set was nothing more than me lifting the rod which resulted in late sets. Each time I hooked a fish I handed the rod off to Ryan to reel it in, we were having a blast and this is what Minter is all about.

After a while we got into the fish thick, or at least that’s what we thought. Then a younger guy, clean cut and friendly came down to the “hole” we were at just below the hatchery intake. He said he was a worker at the hatchery and that they had over 5,000 fish already in the pens. The gates were closed tight, and they still had another 1,000 fish in a holding pen that they had no room for. That is when he told all of us that they were going to put those 1,000 fish back into the creek from an outlet pipe about 20 feet down downstream from us. The chaos of fish everywhere was about to begin.


With the Hatchery now full and the gates shut off, the creek will be overrun with Chums. They are not the brightest fish, or the hardest fighting. In fact this creek fishing is simply unique. As we headed back to the truck I asked John and Andy what they thought, and they both agreed that fishing Minter Creek can only be defined as an “experience”. Andy thought he could help out his dwindling egg totals in his freezer with winter steelheading starting up so he kept one hen. As he began to clean her out the eggs spilled all over like a loose bag of marbles. As he tried to scoop them up into a zip-loc Ryan took over the cleaning chores, and promptly took possession of Andy’s fish and re-named it “crab bait”.

If you are looking for some fun and are ready to wet a line to keep cabin fever at bay, head on over to Minter Creek. The hatchery is full, as well as the creek of Chums. Make sure you wear your waders and take along lots of patience. I have had my fill until next year just after Thanksgiving.

To get to Minter take Highway 16 to highway 302 south. After crossing the Purdy Spit turn left onto 118th Street and then right at the next stop sign (there is a big brown sign saying “Salmon Hatchery” with an arrow). Follow it a ¼ mile to the creek. The regulations are 4 Chums per day, pretty simple, but keep in mind that just because there is no “anti-snagging” rule listed on this creek that snagging and retaining is still illegal. Make sure you only keep fish hooked in the gill plate forward and the “cast and jerk” pretty much goes without saying on this small creek, since it only takes once before you realize that your hook is flying at you at Mach speed.

Jason Brooks