On my way out to the coast, decided to take a detour through Puyallup and hit highway 7 into Morton. Man, I'm glad I did! They've been putting fall chinook into the Tilton for a while now, but recently started dropping in coho, which makes it worth my time. Lady and I started off floating roe under the bridge and hooked a couple of mini-jacks and two boot-ish kings. Too many nibbles from the bait steelers so we through some hardware and nymphed an egg patern under a floating line and got a couple more jacks.

Moved upstream to kill time and started fishing the dump. Not too many guys there. Yet ;) Hooked a lot of wild fish, coho and kings, I'd say probably about half of the fish in there right now are native, which makes for a fun fight, but gotta throw 'em back.

Highlight of the day was this MONSTER that tore through my line and ran straight upstream. For some reason I'd grabbed my steelhead rod instead of my heavier salmon setup, and was playing this on 10 pound line. Took a little bit longer to get him in, but didn't waste many anglers time because he stayed in the hole probably about 10 seconds before zipping up and out. After a delicate battle on my light rod, inevitably I won and got him landed, native so he went back, but will be my biggest king of the year. This thing had to be an easy 30, I could barely get my arm around it. It sure was bright and feisty too. But back he went after a good forward back revival.

I picked up some hatchery coho as well and brought one home for the food saver. It was a good day.

Float roe down under the bridge and in the swimming hole, but if you get up to the dump bring your dental kit. Lots more fish to be dumped, and I know the park will be jumping with guys soon. Be kind and courteous and we'll all catch our fish. River is a creek right now, low as low gets, but still it's a dandy old time!

Nate Treat Fishing
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"Specializing in Fishing Instruction and Shore Guiding on Washington's Rivers."
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