My five day fishing extravaganza continued today as I fished with Nate Treat, his BIL Jason, and Aaron. We did the Skykomish/Snohomish drift from Tualco Rd to Cady Park. The Tualco launch is for drift boats. It’s a steep drop off to the river, located about a mile downstream of Lewis St. The entire drift is around 12 miles? We had my 8 HP motor on Nate’s drift boat in order to motor through the frog water. Even so, it was a long day – 11 hours. I got to see several stretches of water I’d never seen before. It was very cool and I really appreciated Nate taking Aaron and myself down the river. In particular, after our mediocre at best saltwater day I was hoping Aaron would have some fun with the pinks in the river.

We were not disappointed!

We fished multiple wonderful holes, some with other boaters, and others all to ourselves. The river is now full of pinks in all holes. The ones this far up are not as bright, but still had shine to them and no humps. I’m sure that will change quickly.

Gear that worked – standard pink jigs bounced off bottom, better with shrimp tail. Shrimp off a float was effective also. My personal favorite – small thin blade spoons, both the “name brand” and also the Danielson variety which I scored last year for .67 cents each. May not have the famous name, but they worked just as well. 3-4 foot leader to a small slinky (I never snagged once, every one pulled out). Cast out against a rocky shore, start a slow retrieve, and BAMM! Fish On. Easy as could be.

We were going light gear and lost as many as we caught. Ended up with limits for Aaron and myself. No complaints, what a fun day on the water! Weather was perfect, a bit of rain at the end (not bad) and some shallows we had to wade the driftboat through, but otherwise a 5 star day. Nate’s boat relly is a pleasure to fish in!

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