Occupational loose ends tied up so I had a couple hours unaccounted for. I headed upriver to commune with my aquatic friends. I love this time of the year, crisp fall weather, the river is choked with a variety of fish and the freezers are already packed with both smoked and fresh frozen fish so I don’t need to bring a fish home. I get to go fishing just to pull on fish. After a quick, or not so quick stop for coffee (apparently everyone in Seeeedro had the same idea) I was headed up the South Skagit highway. Unfortunately all the easy access pullouts were packed so I just kept heading upriver until I was out of the crowds then headed down to the river.

I was fishing a point located in the middle of a long run where there was a current break, seam and a good pocket of froggy water. I had hauled a twitching rod, one of my drift rods, my 7 weight fly rod and an overflowing tackle bag along so I was ready for just about anything. I started out twitching a Black and purple ¼ ounce jig and it was hammer time. I was hooking both humpies and small coho like someone was out there pinning them on my hook. All fun but I figured that it was time to break out the fly rod. The first fly I tried was a fly I that I had tied a few years ago to target sockeye in the Baker Lake headwaters. The fly was blue and pink and tied on a very short shank hook. It took me a few casts to get my bearings but once I did it was fish on! I would make a 40-60’ cast then let the fly swing down across the seam into the froggy water and for over an hour I hooked a fish on every cast. They were mostly humpies with a few smaller coho and wild steelhead mixed in but who cares it was a blast. All fish were quickly released. My arm was getting tired so I decided to break out the drift rod, rig it with a float and jig and get down to business. Fishing the same seam the slaughter fest continued so I decided to up the ante a bit and fish the deeper, main flow of the river.

I switch to a black corkie/peach yarn on a 3 or 4’ leader and standard drift gear. A couple drifts in my line stops and as I am getting ready to break a snag off I realize that the snag is heading upstream, I had hooked a larger chinook and knew that I would be in for a battle. The fish surfaced a few times as it worked the area out in front of me but then the bronze backed leviathan decided to slowly fin it’s way downstream right on the surface and until it was out of sight. Oh well it was fun while it lasted and I had to release it anyway.

Only a few hours but it was a much needed time out from the daily grind. I caught a variety of fish and anytime you head home with a sore arm you know it was good times. How to rate this trip? Do I rate it a 2 for coho, steelhead or chinook or rate it as a 5 for humpies? No idea, it was a blast and as always fall fishing on the Skagit makes for an interesting trip.

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