Went for a few hours out of Nisqually John landing to see if there are any SMB biting. Fall can be really hit or miss in my experience. Still haven't figured things out. First spot was completely dead. Fished a point across from the launch that has produced in the past, started a search with diving crankbaits around shoreline boulders and a dropoff. No bites except for one small one near the shoreline that came undone. Switched to plastics in 20 FOW just in case, nothing. Trolled around a little, not seeing anything much on the finder, did see a couple of marks on the dropoff hugging bottom at about 30 ft. Decided that the fish weren't there. There was definitely salmon/steelhead activity, probably 6 or 7 boils on the surface in the hour. Weather nice though, felt like I was going to get a sunburn.

Decided to make a move and try some shallow flats upriver. Started searching with a DT6 crankbait around a submerged boulder line. Right away, got bit before the bait had started its dive. First hookup good sized SMB around 15 inches but pretty skinny. Then it was on. Got about 6 in the same 10 x 20 foot area, so they seemed concentrated. All were in the 14-16 range. Slowed down a bit, but got a few more followers that hooked up close to the boat. Switched over to weightless senko and caught a few more. Kind of amazed that they were all 12-16 inchers, usually there would be some dinks mixed in. Started moving around the area a bit picking up a couple, including the best one of the day, a slab that probably had a bunch of crawfish in its stomach (2lb13oz; 17 in). All in all, great fishing probably got lucky and found them and they were hungry. I don't know for sure, but I think the fish are migrating this time of the year. It could have been one of those days where I figured the fall bite is over if I had fished a different spot.

Water temp was 67, lots of steelhead(?) fishers out there, saw about 15-20 boats around the clearwater/snake confluence area. Great start to the fall fishing for me, hope my luck holds on big rainbows and browns in Rock and Sprague Lake looking forward to some great Oct/Nov action.

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