It's been awhile since I've seen a report on the Skagit, so thought I would contribute by submitting one and hopefully encourage others to jump in.
My wife and I launched the boat around 5:30pm. We anchored up a bit downstream of downtown Mount Vernon. River is running fairly high and is pretty silty for this time of year, I suspect from snow melt due to temps near 100 last week. Visibility I would say was about 1 foot. I've been watching the river the past several days and it was even higher and murkier days prior.

Rigged my wife's pole with a spin n glo on a 3 foot leader. Didn't stop to get sandshrimp, but did tip the hook with a worm I dug out of my compost pile. Bait is allowed on the Skagit, but is not permitted on several other rivers...check the regs!

For those of you new to salmon fishing in the Skagit, plunking is an easy and pretty reliable method for catching pinks. Off your main line you'll need a 3-way swivel. Your spin n glo will go off one of the T's and a drop weight will go off the other. I use a 3-4 oz weight typically, but depends on the river flow. I use a drop line that is about 12 inches long....I like to fish near the river bottom as it seems that is where many fish typically hold.

For my pole, I decided to try some drift fishing with corkies and Dick Nites. I have caught a lot of fish with this method in the Stillaguamish, but have been less successful on the Skagit....didn't have any luck with this method today.

We saw a good number of rollers and jumpers from the moment we got on the water, but didn't have any action for the first two hours.
Around 7:30pm, saw a small change in action on the Spin n Glo...definitely a nibbler. 30 seconds later we had a committed bite and it was fish on. Boated a nice bright 4-5 lb buck. Gave a really nice fight for the size of fish. Made a couple runs and was dancing on his tail for a bit. Good to be fishing again!

Had a few other nibblers after the catch, but no more hookups. Headed home around 8:00pm.

Nice night of fishing and good to see so many fish in the river for pretty early in the river run. Excited to get out again soon.

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