Northwest Fishing Reports

I have been hearin alot about fishing for dollies lately where and and what are the best baits to use?

I'm hesitant to give this information out but i'm sure others will pitch in.

Skagit and Sauk are notorious for holding some nice big dollies. Reports of 10+ lber's have been coming in this year due to the huge pink run.
Skykomish is having a good dollie season as well.

as for bait...dollies feed heavily on salmon flesh, smolt, and eggs so use what you can but I stick with flies. I use big leachy things like Egg sucking leach, marabou, etc. Usually people catch dollies while fishing for steelies.

One thing I'll add is...its a great fish to catch on light tackle but PLEASE do not keep them. They aren't good table fare so keeping them for food purpose is pointless and the bulltrout fishery in WA is quickly dieing with just small numbers in limited rivers around WA. Plus its illegal in most WA waters to target, people just happen to catch them while steelhead fishing.

Per regulation:

You may NOT Retain wild STEELHEAD or DOLLY VARDEN/
BULL TROUT except where specially authorized
in the special rules.

Also:

DOLLY VARDEN/BULL TROU T to be released may not be totally removed from the water.

I counted a total of 9 rivers on the west side where it's legal to catch and keep them. There are specific time frames and 20" minimum size listed as well.

Up by Lake Cushman in Mason County there's supposedly some Dollies in the river there. I've had a friend say he's seen them there while he was hiking, haven't been there myself so not sure how reliable a source he could be lol.

Its possible. The OP rivers have a population of Dollies that are illegal to target, but they're there.

thanks I hope You all know I catch and release everything but bows and silvers, kings, lings, cats and white fish and burbot and lakers. and since dollies and bulls are a keystone speices I release them I think they are a very beautiful fish. PS I I do have a fisheries management degree and when avalible I do work for state fish and wild life

thanks driftercn83. Hope you took no offense to my suggestions of C&R. It's just that I've witnessed poaching and mistreatment of dollies and wild steelhead on these waters so much that its often better to bring more awareness on the issue on forums like this.

I was out on the Sauk a couple months ago with a friend who fishes it quite often. A man stumbled down the river with a bucket in his hand. When he walked by, he bragged about catching Dollies and showed us a bucket full of dead dollies, all small. Apparently he wasn't aware of the regulations and some words were exchanged between my friend and him and the man left all angry.

Anyway, good luck out there. Dollies are a blast to catch. I was using a 6wt fly rod with a big egg sucking leach fly when a 22" dollie slammed my fly and had my rod doubled over. Beautiful fish and great fighters.

people just dont know.

If your gonna target dollies go barbless and think spoons spoons and more spoons that are copper, they love to chase things down like a steelhead and a coho, but if i were you i would try not to target them since you cant keep them anywere. They are a great looking fish prolly my favorite looking trout by far and they are good fighters and well lot of spunk in those bad boys.

Fish On :Chum77

once again thanks for the input. I target one because I want to get some great shots for my website and two cause I am not interested in eating any fish from the state at this point.

chum77 wrote:They are a great looking fish prolly my favorite looking trout by far and they are good fighters and well lot of spunk in those bad boys.Fish On :Chum77

Actually the Dolly Varden is not a trout. The Dolly Varden "trout". Salvelinus malma malma, is a subspecies of anadromous fish in the salmon family, but it is technically a Char. Although many of the fish are anadromous, the fish also exists in landlocked waters. (Lake Andrew, Adak, AK. and surrounding streams for example)

Lake Andrew Photo:


In 1988 while I was in the Navy stationed on Adak Island, Alaska we used to target the Dollies regularly. The limit was 10 a day with 20 in possession. If we caught the land locked Dolly they were always released. Land locked Dollies taste like mud…Worst tasting fish that I ever ate. The sea run however was a whole different story. They smoked up great.

driftercn83 wrote:once again thanks for the input. I target one because I want to get some great shots for my website and two cause I am not interested in eating any fish from the state at this point.

Hey driftercn83, Here's a Sea Run Dolly photo for ya.

And to add to that Dollies are A char its cousin the lake trout and artic char live in colder water they are the southern most char as well.

add to that most "dolly vardens" you find in WA are actually bull trout which are genetically different. true dollies are much harder to come by in WA and mostly are much smaller and live up higher in elevation in remote rivers.

Nice rod btw Big D. I went to Mike's clinic and he handed me a TFO, and I went for his Meiser MKS

Great rod, blasts line like nobodys business.