James, thanks for the advice below. I took a few hours the other afternoon
and wandered up to the Sky, upstream from the Lewis St. bridge a few miles along
the Ben Howard road. Using the technique below I was able to catch humpies
until my back and arms ached. 90 percent of them were fair hooked.
Didn't matter what color fly I used. I just used a beadhead leech type
pattern with floating line, floro leader, and just cast out across and let it
swing down and them retreived in short strips. I stopped counting salmon
at about 20 and had a ball. I had several break off from the 8 lb floro I
was using, several straightened hooks and one where the hook broke at the
bend. What a blast! With my back screaming from the effort landing
these on my 6 weight, I even thanked one salmon, which was probably about 5 lbs,
for being small and not as mean to my back as his bigger brothers. I also
noticed a fair amount of smaller silvers, but did not hook any of those.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2003 3:02
PM
Subject: RE: new to the group--Pinks on
the Sky[Scanned]
Patrick,
Take a
simple pink marabou fly, size 6, (cherise shade of pink) and use a 9-15 ft
leader. Dumbell eyes on the fly are good. Quarter your cast down
stream or just cast straight across the current. ONe mend upstream will
help you to sink the fly. Let the fly swing in the current until it is
straight below you. Strip the fly in using short quick strips of
4". The fish should hook itself on the take.
Look for
riffles and fish the current seam. Also look for slow to moderate runs
4-10' deep.
To avoid
snagging the pinks, don't fish the spawning reds. The reds are usually
in slower/shallower water. You'll see cleaner gravel where the fish
spawn.
Last, if
you see a lot of fish swimming by, you'll likely not catch them. You
need to look for fish that are resting, but not spawning.
My m.o. is
to move around and cover a lot of water until i find aggressive
fish.
I have
caught about 20 pinks in two trips using this method on the skykomish over the
last two weekends near Monroe.
I've only
snagged a couple.
Oh
yeah---use a floating line. the deeper the water, the longer the
leader. Long leaders can be tough for novices, so just do your
best.
Good
luck,
james
james
Greetings--my name is Patrick Nave
and I am a new disciple of fly fishing and have fallen in love with the
sport. It is an incredible feeling to be in the middle of a river and
just being in touch with all nature has to offer. I hail from the
great state of Michigan and have been living in the wonderful northwest
(near to Everett) for the last 3.5 years. Any advice you can offer I
will gladly accept. For the last two weeks I have been trying to catch
a salmon on the Sky with one catch to my credit. What a
feeling.
Patrick Nave
