East of Duvall, eh?
Not sure if you've been watching the stream flows the few past weeks or so but the NF Snoqualmie for instance spiked at a near-record 14,000 cfs a while back. With flows that high, what are normally 'trickle-tribs' could easily swell to a size adequate for a directionally-challenged salmonid to mistakenly end up in the wrong neck of the woods and no way back once flows subsided.
OTOH, having fished with you in the past, I'm not sure that David Holmes' explanation might not be closer to the mark (Maker's Mark, that is :-)
BIIIIIGGGGG grin!
K
I had a rather weird and eye-opening experience yesterday. I went up to my favorite little beaver pond east of Duvall - a place I call my Tomato Juice Pond (since it helps to get the skunk off of me during these down months of Winter). I always catch several of the spunky little coastal cutts that inhabit the pond in large numbers. Nothing over about 11", but very satisfying with a 2wt and a pipeful of tobacco.
Anyway, as I launched in the dreary slow rain, I didn't see any rises like I usually do, but I heard and saw the splash of what I thought was the local Beaver - giving me the tailslap that they do when startled or pissed off. I worked my way out into the pond - which is about 3-4 acres in size - and worked my way over to the corner that usually has most of the fish. Fishing a beadhead chironomid under an Irresistable Adams, I fished the outlet to the pond, with no real luck. As I worked my way around to the other side, I heard the splash again, and glanced back to see how close the "beaver" was. Much to my surprise out pops this Salmon - side jumping like he was trying to shake off sealice! Later I saw him swim by me (remember this is a TINY pond), and he jumped again about every 15-20 minutes. Invariably I was looking away when he did, but a couple of times I caught sight of him and he was dark with what I thought was a dark red body (Coho?) and about 8-10 lbs.
What I'm wondering is why a salmon would be so far up the system (I believe this pond is on a trickle-trib to Cherry Creek), and even more surprised that he'd still be alive and kicking as strongly as if he was on the Snohomish River!
I didn't catch any cutts, but I did catch a number of what I can only describe as Kokanee - large eyes (for their body size), silverish with no spots on their sides, but small spots on the top - purplish golden parr markings, trout-like mouths, deep vee-shaped tail vs. squared off tails like trout have.
They were all in the 5-8" size and hit both the Adams and the chironomid.
I guess I'm curious to hear from the biologists (professional AND amateur) on the board as to whether this occurrence of a lively salmon this far up into a beaver pond is unusual. Also, I thought Kokanee were landlocked Sockeyes, and this didn't look like a sockeye jumping around - looked more like a Silver. Is it possible the fish I was catching were silver smolts, or were they really Kokanee? I wonder if the presense of salmon in the pond has driven out the cutties, since I didn't catch any - just the "kokes". I've fished this pond several times a year for the past 4 years, and I've always caught cutts, and have never caught anything else.
Anyway, it was the weirdest day of fishing I've had in quite a while.
Sean
