Pinks move north to Stillaguamish, Skagit

Published 8:34 am Wednesday, August 24, 2011

It appears that the pink salmon have moved from the south Puget Sound to Snohomish County saltwater areas and rivers and further north.

At my fly fishing club meeting Tuesday night, a member who lives on the saltwater near the Stillaguamish River said he had been catching a few fish and that he saw a tribal commercial fisherman take 4,000 pinks in a single set near Kayak Point.

That jives with a conversation I had with The Herald’s outdoor writer, Wayne Kruse, this morning.

Wayne said a big slug of pinks came into Snohomish County after the recent rains.

He said that because the rivers have a fair amount of water in them, pinks aren’t hanging around in the saltwater for long periods of time, but are heading in their home rivers.

There haven’t been a lot of fish in the rivers, but there are more now and it should continue to get better.

Remember that the Snohomish and Skykomish are open for humpies, but the Stillaguamish River doesn’t open for humpies until Sept. 1. When it opens, you’ll need to be using a single, barbless hook.

Also remember that the area at the diversion dam (just below I-5 on the Stilly) and downriver for 3.5 miles is closed. The state will be ticketing anglers in that area, so be forewarned.

As to the pinks finally starting to show up. I can’t help but mention that I called for rain in this blog on Sunday morning to bring in more pinks. It immediately rained and more humpies showed up.

Not that I have super powers or anything. But I’m just saying.

In one of the fishing reports at the Evergreen Fly Fishing Club meeting, I heard about one member who was fishing for summer run steelhead on the north fork of the Stillaguamish and caught and released a pink on a dry fly, an October caddis.

I’ve seen pinks take dry fly patterns in the saltwater, but I’ve never caught one in the river that way.