The salmon spawn is on

After my previous fishing trip, I had planned to get out on the water as soon as possible to catch the first major wave of spawners entering the river, but life or more specifically, COVID had other plans and made sure that fishing was not in the cards for the foreseeable future. Luckily, by the time early September rolled around and the salmon spawn really got going, I was back up and running, and Dyllon and I were able to pull away for an afternoon of fishing.

A beautiful day to be on the river

Compared to our last outing, we lucked out on the weather this time and had a bluebird afternoon with the river all to ourselves, and better yet, the salmon were starting to spawn in earnest. I started out in a small side channel of the river, where a female Chinook was actively digging a redd, surrounded by five satellite males. However, after a couple of casts failed to produce any signs of trout and one of the males went after my bead rig, I decided to move on to a riffle just upstream, where Dyllon had already hooked one trout. It didn't take long for me to hook into a decent fish as well. After a short fight with plenty of jumping and several good runs, I brought a beautiful leopard-spotted native Coastal Rainbow to hand.

A beautiful, heavily spotted native Rainbow

After I released that fish, we continued to work the side channel for another 30 minutes, hooking into several other fish but only managing to land a couple of smaller trout. After covering that piece of water, we headed further upstream, but the fishing proved to be slower than usual. However, after a couple of bends, we found an area where the salmon were really packed in and started getting into some trout again.

Salmon on their redds

While we did hook into a few decent fish, we did manage to land any, but I did get one particularly interesting looking Rainbow that was dime bright and had a spotting pattern more typically of a steelhead. 

A surprisingly bright Rainbow

Several years back, it was fish similar to this one that sparked a research project was part of affectionately called the "Biggie Smalls Project," (bigger than typical stream resident Rainbows but smaller than typical steelhead) which was focused on investigating whether these mid-size (14" to 20") Rainbows were using marine waters for part of their life. For that project, we looked at the micro-chemistry of non-lethally extracted pectoral fin rays to see whether any of our sampled fish had been in marine water. What we found was that most of the Rainbows in this size class appeared to be lifelong freshwater inhabitants, with all of the fish that were definitely anadromous either being Coastal Cutthroat or Cutthroat-Rainbow hybrids. We also found that the Rainbows were able to reach their larger sizes due to marine-derived food from Pacific Salmon and other species (lamprey). However, we weren't able to fully rule out that the fish weren't doing short-term migrations between watersheds, as a recent study by Munsch et al. showed is happening, we did find some evidence of this as well, with tagged fish turning of in distant watersheds and fish from a nearby conservation hatchery end up in our watershed. Whether or not this fish was just a bright individual, a late smolt, or a marine wanderer is something I will have to scratch my head about, but it was a fun encounter.

At this point, we had covered quite a bit of water, and the sun was starting to get low in the sky, so it was time to pull ourselves away from the river, although I certainly had plans in place to return soon.

Time to hit the road

And about a week after Dyllon and I hit the river, I did indeed return, and this time was to share this fishery with a couple of my Trout Unlimited colleagues Rob and Alexei. It is always amazing what a difference a week makes during the salmon spawning season, as by this point the Chinook were starting to tail off and the Chum, while still dense and actively spawning were starting to show much more wear than they had on my previous outing.

We started off on the same section of water where Dyllon and I had started our day and as neither Alexei or Rob had fished this river before I walked them through the tactics I use and put them on some of my favorite water. While the did have several hookups, this fishing proved to be a little slower than usual.

Alexei working a good stretch of water

Before we headed upstream to try some more promising water, I decided to give one of the more challenging pieces of water where you have to get just the right cast to get your gear to drift over a bucket with thick vegetation over it. After a couple of tries, I got that drift, and right before I thought it was a dud and I was going to have to pull my gear out, my indicator shot under, and I hooked into a nice fish. While the Rainbows typically immediately shoot out of the water, this fish stayed down and deep, but wasn't afraid to take a run into the next pool downstream. However, I had a solid hookset, and after a couple of minutes, I brought a gorgeous, thick upper teens Coastal Cutthroat to the net.

My first fish of the day, a beautiful, bright native Cutthroat

Admiring my Cutthroat before release

After releasing the Cutthroat, we continued upstream to a hole where Dyllon and I had hooked a few fish the week before. I had Rob and Alexei work this spot as I really wanted to see that get into some fish and it didn't take long before Rob hooked a decent Rainbow, that despite not being on of the big ones we were looking for put up a nice fight before coming to the net.

A heavily spotted native Rainbow

After netting and releasing that first fish, I decided to play around photographing some of the salmon with an underwater housing that I got for my phone. While my phone's camera isn't the best, I was pretty happy with how the shot below turned out.

  

Chum Salmon on the spawning grounds

Releasing a Rainbow

After the fishing slowed down at this hole, we headed upstream to try one last piece of water. I had Alexei and Rob work a riffle that has been one of the best producers in my experience, while I tried a shallow riffle just upstream that has been hit or miss at best, and where I hadn't previously had any luck as flows as low as we had on this outing. However, there is a first for everything, and after a couple casts behind a late pair of spawning Chinook at the head of the riffle where the water was only about 8" to 12" deep, my indicator shot under, and I hooked into an absolutely massive Rainbow. When the fish rolled, it was so thick, I was half surprised that I hadn't seen its back sticking out of the water. After that, the fish started to run, and unfortunately, as this had been a particularly long cast, I don't think I had the best hook set, and as the fish made a head shake, my rig came fly back at me. If I had to guess I would place this fish somewhere between 23" and 25". Fish this size are a rarity in the river and I my experience typically only get one or two shots at these big Rainbows, which made losing this one hurt all the more.

After collecting myself and getting my head back in the game I decided to put another cast in where I had hooked the big Rainbow on the off chance that he might come back, after all I did once catch the same 18" Rainbow on back to back casts in a nearby watershed. As luck would have it, my indicator drift a few feet past where the big one had been hold and immediate shot under again. Upon hooking into this fish, while it was good sized, it was clear a different and smaller Rainbow but still put up a great fight before I managed to bring it to the net.

A solid Rainbow

Just after I returned downstream, Rob hooked into a decent fish, but after I got an eye on it, it was clear that it wasn't a trout, but I was having a hard time determining what species of salmon it was. After a few minutes of tug of war, we finally netted the fish which left me scratching my head regarding what it was. The color of the fish was a gold hue that I typically see on spawning Chinook in the region, and it also had the large, irregular spots typical of a Chinook. However, there were also some significant Chum traits, such as the purple bar along the side. While I wish I would have grabbed a fin clip so we could verify it, but after looking at the picture and sharing it with several experts in the fisheries field, I can only conclude that Rob managed to catch a Chum x Chinook Salmon hybrid or Chumook if you will. 

What appears to be the first Chum x Chinook hybrid I have ever seen

This fish being a hybrid also makes sense from a fish return perspective, as largely due to poor hatchery practices, the Chinook in this system return unusually early, and in my last blog post, we indicated that we had encountered our first spawning Chinook on August 18th.  On top of that, this specific river has an early spawning Chum Salmon population, which has significant overlap with Chinook spawning in both time and space. In fact, in the run just upstream, Chinook and Chum were spawning within just a few feet of each other.

After releasing the Chumook, Rob and Alexei picked up a few more Rainbows, but we had pretty much covered the water at this point, and it was time to call it a day.

The circle of life

Rainy season Chum Salmon

After my outing with Steve in August, I learned that he still had yet to catch two species of Pacific salmon: Chum and Coho. When I mentioned to him that both of these species can usually be found in good numbers during the fall in Washington, he started planning another trip and as it turned out both of our schedules lined up at the end of October. However, as we got closer to the trip, one complication arose - the weather.

While most years early fall is actually a pretty nice time of the year in western Washington, this year is a La Niña year. Meaning wetter than normal weather and has it ever been wet, with more than double the normal rain during October. This meant that when Steve arrived, pretty much every river was nearing flood stage and as such our only option was to try our luck in the saltwater.

This however, was also going to be a long shot as we were just coming off a major rain and most salmon will pass right through the estuaries and into the rivers following a good rain and it usually takes several days for them to stack up again. Despite this, we were good to put in our best shot at finding some fish. Our first spot that we checked out was the mouth of a small stream that has a modest Chum run, but will often draw in large numbers Chum Salmon sniffing for their natal waters as they head deeper into Puget Sound. I have had excellent success at this spot in the past during the same time of year, but have also found in vacant of Chum on other occasions.  Unfortunately this time it was the latter situation, as there were some post spawn Chum in the creek, but we only saw a couple roll in the estuary during the two hours that we tried our luck.

First spot of the day - no fish...

For me this spot was a bit of a litmus test for the day and as there were almost no salmon there, I knew that we were going to have a hard time finding any fish. Luckily for Steve, there was on sure-fire spot in front of a local hatchery that we could try, but would would have to put up with some crowds to do so. Being that it was a weekday, luckily the crowds were not as bad as they could be and given the number of Chum trying to get back, the hatchery trap was closed, meaning that there was quite the captive audience of Chum waiting for us. By crossing the creek mouth, we were able to get away from the crowds a bit, but with the tide rising so we would only have an hour or two before we had to relocate. I started out with chartreuse comet, while Steve was using a spinning rod with an orange vibrax spinner. With the Chum held up in front of us, it didn't take long for us to tie into some fish and I started things off by bringing a decent hen to hand after just a few of casts. Steve had several fish on that popped off, but finally got a solid connection and after a few minutes brought a bright female chum to shore as well, checking another species off his list.

Steve's first Chum Salmon

After Steve's fish, we noted that the tide was coming up faster than we anticipated and we knew that we were running short on time. However we figured we had a few cast left, and before long I managed to hook into another, slightly larger Chum. After several good runs and a bit of tug of war I was able to bring this one to hand as well. I turned out to be a decent buck this time, but with that fish it was time for us to get across the creek and head to another beach.

My buck Chum

As we had checked the Chum off we decided that we would grab lunch, then head for a beach that had a reasonable chance of having some Coho around. We gave this beach a couple of hours, during which we had a handful of Chum swim by, but had no grabs and saw no Coho jumpers and as things didn't show any sign of improving we decided to move on.

Beach #3 - no fish...

Since it didn't seem likely that we would find any adult Coho in the saltwater still, I figured our best bet might be to look for some smaller resident Coho and possibly some sea-run Cutthroat. However, at this point the tide was really up, which made things challenging. We ended up trying two more spots but still saw now sign of fish and as our daylight was starting to fail we opted to call it a day, having at least gone 1 for 2. Hopefully we can get a Coho for Steve next time. 

Unfortunately, a side affect of this trip and doing too many of double haul casts, was that I woke up the next day with a serious kink in my shoulder that refused to go away. After after putting up with it for a couple weeks a I learned that I either sprained or tore a muscle in my rotator cuff on my left side so there won't be any fishing for me any time soon (at least it is the off season...).

While I may not be able to go fishing, I have still at least been able to get out fish watching a couple of times at a local creek. The Chum runs to this creek are among the best in years and it has been a fun place to enjoy watching these fish and just to be in the great outdoors with my family.

The local Chum creek

Chum Salmon on a spawning flat

A Chum Salmon spawning pair

Fall Salmon Spawn

With the start of fall, the leaves are changing colors and the first major rains of the season have hit western Washington. With that rain, the salmon have started to ascend the rivers in earnest and for those that know where to look, there are a number under the radar trout fisheries that really come alive once the salmon start spawning that under the right conditions can rival fisheries in Alaska. 

I recently, Chris and I had a day free to visit one of these fisheries and it seemed that our timing was spot on. When we arrived at the river, the first thing we saw was a pair of Chum Salmon sitting on a redd, telling us that the trout should be looking for eggs. Despite several pairs of Chum Salmon spawning above the first run that we tried, we failed to find any fish. However, just upstream of this the river braided into three channels and two of these were stacked with spawning salmon. Chris took one side and I took the other side. At the top of the side channel that I choose there was a fast riffle that dropped into a nice pocket. A classic spawning season holding water, providing a steady supply of eggs from spawning fish upstream, but being too fast for salmon to want to hold in the same water. I positioned myself just upstream of this slot and on the first drift, my egg imitation had barely gone over the lip of the pool when my indicator shot under the surface. Upon setting the hook, I could tell that this trout was no push over and unfortunately for me this was not going to be an easy spot to land a fish as both sides of the pocket we brushy meaning I would have to get the fish to come upstream. This led to a series of tug of wars with a fish that I got a good look at several times and could tell was well over 20". Despite a decent hook set, I just could not get this fish up over the lip of the pool and after a few minutes the trout finally won the battle and threw the hook.

Spawning Chum Salmon

Chris's side channel had only produced one small fish and as my fish had certainly spooked anything holding in the pool we decided to continue upstream, especially as we both knew there was some great water ahead of us. Not to far upstream Chris spotted a nice Rainbow that was holding in shallow water not far from some spawners. While took a few casts, Chris was able to get a good drift and as able to bring a nice 18" Rainbow to hand.

A spawned out Chum Salmon

A nice native Coastal Rainbow Trout

The next spot upstream was a slow moving trench that screamed sea-run Cutthroat water, but instead Chris got another similarly sized Rainbow, while I got a nice Pink Salmon on a streamer.

A Pink Salmon on a black sclupin pattern

The next two runs upstream were some of the best water we saw all day, but oddly seemed to be devoid of large fish and only held a few smolt sized fish. This may have been due to the spawners here being predominately Pink Salmon, which trout seem to avoid and also appear to select against eating Pink eggs compared to other species. We did find one little riffle with a pair of Chinook spawning at the top and this was where we ran into some Coastal Cutthroat, with Chris picking up a couple of nice fish.

A particularly spotty Cutthroat

After this, we decided that it was time to head back downstream as the best luck we had so far had been right near where we started. In area where Chris had gotten his first Rainbow, both Chris and I managed to pick up a nice Coastal Cutthroat. Additionally, as the side channel I had started at had gotten a nice rest, I got another shot at it and this time was able to pick up a decent albeit much smaller Rainbow, which this time I successfully got over the lip of the pool and landed. 

An egg eating Coastal Cutthroat

A bright native Cutthroat

Downstream of here, Chris and I picked up a handful of decent fish before coming to the best looking water of the day where a tributary entered the river forming a deep trench. It was here that I again hooked into another big Rainbow. This fish took several long runs almost making it into the backing before was able to turn it and bring it to shore where Chris netted it. While not quite as big as the one that I had hooked earlier in the day this 20" Rainbow definitely made the trip for me and was a great way to finish off the day.

My big egg eating Rainbow

A fat native Coastal Rainbow Trout, a great way to end the day

Olympics Top to Bottom

This past Thursday my buddies Colton, Jonathan and I, along with Jonathan's father-in-law Gene headed over to the Olympic Peninsula to try out luck for some Coho Salmon. With a good Coho run forecasted this year we were hoping that we might be able to find a few hatchery fish to remove from the gene pool and relocate to our BBQ's. So with high hopes we planned our dawn patrol out, and by first light we were hiking out to the mouth of the river to try our luck with these silver bullets. We all started out fishing the tidewater with 8wt rods and intermediate lines and it didn't take long to spot some fish. The problem with Coho is typically not finding them, but instead finding what they want to bite. As these fish stop feeding in fresh water, sometimes that is much easier said than done.

The mouth of the stream

Persistence generally pays off in cases like this, but this day the Coho just didn't seem to want to cooperate. After numerous fly changes I had a couple grabs during the outgoing tide, but Colton was the only one to actually catch anything. Only it wasn't a Coho, instead was a much rarer summer run Chum.

Colton's first Chum Salmon on the fly

As the tide started pushing in we had a few more grabs from Coho and even a couple of short hook ups, but couldn't put it all together. Finally we moved upstream to where the stream was flowing a bit and found a corner that was holding some fish. At this point I had switched over to a nymphing setup and it didn't take long to find a fish that wanted to grab. The only surprise was that it wasn't a Coho, but a Pink. Another rarity for this stream.

An Olympic Pink Salmon

These pinks seemed to have a thing for egg patterns and while there were also Coho and Chum in this spot, the Pinks seemed much more grabby. However, this is not to say that the Coho and Chum weren't biting either, just once again we couldn't put things together with to Coho. This seems like the revival of my old curse from last year where I landed the last one out of the 13 or so Coho I hooked. At this point of the outing I was probably at around 0 for 5 Coho hooked this season. As it would be the next fish I hooked was a Chum...

My first Chum Salmon of the year

At this point Jonathan and Gene who had been fishing another area caught up with us and we turned the hole over to them. Within a half hour everybody had caught and released a Pink Salmon for the day and the skunk was off.

A nice buck Pink Salmon

Gene with the big Pink of the day

After catching their fish for the day Jonathan and Gene decided to call it quits and head back home, while Colton and I just decided it was time for a venue change. So we changed from salmon to trout and headed in to the mountains to fish the headwaters of one of the Olympic streams. The stream was high gradient, rough and tumble, and flowed through a beautiful old growth canyon making any fish a bonus.

Olympic native trout waters

However, there would be plenty of bonus's as there were plenty of native Coastal Rainbow Trout to go around. After the lock-jawed salmon these small but willing trout were a nice change and every little pocket had at least a few of the dry fly loving feisty little natives.

An average Rainbow Trout

We worked our way upstream catch plenty of trout until the canyon became to tight and we decided to head back to the car.

Ever the diehards though, we decided to give one more try at the Coho thing. This time we fished the river itself instead of the estuary. While there were some fish in the river, the numbers were not as impressive as at the mouth, so we decided to head downstream to some better holding water that I had found a few year back. There were a few fish down here and while Colton didn't have any luck I had a several minute encounter with another Chum that used a log across the river to get out of a photo op. I also got my shot at that Coho, which gave my a good run followed by a farewell jump before throwing the fly bringing my total up to 0 for 6. Oh well next time. All and all I would call it a great day!

Evergreen State Anadromous Challenge Complete!

First off this is an unofficial challenge that I set out to complete a couple of years ago, to catch (on a fly) and photograph the anadromous form of every salmonid in the State of Washington. While this challenge should have been completed back in October, however all of the coastal variety of steelhead that I had caught had been slightly too crafty for me to get a picture. A couple of weeks ago that changed and I finally finished this mini-quest off.

Steelhead - Coastal Rainbow Trout - Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus

Steelhead - Columbia Basin Redband - Oncorhynchus mykiss gairdneri

Coastal Cutthroat Trout - Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii

Bull Trout - Salvelinus confluentus

Chinook Salmon - Oncorhynchus tshawytscha

Coho Salmon - Oncorhynchus kisutch

Chum Salmon - Oncorhynchus keta

Pink Salmon - Oncorhynchus gorbuscha

Sockeye Salmon - Oncorhynchus nerka

It is possible that sea-run Dolly Varden may also exist in Washington State, but I have not found any evidence yet to show that the anadromous char found in our waters are anything but Bull Trout. Plus the fact that it is challenging to tell the two species apart without a genetic test would make it near impossible to prove that a fish is a Dolly and not a Bull, so I consider the quest complete!

Fall Chumin'

Fall is a great time to fish in Washington, especially if you are not too averse to fishing in inclement weather. One my favorite things to do this time of the year is chasing after the Chum Salmon that flood into the countless small streams draining to the Puget Sound. While Chum Salmon are often looked down upon by anglers due to their poorer quality as table fair, they certainly offer everything that one could ask for out of a game fish and more than some of the more respected species can claim. These salmon are brutish battlers, being the both the second largest and second most abundant Pacific salmon. Chum arrive in good numbers and go nuts when hooked. They are great jumpers with my personal record being one that jumped 9 times before coming to hand. As if their jumping ability wasn't enough, these fish can peel some serious line off of a reel and as the fastest swimming of the Pacific salmon seeing backing is a regular occurrence. So while some continue to hold prejudices against these amazing fish, I like to enjoy what I view as a world class fishery in my back yard. (Literally... a Chum Salmon stream flows through the woods behind my house!)

Chum time

This year has been a bit of strange Chum year, with an unusually high number of torrential rainstorms throughout October, the fish have been early and in many cases have not paused long enough to be targeted in the estuaries. However, with so many streams hosting these fish there is always somewhere to look.

Spot A... No chum...

My first few trips for Chum where like false starts, with several hook ups and even a brief run in with Coho number 7 (7th hooked and lost this year...), but nothing landed. This is even with the factor of covering some serious ground, from my home streams to the Olympic Peninsula.

Spot B... No chum.... But breath taking views....

Spot C... Chum in the creeks (find the Chum;) Big Chum hooked and lost and Coho lost ... Nothing to hand

However, after these false starts things started to improve once I directed my attention at the later timed runs a little closer to home. Chum will respond to a variety of tactics from stripping flies to dead drifted indicator fishing and it is always fun to sample a variety of tactics throughout the season. So the other day while fishing with Colton and Jonathan I did a bit of everything, although the dead drift seemed to be the favorite on the high tide. In fact within the first half hour it resulted in two fish landed for me and two more lost.

Chum #1 a beautiful hen

Stripping flies is a bit more complicated though, as like other salmon species Chum do not eat out of hunger once they get near fresh water, but instead it is more about aggression. With certain colors triggering that response better than others sometimes the stars just have to align right for a fish that doesn't want to eat any to grab a fly. Chartreuse, blue, purple, cerise and other bright tones all seem to work well, but when one fails to get a response you can't be afraid to change things up. In the morning apparently blue was the ticket...

A release for me (#2) and a jumping Chum for Jonathan (a bit of blurring to protect a sensitive run)

Chum #3 of the day for me...

Blue may have been the ticket, but Chum being the battlers that they are thinned out our fly boxes quicker then planned after a few break offs and it was back to the drawing board. When I did finally find the fly again, a chartreuse and orange prawn fished with a slow retrieve it resulted in two loooong-distance releases within 10 casts before a third fish finally broke it off.

However, stripped flies have their place and once the Chum pack into an area to thick, accidentally snagging fish become a serious consideration and a dead drifted fly is a better choice. As the tide started to drop again, the Chum packed in and both Jonathan and I went back to indicators and for him the stars aligned and his first fly caught chum became a reality!

Jonathan's first Chum!

With another three weeks on the season in the saltwater it is definitely looking like its gonna be a fun fishery this year!