Recent content by Smalma

While there a variety of ways to get your gear to the level the kokanee are at there is a reason that the vast majority of kokanee anglers fish with downriggers. Impossible to beat for ease of using, precision of presentation, and quick changes in the depth being fish. In the course of a...

No- This time of the year (water temps in the low to mid 50s) it is not uncommon to see schools on the surface and those fish can be caught flat lining- no weight place a long distance (150 feet or more) behind the boat. Kokanee are boat shy and the boat will push them away. Have even caught...

I suspect those "slime eels" would be ling cod candy, but fortunately the ocean ling cod fishery is robust one does need to mess with such nonsense.

My experience has been those dense schools are often the younger fish (1 to 3 years olds). Kokanee are kind of goofy in that typically in the spring/early summer the majority of the biters (say 86 to 90%) are maturing fish, that is will spawning that fall. Curt

Be warned before going down that kokanee rabbit hole. Collecting kokanee gear can be as addictive as tying more chironomid flies. My kokanee gear bag is as large as my lake fly fishing bag. Though my kokanee rod collection is only 1/2 of my fly rods The upside is that they are interesting...

skyriver- My read on the news release and what came out of NOF freshwater season the only sea-run fishing will be on the Snohomish itself when open for salmon - Mouth to mouth of Pilchuck 9/21 to October 31 and mouth of Pilchuck to confluence of Sky and Snoqualmie 10/1 to 10/31 as well as the...

A great quote indeed showing the need for an open mind for anyone looking in depth at a resource. Does their findings and reporting mean they are "Splitters" or "lumpers"? Reminds me of the early days of looking at our bull trout/native char. Every time something new was learned one or more...

Matt B - Thanks for the link! I don't know when it comes to looking at western North American genetic structuring whether that it was found that what we thought of as brook and river lamprey were the same species or that the region potentially supports 7 lamprey species. Curt

Have not done any in more than 25 years but it was always great to get close and in person with a school of our salmonids. Hands down the most stunning schools I ever had the pleasure of watching were large schools of bull in trout in the early fall. Seeing schools of maybe 50 fish in full...

The river lamprey while smaller (about 1/2 the size) than its cousin the Pacific lamprey is a pretty interesting critter. Like the Pacific it also migrates to the salt where it is parasitic feeding on other fish. Apparently some individuals instead of migrating to the salt will instead use...

The fish had spend considerable time in a hatchery (some sort of jumbo or brood fish) also had grown significantly once released in the wild. Look closely at the tail or anal fin rays. Those "wavy" fin rays near the outer edge of the tail mark the edge where the tail had been deformed and...

SkyRunner in post #73 you questioned "...the state's ability to conduct the various fisheries monitoring it has agreed to..." The state certainly has the tools to monitor those various fisheries, A solid statistical model (that has been reviewed a number of times), funding for test fishing to...

Teh osprey's meal is indeed a peamouth, one of our native minnow species. Seeing large numbers of those fish in a small creek in the spring (mid-May/June) would be typical of peamouth spawning run. During the period they have that characteristic red strip. They are found in our larger...

Recently received from Region IV WDFW enforcement staff; in 2023 on the Stillaguamish/NF/SF there were 67 tickets written and 39 warnings issued. In 2023 they were short staffed but with a transfer and a new hire they will soon be at full staffing. Curt

The tribe has not been an enthusiastic about freshwater fishing seasons and have demanded monitoring of any such fisheries. This is fair enough but in that framework I will continue to believe not taking advantage of additional impact or two to test the potential impact of a new season...