A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The River: Skagit Chinook ’09 (Part II) 1

The noon opener on Thursday, July 9 on the Skagit River allowed a guy to sleep in and enjoy a leisurely, carefree, mid-morning drive to the ol’ crick…
   Then the phone rang.
“Hello.”
“Is This Tom Nelson?”
“Yup, who’s this?”
“Hi Tom, Matt Markovich of KOMO 4 News here. Are you heading for the Skagit this morning?”
“Uh oh,… I mean… uh, yeah, I am”
“Are you going fishing?”
“Well yes, as a matter of fact.”
“Do you have room in your boat for two more? We would like to do a feature on the first Skagit opener in 16 years.”
“Yeah, but how did you get ahold of me?
“I read your Skagit blog and called ESPN.”

Suddenly, two thoughts fought for frontal position in the quivering mass of vanilla pudding I call a brain:
One, my little, no pressure Skagit opener with my dog and son had just become a mass media event and two, someone at the Eastlake Avenue studios of 710 ESPN Seattle had a massive, possibly terminal wedgie coming…
We set up a meet at Blakes Resort on the lower North Fork and I began  to see my fishing time start to evaporate.

Matt Markovich and his camera gal turned out to be very nice folks. We loaded their gear and as soon as I fired up the Wooldridge Dawg Sled they fired up the camera. We ran from Blakes up to one of my honey holes stopping frequently to chat with,…and film… the inhabitants of every hogline on the crick.

Once we got to drop the anchor and started fishing, the interview began in earnest.  

Talk about cameras in your face! Markovich gets a close-up as he takes his turn running some gear.  

News deadlines are the pits! I’ve got to explain, on camera, why 30 minutes is just not enough time to catch a Skagit king…  

Seriously, Matt and his crew were great to work with, took time to understand the significance of actually GAINING recreational fishing opportunities and got a good feeling for the fishery.  

Friday morning dawned on the first full day of the season and an old Skagit pro Bill Burskens fights his first Skagit king in a decade and a half!  

It’s in the bag! Score one for Bill and his buddy and it’s not even light yet!  

A chrome chunky king is the reward for patiently sitting on the anchor and waiting for the fish to come to you. Bill had to wait approximately 35 seconds…

I’m not even kidding! I was already on the anchor when Bill got there. He hooked the fish and as I was taking the above pictures of him fighting his fish he threw the verbal harpoon:
“I saw you on the news last night Tom, and I thought:  Wow, it would be great to hook a fish and play it as I drifted past you…”

The harpoon found it’s mark… And, Bill got his wish and this fish!  

The “Duck Shack gang” forms their own camouflage hogline.  

Fun in the sun! Note the great anchoring positioning of this hogline: all the sterns are lined up so a hot king is less likely to foul neighboring gear.  

The only problem with the above picture is that there is only one boat with his anchor-float in the water. It’s very important to have the ability to throw your float and drift down river to fight your king. For this reason,  don’t anchor too closely below (downriver from) an existing hogline. Instead, join the line if there’s room. It’s a great way to find the traveling lane, learn new techniques and make new fishin’ buddies!

The Skagit opener was not exactly smokin’ hot and many (myself included) came away empty handed, but keep this in mind:
If you catch the biggest chinook of your life on the Skagit, it’s well worth it! It does not take long to get well on the good, old Skagit River. Good luck and stick with it!!!