Skagit County, Washington Report

[House]

Holiday Sports Center
Burlington, Washington
(360) 757-4361

UPCOMING FREE SEMINARS

Saturday, May 14th at 10:00 AM we will have local expert Randy Nelson speaking on Kokanee fishing. He did a great seminar last year and it was maxed out with over 100 attendees. Call in to us here at Holiday Sports (360-757-4361) to sign up for a seat. This would be a great seminar to hit up if you are fishing the Kokanee derby at Lake Stevens.

Saturday, May 21 there will be a free “Basic Fly Fishing” class limited to 12 seats. This class will be given by Ed Megill and will cover:
1. Basic Fly Fishing Theory
2. Fly Rods & Fly Lines
3. Fly Casting Concepts
4. Intro to Knots & Rigging
5. The “Bugs” (flies)

Start time will be 10:00 AM and the class will run 2.5 hours. Another class will be offered on June 4 if classes are filled. Sign up early! Call us here at Holiday Sports to sign up!

FRESHWATER

The lowland lake opener offered great fishing to lots of anglers. Despite the weather being hit-and-miss for the weekend, lots of fishermen turned out and there were lots of limits caught. Good lakes for rainbows include Heart, Erie, McMurray, and Goodwin but don’t overlook some of the year-round lakes such as Campbell for the big holdovers as water temperatures finally start to warm and fish get more active.

Lake Samish is finally starting to turn on for kokanee fishing. A few fishermen have started to locate some nice size kokanee trolling down about 30 feet deep with standard kokanee gear.

SALTWATER

The lingcod opener was pretty good according to a few customers that made it out. One mentioned that they had limits for two people within twenty minutes under Deception Pass early opening morning. He said that it was getting extremely crowded as they made their way back to the launch. Another fisherman said they caught multiple fish off Lopez and easily limited three people on large herring. A couple other customers noted that they did well up around Sucia. Any steep rocky dropoff could hold good numbers of lings. The best time to fish these areas is a slower or slack tide but the lee side of a big rocky point or small island in a back eddy could be a good bet when the tide is moving fast.

Halibut fishermen are chomping at the bit to get out for tomorrows opener. Kevin and I (both from Holiday Sports) are planning to get out there tomorrow. Quite a few fishermen are planning to get out on the banks despite the high gas prices. We should have a good idea of where the fish are after a solid day of fishing. Give us a call at the store for a report on Friday. According to the tribal longliners, the fishing has been better than normal.

Anthon Steen