Skagit Area Report

[House]

UPCOMING SALE

Skagit Arms will be having a weekend of sales on July 13,14 and 15. We will have a lot of giveaways including a Springfield XD which will be given away in a free drawing!

FRESHWATER

Lake Samish has still been putting out some nice kokanee. There looked to be about thirty boats on the water today. Make sure to get on the water early in the mornings as the bite has been slowing down as the sun rises.

Baker Lake opened up for 3 sockeye per day on July 1. The fish are starting to accumulate at the trap so prospects look good for fishing in a week or two. The report is that there are only 300+ fish transported to the lake so far so fishing shouldn’t be too great yet. So far there is only a report of one fish landed.

The Skagit River has been continuing to put out sockeye despite high water. Fishermen have had luck in most popular areas of Mt Vernon, Burlington, and Sedro Woolley. The fact that the water levels keep going up and down have been making it tough so hot spots have been changing daily depending on how the water looks. Plunking a small sandshrimp behind a pink or orange Spin N Glo has still been the ticket.

The upper Skagit and Cascade spring chinook fishery sounds to be on the slow side. Steve Stout (hatchery manager) reported that only a few fish have been checked in over the past week.

SALTWATER

Marine Area 7 opened for chinook on July 1. Kevin and I decided to sneak out after we closed the store down on Sunday afternoon. We headed to Eagle Bluff for a couple of hours before dark. There were about thirty boats there and we witnessed four or five fish landed and heard of quite a few more although we went without a bite. The next morning, we hit Thatcher Pass. Kevin hooked up immediately on a nice fish at about 6:00AM. I cleared the gear and we ended up landing a nice hatchery fish weighing about 16 pounds. We were both pulling herring. We then proceeded to fish for about four hours without a bite. Finally at about 11:30 as we were making our last pass I had a nice takedown but it came unbuttoned after a couple of headshakes. While we were at work later that day, my friend called and said that he managed to land two fish in the same area weighing 8 and 10 pounds. He also noted that he saw a dozen fish landed in Obstruction Pass on Sunday. Another friend noted that he caught a nice fish weighing 20 pounds in Decatur Bay Tuesday on the incoming tide. There was also some good action reported on the north end of Orcas.

Raymond Francois of R&R Charters just called in a report. He’s headed back to the boat launch right now with three nice fish from 11 to 18 pounds. He said that they caught the fish this morning in Thatcher Pass. There seems to be a good amount of bait scattered throughout the islands so hopefully that equates to lots of salmon.

Crabbing reports out of 8-1 and 8-2 sounded pretty good with most fishermen noting that limits were pretty easy to come by.
Anthon Steen
Holiday Sports Center
Burlington, Washington
360-757-4361