That is no longer the case. I decided to give it a shot. Chinook and Coho are currently in the Washougal river. Or so they should be according to the averages. Figured it was about time I give it a try.
Arrived at one of my favorite steelhead spots to give it a swing. I had my intermediate Skagit line on with a 7.0ips polyleader in front. My first fly of the day was a green and orange intruder. I've never fished the Washougal this time of year, and boy, is the river low. This run was so shallow I could hardly recognize it. Swinging was practically useless. Instead, I had to cast out and strip back. There was at least one big fish in there. He poked his head out a few times, but I couldn't entice him. After growing tired of the cast and strip, I sought out better water.
Deep down, I knew that upstream would be no better. I decided to look anyway. Come to find out, as expected, my usual slots were super shallow and I gave up after only a short time. Decided to go back downstream to a deep hole that I would walk right past when looking for steelhead.
I spent some time casting out and letting the fly swing, then strip it back using varying speeds. I really had no idea what I was doing. Salmon were and still are a mystery to me.
I tried a few flies until I got to a red/orange stinger fly with dumbbell eyes. It was about 2" long and was made mostly of finn coon hairs. Combine the weight of the fly with the sinking skagit line and I was hitting bottom in water at least 10 feet deep. Because I was getting hung up so much, I decided to strip the fly back quicker. My thought was, if I don't give it a chance, it won't get buried in the rocks.
| Access | Washougal | |
| Air Temp | Low 48, High 54 | |
| Water Temp/Visibility | ~57F / 7 feet | |
| Weather | Cloudy | |
| River Stage | ~3.8 feet | |
| Time in/out | 6:30am / 11am | |
| Leaders/Lines | Int Skagit | |
| Intermediate and 7ips | All day | |
| 8 and 15lb | ||
| Flies | Various large/bright winter | - |
| Notes | Water low and clear. Cloudy morning | |
That stripping speed change made all the difference in the world. The first time I applied my speedy strip, I hooked a fish. My first reaction was to not get excited. I didn't know if it was a small fish or not, after all, the tug was relatively mild. But, after holding carefully on the line with my stripping hand, I felt a very deep tug, tug, pulllll. Oh boy- Fish on!!
My rod was bent waaaayyy over. I spent an eternity reeling in the extra line that lay at my feet. At this point, the fish started bucking. I started moving towards shallow water to get a better foothold. Then I saw it. The fish was probably only 15 feet away. By my standards, it was enormous. He took a short run upstream. I started reeling him in. But he wouldn't have it. I don't know how much he weighed, but I could see he was easily north of 35".
My mind started racing. "This could be the biggest fish I've ever landed. Holy cow, this rod is bent over." And then, with that thought, SNAP! The 8lb tippet broke at the end of the poly leader. The fight was over.
I took the long walk back to my car for 15lb mono. Spent another hour or two in the hole with no luck. That was my chance and I blew it. This happened once before back in California where I hooked and then broke off the biggest steelhead of my life. You would of thought I learned my lesson.
I'll be back salmon!
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