Talking about the N Fork of the Stilly, I caught several fish last week-end and
on wednesday morning (during the quake). I caught one nice cutthroat (around
17"), several dollies (or bull trout) and a few steelhead but none of them was
more than 20-25" (hatchery and wild fish). I'm absolutely positive that some of
them were steelhead but not all of them so I'm wondering if I could have caught
a rainbow. I've never caught a rainbow on the N Fork, are there any??
I also saw a couple of steelies in the 30-40" range.
Can you check the following link out and tell me whether or not the first fish
is a dolly and the second one a steelhead.
http://students.washington.edu/vpons/dolly%20et%20steelhead.html
I caught also a sucker, they are really hard to catch, your fly has to be at
the bottom. There were plenty of them as S. Craig says.
Vincent
PS: I only do sight nymphing.
Scott Craig wrote:
> Since we are unable to fish most rivers because of the special regulation
> closures, I went out snorkeling on the N.F. Stilly yesterday (Used my
> SCUBA drysuit).
>
> Started off at the Clay bank hole above Hazel, saw two steelhead in the
> deep hole and then three smallish char and a small school of suckers in
> the glide just below. Saw no fish all the way down to the Hazel Hole (by
> highway).
>
> In the Hazel hole was one steelhead (mid column depth) and one char. One
> the float down to C-Post bridge I came across a large school of suckers
> with about 6-10 char and one really nice cutthroat- It appeared that the
> suckers may have been spawning because gravel in the area was disturbed.
> This hypothesis also accounts for why the char and cutthroat were there!.
>
> About 1/4 mile below this school of fish was a large school of mountain
> whitefish (n=40-75). Below this, in the area where there were the
> "engineered log jams" was a sole char. Below this and all the way down to
> the C-post bridge were no fish, except for the pounds of lead, lots of
> fishing line, corkies, flies and other angling paraphernalia. Oh, I
> forgot that I picked up a "Leatherman tool" below the bridge!
>
> My partner who drove down to C-Post to pick my up also had an exiting
> observation. Before she got out of the car, a large Cougar strolled out
> of the woods and walked down the road towards the car (within 75 ft).
> Since she had a camcorder by her side, she filmed a few seconds before it
> walked into the brush. It was a good thing, because I would not have
> believed a cougar would be this bold during the day.
>
> After C-Post, we went up to Fortson. At the head of the pool, in the
> brush along the bank was a school of cutthroat of all sizes (n=10-15).
> Below this were of course many steelhead, some of which had an adipose fin
> (n=15-20), and one char. Snorkeled on down into the picnic table hole and
> saw no fish.
>
> Visibility was poor because of the bright sun, could see about 20ft.
>
> In all, quite an exciting day on the N.F. Stilly!
>
> p.s. I wonder if it would be worth trying to clean out the lost fishing
> gear. With no flushing flows this winter, this stuff has really piled
> up!
>
> ****************************************************************************
> Scott D. Craig The members of this genus (Salvelinus)
> Fisheries/Aquatic Biologist are by far the most active and handsome
> U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service of the trout, they live in the coldest,
> Lacey, WA. cleanest and most secluded waters.
>
> Check out the homepage No higher praise can be given to a
> http://www.eskimo.com/~craigs Salmonid than to say, it is a charr.
> (Jordan and Evermann 1896)
