Tom,
While there are some dollies in the Skykomish and the Stillaguamish, those
rivers can't compare to the Sauk and Skagit in numbers, or size, of fish.
In a recent conversation with WDFW biologist Curt Kraemer (who was largely
responsible for the current 20-inch minimum-size limit on dollies) I was
told that as recently as ten years ago the average number of Dolly Varden
redds in the Skagit drainage was 3.7 per mile; last year's survey, in
September, showed a tenfold increase over that. The average was actually 37
per mile! The biggest one I've actually caught was nearly six pounds, but
Curt said there are larger, much larger, ones to be found there. Leland and
I talked to two different individuals on New Year's Day who both claimed to
have recently caught seven-pounders.
As Leland said above, he was using his 6-wt. two-hander and a type III sink
tip. I've been using a 6-wt single-hander and a 13-foot, type IV sink tip,
which was a bit of overkill for the very low and relatively clear conditions
we encountered on Tuesday. I've been fishing rabbit strip string leech
patterns with dumbbell eyes, some of them as much as 3 or four inches long
when the water is murky. Under clearer conditions, more conventional
imitations of salmon fry and parr can be extremely effective. I use a
variation of the Thunder Creek pattern tied with a red fox-squirrel wing,
and when the chum and humpy fry begin to hatch in the spring (if we're going
to ever have a spring c-and-r season again) small, sparse patterns like Les
Johnson's and Dan Lemaich's Thorne River Emerger can be deadly.
Preston
