Snohomish/Skykomish Coho Friday?

Just checking if anyone would be up for heading out tomorrow to the confluence near the 522 bridge.  I'd like to launch from the WDWF at Tualco Loop Rd, fish the hole just below there on the Sky, then float down to the confluence.   The take out would be at High Bridge which is about a 3 mile paddle up the Snoqualmie River. 

It would be good to have a kayaking buddy for this plan to do the car shuttle.  Otherwise, I could bike shuttle myself, but then I have to pray that my gear will stay put (i.e. not get ripped off) while doing the self-shuttle.

The reports for Coho have improved earlier this week and if we get some rain overnight it could bring in another push of fish.  Either way, it's fishing!  Weather looks nice too, sunny after some possible morning showers.

 Have you ever done that paddle before? Going down the Sky and fishing the confluence where the Sky and Snocrummie come together is a piece of cake. The paddle up the Snocrummie can be a bit nasty around the woodpile.

I have not done it before, but I assumed (yes i know what they say) that other than distance it would be no problem, based on the Paddling Washington book.  I also thought many sleds launch from High Bridge to fish the confluence, so figured no problemo.

Can you tell me more about the woodpile?  Is it passable or if not  is there another take out option? 
thanks!

If you haven't paddled a stretch of river before I'd highly suggest doing it with someone who has. Either that or get a lot of info on it before setting off and scout anything that looks even a little sketch. I've done the high bridge to sultan drift plenty but a newly fallen tree almost took a buddy out.
http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,3982.0.html




Z

Zee,
thanks for the advice.   I read your story and that was a sketchy situation to say the least.   Thanks for sharing.

I'm also running an inflatable kayak, which as you know is quite a bit more forgiving than a SOT.  Also, the section of river I'm planning to run (some day) is rated class II from Monroe to the confluence and class I up to High Bridge on the Snoqualmie, which I'd be running upstream. (I think you confused High Bridge with Big Eddy on the Sky?).   That said, I recognize that all rivers regardless of class pose potential dangers with downed trees, sweepers, strainers, and such, and while my kayak may be rated to class IV, my river skills aren't near that. 

If I had a trolley for my yak, I'd be launching from Tester road, but I think it's too far to carry/drag without trolley wheels.    Guess I'll be fishing from the bank or hitting up lake sammamish again.

thanks again for the tips.

I think you confused High Bridge with Big Eddy on the Sky?

My bad. I worked for what felt like a zillion hours straight and jumped online. Shoulda known better.
Would love to see some coho though.. 


Z

A quick update:

I got out on the Sky twice this week:  first on a friend's river sled, launching from High Bridge on the Snoq and yesterday on my kayak launching from tualco loop road. 

There are several really nice holes just below the tualco loop road and we saw quite a few fish rolling there both days.  On the sled, I had a nice hookup drifting a 50/50 dick nite.. which we think was a coho of about 14lbs.  The fish jumped then took off downriver and just peeled line for about 40 seconds or so without letting up.  Unfortuately, I had my drag set way too low for this size fish cause I've been used to fishing cutts and this was my first salmon outing of the year.  So while he was stripping line and my drag was screaming, I slowly clicked down on the drag to slow him down.  My friend in the meantime was ready to pull anchor and chase him down, but I knew my drag was just too light to get any control of the fish.  Then just as suddenly as he hit, the line went limp.   Fish off.    Without the proper drag, I had no way to set the hook.  Another lesson learned...  My friend had a hookup as well, but he came unbuttoned at the boat.

I got a pretty good look at the lower Snoq and Sky rivers and there didn't appear to be any difficult areas beyond my ability.  There is just one riffle to deal with heading upstream on the snoqualmie, which I'm pretty sure I could paddle through or if not wade through it.   The 3 miles or so is the issue and with little sunlight this time of year it's just not really doable.

So after getting confortable with the flow on the lower Sky, I decided to try to hit it with my kayak from Tualco Loop and return to the same launch rather than do a downriver drift.    Last year I had waded across the river at the launch at slightly lower water levels which was still a bit sketchy and walked the far (northwest) bank downstream to this same hole, so I was confident that if I couldn't paddle against the current to return, I could always walk my kayak up with a tether line.   I also had the benefit of another friend in the kayak to help with paddling and in case anything went wrong.

Well, no problems at all.   We drifted down to this same hole and were able to anchor (3lb claw anchor held fine) and drift fish either side of the yak.  Unfortunately we got a bit of a late start so we only had about an hour of fishing time to work with and the only hookup I had was a small trout about 8" or so on a 50/50 dn.   Oh well.  At least now I know I can hit that very productive spot with the yak, and even go a little further downstream without the need to shuttle.   

I know there's also quite a few good holes between Sultan and the Ben Howard WDFW launch which are only accessible from a drift boat.  I wouldn't mind trying that out as a drift and doing a shuttle, but would be better to have another yaker for both safety and to protect against thieves.   If anyone's up for it sometime, let me know.