Pilchuck River Steelhead

[MatthewHunter98]

Heading up to the Pilchuck in a couple weeks, friends got some property up their and he got a nice 16lb'er. I don't know if it was luck of the draw, but hows fish in been for you fellas, I'm excited to hit a new river for steelhead!

[Bullkllr]

Pretty much every North Puget Sound river- actually I think all rivers in the Puget Sound area- are closed right now. It is "the new normal" for the past several years. Checking the regs confirms the Pilchuck closed on Jan. 31.

[Goldeneye]

Pretty much every North Puget Sound river- actually I think all rivers in the Puget Sound area- are closed right now. It is "the new normal" for the past several years. Checking the regs confirms the Pilchuck closed on Jan. 31.

Agreed, It's closed. 

[6x6in6]

Tag.....

Hope it wasn't a native and after the 31st of January.

[_TONY_]

After jan. 31st is when the local poaching season starts on the 'chuck.... 

Don't believe me? Go take a float trip down it in a toon and count how many plunking rigs you see on people properties...

Tony

[6x6in6]

Yep!!   
Been like that for years, even back in the days when it was open to the end of February.  The March run of big nates got hammered!

[87Ford]

After jan. 31st is when the local poaching season starts on the 'chuck.... 

The thought of that makes me nauseous..   

 

[87Ford]

Heading up to the Pilchuck in a couple weeks, I'm excited to hit a new river for steelhead!

CLOSED

[7mmfan]

It's the same on the Sauk, Skagit, Stilly, and Skykomish. All the "S" rivers get pounded after they close. No eyes on the river to keep people honest. Fish and Game's perspective on it is that since its closed, no one should be fishing it, so we don't have to monitor it. No wonder the numbers keep declining, all the big aggressive wild fish get poached out of these rivers every year. Really really sad. I used to live for the Sky in March and April, and when that closed, I lived for the Sauk and Skagit in March and April. Now I get one weekend a month out on the OP to get my fix, makes me sick.

[87Ford]

I also used to enjoy those rivers during March/April.  I don't see those C/R seasons ever coming back..  The North Fork in April was a wonderful thing.  The Pilchuck is especially dear to me.  Have a lot of memories fishing that little river.

The Pil is no longer planted and with it closing end of January, It really shouldn't be open at all..  Glad I got to enjoy it back in the day.  She gone.

[D-Rock425]

I've only heard of how good it use to be wish I would have fished more as a kid.

[RG]

I fished the Pilchuck for 20 years, lived on its bank for 10. As have all the good rivers, it has been ruined by closed minded fish managers and special interest groups.  My grand kids will never experience the adrenaline rush that comes with fighting an 18 or 20 pound steelhead on a small river. Many times my hands were shaking so hard it was difficult to remove the hook. I asked a fish bio why they closed the season so early since it appeared to me there were a good number of wild fish. I was told they didn't know how many fish there were and didn't have the resources to find out so they closed it and the Sky just in case. That's weak and really a tragedy for the people who lived for the catch and release fishery. What do you expect anymore though. I've become used to it after watching the trend for 60 years in this state. True outdoors folk, experienced life long hunters and fishermen used to be an important piece of the decision making here. Now those same people are patronized and misled while other interests push them aside in the decision making process. I see lots of surveys on the WDFW site these days. I'd be pleased to think they are all of a sudden interested again.  Sorry for the soapbox but the steelhead fishery in Washington was superb for decades then got destroyed in one.

[6x6in6]

I have no idea how many times I waded the Lochsloy to Schwarzmiller run in the late 70's to early 2000's with my fishing buddy.  Dawn to dark, probably close to 500 times or more I would guess.  I'd venture to guess that less than 30 times we got skunked.  Many, many times we walked the last 1/4 of the stretch with a pair of fish each.
Sure, we bonked natives way back.  We all did then.  Quit in the early 90's or there about's.  It really didn't have much affect on our success.  We just got to fish a little more since we weren't punched out yet.
Never did land one that cracked the 20# mark.  Lost a few that I knew would have.  No big deal - hoped his/her mouth was sore enough that the rest of the journey was a tight lipped one.  Plenty in the upper teens, even a 17# hatchery fish got bonked one year.

It's been toast for quite a few years now really.  Sad!

[87Ford]

Here's a fish from one of the "S" rivers back in the good old days...  Not that long ago really.  I believe this is from March 1997.

[backyard bucks]

ya it is too bad. I kept hearing from 87ford for years during wrestling seasons past about the fishing on the chuck, and when I finally moved out and gained access to the river and some great holes 5 years ago it was too late.. now I just head east for my steelhead fix.. this year seamed a slow year for seeing fisherman on the river or even hearing of any taken.

[Bullkllr]

ya it is too bad. I kept hearing from 87ford for years during wrestling seasons past about the fishing on the chuck, and when I finally moved out and gained access to the river and some great holes 5 years ago it was too late.. now I just head east for my steelhead fix.. this year seamed a slow year for seeing fisherman on the river or even hearing of any taken.

That's pretty amazing in itself right there. Live surrounded by what used to be some of the best steelhead rivers in the world- now you have to "head east" just for a chance to fish- and that's for fish that have travelled about 400 miles up river. Sad; fisheries managers should be tarred and feathered for having that happen under their watch.

[87Ford]

ya it is too bad. I kept hearing from 87ford for years during wrestling seasons past about the fishing on the chuck..

Joel, I miss all of the C/R seasons we used to have around here.  Mostly I miss the Pil.  Oh, and wrestling too!  I hold out a little hope, but I don't think it's ever coming back.  I guess that's why I'm willing to talk about that river a bit on here..

[RG]

The Pilchuck was an interesting river.  Big strong fish in a small river with nowhere to follow them many times.  The people who fished the river had a lot of gray hair and were very secretive.  They would stand in one spot until everybody was out of sight before crossing at their secret location to fish a little slot only they knew about.  I had the fortune of being taken fishing by one such old timer and he put me to shame.  The old guys used orange, not usually pink, or whatever new color was out there.  They used eggs, a "thumbnail sized" cluster, and they used very small hooks on long leaders that they free spooled into the drifts.  He allowed me to fish a slot until I was finished, having touched no fish, then moved in behind me and pulled out two.  2 fish days were not uncommon.  I was a very experienced fisherman from the Sky but this river was different.  I met guys there during the 70's and 80's who had skipped high school during the 1950's to fish the Pilchuck and were still coming back.  They had stories to tell.  Bob Heirman tells many stories and has pictures to back them up in his book.  About the mid to late 1990's things changed.  The bios all of a sudden, due to special interest group pressure in Olympia, went into panic mode and decided nobody should ever experience hooking a big steelhead in Western Washington again.  They began tightening the seasons and rules, a little at a time, until we came to where we are today.  The fish are still there but nobody will ever enjoy the fishery again because the special interest people have succeeded.  None of the changes make any sense to me since I, and many other serious fishers of both the Pilchuck and the Sky knew the wild fish run was more healthy and plentiful than the hatchery runs.  Someplace far from reality, decisions were made and made again, and here we are. 

The Sky is another story, days in December and January when there were 20 or more fishermen on the Lewis Street Drift or any of the other spots, with 4 to 12 hatchery fish on the bank every morning.  March and April fishing when there was a possibility of being spooled by a big fish on every cast.  And so on...

Those fish are still there, except the hatchery fish which they no longer drop at the Sultan River, Woods Creek, Pilchuck, etc. to make sure they stop for some time on their way back to Reiter.   Management by the politically motivated with private agenda, and the inexperienced or uninformed is what this all appears to be.  I'll continue to spend license money in Idaho, it's better than Washington in spite of the wolves.

[TheHunt]

yep, it is getting crazy...   I just recently started fishing salmon and steelhead but from listening to the white haired folks on the river they sure said it was crazy good fishing.

[RG]

Keep at it there are still fish to be caught. You just have to work harder than we did.

[steeleywhopper]

I cannot figure out why the heck the Pil is even open if there are no more hatchery plants to be had. Do that little gem some justice and shut it down, that way they can ticket every "backyard bonker" that puts a rod in the water. It used to be my New Years day tradition to go get a limit of hatchery fish out of there, no more...

[chukar58]

Back in the the day I did fish a lot of c & r on puget sound rivers and had some epic days!  The idea of catching and releasing fish was new and did not interest many steelheaders. However once the word got out about the true trophy class fisheries that were taking place on local rivers it was like a gold rush!  This is a just one example of what special interest groups and fisheries managers have denied you of experiencing on a local river in early spring.  Circa 1995

[plugger]

It was the same on the op rivers, Dungee, Lyre even mores creek were loaded, and im sure still are. Not a lot of hogs (over 20LB) but 8 to 12 were the norm and I can say for a fact that there were hogs there Just didn't get them to the beach.  Life was good back in the early 80's. Lots of quality fish and very little pressure. Even when I moved east, I would make several trips back every year, But not anymore, I catch bigger trout over here than the hatchery dinks that are so prevalent over there

[87Ford]

Many of the rivers over here, like the Pilchuck, are no longer planted with hatchery steelhead, so even the "hatchery dinks" are no longer available..

[snowpack]

It was the same on the op rivers, Dungee, Lyre even mores creek were loaded, and im sure still are. Not a lot of hogs (over 20LB) but 8 to 12 were the norm and I can say for a fact that there were hogs there Just didn't get them to the beach.  Life was good back in the early 80's. Lots of quality fish and very little pressure. Even when I moved east, I would make several trips back every year, But not anymore, I catch bigger trout over here than the hatchery dinks that are so prevalent over there

Dungeness gets plants, but only a handful return.  There's a lawsuit to stop planting the Dungeness with steel.  Those other places don't get hatchery steel anymore (hood canal rivers, morse and siebert creeks, lyre, deep creek, physt, the twins, goodman creek, Clallam.....and on and on).  Think they stopped planting the last of those in 2010, and last spring was last of those returns.  They even stopped planting sol duc last year.  Rivers are mostly empty with the exception of a few wild fish. 

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Good memories !!!!! Fished them all. The Green in King Co. still has a real good run to be had!!!!! And released of course.....

[chukar58]

I honestly believe our fishery managers closed down all the catch and release wild steelhead fisheries so they would not have to enforce the regulations.  Yes there will always be fish poachers and some mortality levels with releasing fish,  however I never saw any real data or studies that indicated wild fish population levels were at risk.  Now with the "new hatchery reform" and many rivers no longer being planted with any steelhead smolts  are we going to have most of the rivers closed in this state?  I believe our WDFW wants to get out of the hatchery business to save money!

[Bullkllr]

I honestly believe our fishery managers closed down all the catch and release wild steelhead fisheries so they would not have to enforce the regulations.  Yes there will always be fish poachers and some mortality levels with releasing fish,  however I never saw any real data or studies that indicated wild fish population levels were at risk.  Now with the "new hatchery reform" and many rivers no longer being planted with any steelhead smolts  are we going to have most of the rivers closed in this state?  I believe our WDFW wants to get out of the hatchery business to save money!

And the other impact is that it forces all of the pressure toward the few rivers that are still open and might have fishable numbers. On a Saturday in February it hurts to think I'm not on a riverbank or in a driftboat right now. Why...? If you've been to the Nooch, or Coastal streams lately you know the answer....mostly a total zoo. And I don't think it's sustainable. With the present situation, we are putting those populations on the edge of a crash as well IMO. The only option then will be to close them down also.

It's hard to call what I'm seeing responsible management.

[MatthewHunter98]

Not going now, thank you guys for let tin me no the season is closed, my fault for not checkin the regs< i figured its open like the other rivers near the coast

[plugger]

  I can remember going to the hoh and if there were more than a couple boats where we wanted to float we would pick a different one. Now there are days when 50 on a float is a slow day. I to believe that every time they shut something down it effects all the other fisheries. People are going to go fishing and when there are only a few places to go, then there going to be crowded. If all they would let us fish for were bullheads n mud cats, It would be crowded.