Had a horrible day on the tucannon yesterday. Me and a buddy fished Kings grade Rd. downstream for about 1.5-2 miles..... I only caught one trout. No strikes or any steelhead seen.

The water level seems to be varying around 75 cfm, which is low and we have not had any significant increase in water flow for some time. I think this is hurting the fishing.

So add me to the skunk list! I wont be out for a couple weeks, work schedule doesn't allow.

I know the fish are there, but after two good trips, the activity has fallen off alot. I think the last 20+ hours have been fruitless

I also won't be able to fish for at least 10 days due to my work schedule. Of course, if I see a few days of steady rain, I might have to find a few hours to fish.

I'll jump on the skunk list... we tried above McNary last night with lighted plugs for about four hours and had one driveby and no hookups.

On a brighter note, we finished out the salmon season Sunday with five adults and a jack at Vernita but the fish were in pretty poor shape. Definitely time to focus on steelhead!

Starfish,

With the season on the lower reach open 'till december, is it worthwhile to try and pick up a late straggler that may be in decent shape or would the time be better spent buying lottery tickets? I've often wondered about this... on many of the westside streams you can still pick up a tardy fish that is in very good shape, but then again you're working in the estuary of a small stream rather than 150K cfs of the big C!

Just curious if you've ever tried this.

Actually, yes-- if I wasn't kind of tired of chinook fishing I'd definitely give it another go. A buddy of mine went by himself Wednesday and caught two fish on kwiks, and one was a total chromer-- grocery store quality. The fish are definitely easier to catch now also. I switched to coho today or else I'd have been out there.

All the major holes from Bateman Island to 31 should be worth fishing now if you don't mind culling through some dark fish. If you go for kwiks (which I prefer) be sure to try pinks and reds, especially the "gold digger" (gold with red hot tail), "gay boy" (pink/purple/chrome) and the glad clown. Eggs are also a good choice. If you fish Ringold, a red/black herringbone mag wart, a pink mag wart, or a metallic red hot-n-tot can get you both salmon and steelhead. Also there's a new clown mag wart that looks really good.

Good luck!

Starfish,

As always, thanks for the insight. I may give it a go before work a day or two next week, as we'll have another hour of daylight in the am.

I'm waiting for Mr. Rain to help get me off of the Skunk List !
Every time I cross Mill Creek in Wally-World, it's a sad reminder of the low level of our streams.
Rumors of an El Nino related dry winter in the NW aren't encouraging.

Welcome Vinny. Yes, we could use some rain. Should be some good fishing when it arrives.