Fishing Report for Oct. 20

RIVERS

Carbon: Coho action remains pretty good, with most people bringing home fish. Bobber and eggs are effective when the water is clear, and corkies and yarn in rocket red are another good option.

Chehalis: The river has been producing some large chinook, just not a lot of them. Fishing with eggs under a bobber has been effective. Anglers also are landing quite a few coho and some steelhead.

Green: After fishing well midweek, the river has been slow late in the week. Try casting spinners such as a Blue Fox in bright colors.

Humptulips: Chinook action has been fair. Anglers are having success drifting eggs through the holes. River flows are good for drifting and fishing.

Methow: Steelhead fishing has been fair to good since the river opened Tuesday. People are reporting some success drifting pink jigs under a float. Anglers must remember they have to keep the first two hatchery steelhead they catch.

Nisqually: Fishing has been very slow.

Olympic Coast: Chinook are starting to move into area rivers. The issue is all the rivers are running very high. The Queets, for example, was flowing at 8,810 cubic feet per second Friday morning, well above the median flow of 1,930 cfs.

Skookumchuck: There are reports of some coho and steelhead in the river, downstream of the hatchery, but no one has been catching anything. There also are some dark chinook in the river.

Yakima: Trout fishing has been good in recent days. Late in the day, try October caddis on the surface. Baetis nymphs are working best throughout the day. The canyon has been fishing very well.

SALT WATER

Fly-fishing: Sea-run cutthroat trout action has been very good to excellent. Medium-to-large streamers in brown are working well. All sea-runs must be released. Anglers also are starting to catch some chum, which prefer anything in green.

Grays Harbor: The north and south channels are producing salmon. Try using a cut-plug herring trolled about 4 feet off the bottom and just fast enough to make it spin.

Tacoma: Salmon fishing has been fair to good for blackmouth and a few coho. Some of the chinook are topping 15 pounds. Try trolling a green flasher followed by a green-and-white hoochie. The fish seem to be holding about 50 feet down in water 120 feet deep. The clay banks on outgoing tides and Point Dalco on incoming tides have been best.

LAKES

Cady: Trout fishing has been very good in the last week or so. Black leeches fished on a fast-sinking line is a good set up.

Kapowsin: Anglers report trout fishing has been very good. They are using Power Eggs and worms, drifted off the bottom.

Offut: Trout fishing has been very good in the last week, with lots of limits being caught. Most people are fishing worms and Power Bait off the bottom.

Rufus Woods: The action for triploid rainbow trout has been fair to good. Most of the action is coming from jigging once the fish are found. The key is getting the bait directly in front of the fish.

Contributors: Phil Stephens of Mystical Legends Guide Service, gamefishin.com, Mark Coleman of All Rivers & Saltwater Charters, washingtonlakes.com, Art Tachell at Point Defiance Boathouse, Anton Jones of Darrell and Dad’s Family Guide Service, The Evening Hatch, Becky Pogue at Offut Lake Resort, Big J’s Outdoors Store and Anil Srivastava at Puget Sound Fly Co. Jeffrey P. Mayor: 253-597-8640 jeff.mayor@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/adventure