Fishing Report September 21, 2019

Image used by permission from Instagram from @reeladdictedfishing

Fishing has continued to improve on the run. This last week we are seeing more fish enter and fill up the upper part of the river from Pineville to the Fly Zones. There are predominantly kings, cohos, a limited amount of lake run browns and some steelhead. There are various reports out there that are predicting a late run or a late big breakthrough of fish. I do not try to predict these things but every day there seems to be more and more fish that are entering the river.

On Friday, night there were a couple of sources that reported that the Estuary was quiet and fish were returning back to the lake or just not entering. At 9 PM it looked like the Estuary was empty but the Estuary must have started filling up again.

On Saturday morning, fish were splashing up and lots of activity, however, the splashing stopped after 8 AM when the sun came up. This is probably one of the most important tips of fishing on the run. Most of the activity is before the sun comes up and right before the sun goes down. After the sun came up there was still anglers who were getting into fish that were resting after fast water or were getting ready for fast water. The most successful anglers were moving with the fish. Unfortunately, most anglers only fish the one area they fish in the morning.

Anglers reported getting into fish at the Little Black Hole, Upper Black Hole, Lower Staircase and Long Bridge. The Ball Park fished well during day break but it was slim pickings during the late morning and afternoon.

The Papermill and Compactor all had some pods of fish go through it. Most fish were concentrated above Pineville to Ellis Cove. Trestles had lots of actions but there was heavy fishing pressure.