natetreat
2/3/2012 4:11:00 PMSometimes it's hot, sometimes it's not. Fish can show up and get caught in just a few hours. You just need to know the water and have the experience to get at 'em where they're likely to be. Success isn't just based on reports, or presence of mass amounts of fish, it's based on skill knowledge and experience. I am a big fan of the Skook, and I have above average results when I make the trip.
billyfishkill
2/3/2012 7:31:00 PMNatetreat, great observation and info. My post was for the poor souls who are unfamiliar with this river. It kills me to see them down there struggling because they thought it was going to be fairly easy to catch a fish. I too have fished the Skookumchuck for many years and usually catch a fish or two, but it takes the skill and observation of all these years (as you said) to do it. Best advice to a newbie is bobber and jig with a pinch of shrimp right in the grass or root wads. These fish are usually where the bank drops off. what makes this double hard is the enormous pressure this little river gets. I noticed that in some deep holes, a nightcrawler on the bottom (no drift) does well -- like fishing for trout in lakes what do you think.
natetreat
2/4/2012 9:19:00 AMThere are a lot of fish in the Skook. I grew up in Centralia fishing it all the time. The trick is to put something stinky in there. When the water drops, you gotta fish all of the river, not just the top meat holes, fish stick in all the other holes waiting for more water to move. The water gets really colored up when water comes down and big and stinky wins the prize. Eggs work well, nightmare jigs with stink second. For Coho, jigs and shrimp and vibrax spinners work miracles. To have a really good day you have to cover lots of water, otherwise you're just waiting for fish to move it. These fish are usually not spooked at all, and have no idea that you're there with the colored up water. They get caught as soon as gear gets in front of there face. But the steel get BIG. a 15 pounder is not a once a year fish, it's a 1 in 4 chance. It takes a long time to learn the water, but once you do it's easy pickins.
Ghanilorn666
2/12/2012 3:50:00 PMEverything you guys have said is Very Very true! Ive lived in centralia all my life (22 years) and ive been fishing the skook for about 10, it is very difficult to catch fish in there if you dont know the river that well. Ive only caught 1 steelhead out of the skook the whole time ive been fishing it! Ive caught many salmon tho. Very good advice tho for the people who havent fished it much.