I knew that the opener was going to be packed so I decided to get there early...like 7 p.m. the night before! People were pitching tents and building campfires by early afternoon on the second so I figured I wasn't going TOO overboard even though my wife said I was "crazy". Apparently, planning to stay the night on the side of the road and riverbank with nothing but a fishing pole is frowned upon in my house!

I was the only person on this particular stretch of river, and had by now somehow managed to break my folding chair and drown my cheap-O cell phone, until about 11:30 that night when another guy pulled into the little dirt pull-out parking area in his truck. We sat there and shot the bull until about 2 a.m. when we finally decided to take quick power naps. Well...some of the locals couldn't have us getting any shut-eye and as they drove by in their truck and noticed me curled up on the ground next to the guardrail decided to honk and ensure that I would for sure be getting NO sleep this night!

By this time countless cars, trucks, game wardens and even tribal police with their red and blue lights flashing had been travelling up and down the road all night so I was sure the rest of the river was pretty well packed by now, and the gunfire from the reservation confirmed that it was going to be a party today and every fisherman within 200 miles was invited. With that going on another truck pulled in at about 2:30 so we decided it was time to make it down to the bank and await kick-off.

People really started pouring in at about 3 or 4 a.m. and it was pretty funny to watch rows and rows of headlamps bobbing across the river to stand on our small piece of fishable area. By 4:30 everyone had secured a spot and the bank looked like a rank of civil war soldiers ready to advance on the command of 'CHARGE!' There we stood shoulder to shoulder, ready to engage in combat fishing at its finest and in the pitch black of an overcast early morning when the clock finally struck 4:54.

Guys and girls started casting and amazingly I don't think anyone got crossed or tangled. Within 5 minutes someone downstream yelled "Fish on!" and shortly after they had a fish off. It must have been 1 or 2 minutes later that I was in the middle of my drift and felt pressure on my line. I set the hook and it was FISH ON, buddy!

He went upstream. Then he went downstream. Then back up. I tried to turn him back down stream but he didn't want to go. And then he did want to go. So we went. My new fishing buddy from earlier in the evening came running up and let me know he had the net. I thought it was pretty cool since he didn't have to do that for me but I noticed the rest of the day that people were helping net for others without being asked, which is behavior not typically associated with the Skokomish.

Once I was safely downstream I played this fish out. He only rolled to the surface once and wanted to spend most of his time buried on the bottom. I didn't get a good look at him until he was put in the net and then I was stoked. Not a bad first fish of the day for this section of the river!

I continued to fish but ended up missing a few and getting nothing else. Guys were catching fish left and right and I saw easily 20 to 30 fish hooked into that ended in a lot of snapped lines, spit hooks, one snapped pole and 15 or so landed but the action slowed as the morning wore on. There were a couple as big or maybe a little bigger than mine, but on average they were probably 15 lbs There were even a couple of pinks landed which the Skokomish is not known for.

I'm certain the action was the same up stream and down from our location. Good luck if you go!

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