Mid to late week report

  Wife, dog and I got in later Tuesday. Upriver lots LOADED -stayed that way all week till we left today (sat ) AM.
     Down town and generally all the lower areas loaded with guys shoulder to shoulder as well.
Stayed mid river away from the crowds and fished pockets along the banks and below structure near the edges=with some small effort one could avoid crowds. Fish were not seen running  for 3 days and I  did move around those uncrowded Mid areas a bit.
  Only saw TWO active beds and very few if any actually running up. Most of the few fish  found were holding in pockets- some hit and some didn't. One day zip on pink and they wanted blue the next day just the opposite.
 Would rather get skunked off alone than get hookups in a conga line.
   Kiddie seemed  to have a lot of open space most all week and today early went to the Church lot  just to watch and there were only 3 guys on the wall- below the bridge to Ellis and Tressel was packed as were the upper lots.  
  Most of those I spoke to on the water mid river were skunked and saw little or no movement. There were some reports of a small pod here and there on the river for the lucky few who happened upon them. 
    Hatchery was packed solid with fish so a lot had moved up at some point but never enough at one time to get much notice from what I have read this year. Have to believe there is a lot of night running by small numbers that  have learned to hide out in holes and pockets for the most part  in the sunlight.
  VERY few beds and VERY few deads.
Overall there are still a lot more fishermen than fish IMHO despite reports of decent activity that may not have even been reported as small  pushes  in past years. 
Seems to be getting too late in the season IMHO for a real run but will try again next week as soon as the holiday weekend crowd leaves.
Only saw 2 Steel running mid river and no Hos at all.
   Saw fish jumping in the Estuary and mentioned it while visiting the office at DSR ( didn't fish, just asked for a daily report)- that  20 jumping in 15 min in VERY high winds the other day was what I had seen and told them about . Seems like they may have pushed in the next day or so.
 Can hardly wait  3 days to go back--Its a disease.

Mostly oldies in the hatchery brook Clint but a number of fresh fish mixed in  too.
Ya hearing any report from boat guys about fish outside ??
A real run of most anything at this  point might be kinda nice at least  once this year.
The fish reported as running well later this week sounded pretty nice but on stream reviews were kinda average- guys reported a 'nice' bunch of fish but no blockbuster- lol.
 I saw very few on stringers this week  and  short-if any- lines at cleaning stations.
 Hate to keep sounding so negative this year.
Most of us  regulars have got into fish and had some decent times---but it aint even close to normal IMHO.

Kinda strange year. Glad you had some action, RG. I think you can say if you put some time in and knew how to fish you could get some fish.
I never saw a line of more than 2-3 at the cleaning stations. Did they clip the adipose in '11, or was that a short term study?

Agreed Clint- looking for 'the fin' is no longer the sure all of how things are going between the two types of Kings.
One may hope that sooner or later there will be some kinda explanation of this years activity- likely after the normal run times when an educated theory is arrived upon.
 Frankly- at this point- I think all species are involved.
Hope like heck its only a one season thing.
Really dislike sounding so negative  however this  season is not a reflection of what has made the SR famous.
 Have a great admiration for the fishery and those managing it- the negativity is no reflection on their efforts - likely something out of their control.

Agreed Charlie- this is almost a throwback to some seasons of long ago.
 Actually many I spoke to haven't hooked up ANY Kings this week.
With fisherfolks numbers breaking records recently this will almost certainly have some affect  for some upcoming seasons.
Guys aren't gonna use their vac time and hard earned dollars to come up with so few fish and so much competition.
Some cleaning stations have already closed and unfortunately this may be a make or break indicator for some businesses -not necessarily this season as folks showed up- but next year ????.
 Hopefully  whatever  caused this may not have an affect on the King returns for the next year or two as they are cyclical - but the Steel and Hos are kinda slow this year IMHO  as well???.
Hopefully at the end of the day its determined to have been caused by the unusual Summer Lake conditions.
Some reported plenty of bait fish but no kings .

Actually kinda thought the Steel numbers dropped in the  last season or two and the Hos have definitely dropped off quite a bit since their great  runs a few years back.
(sound familiar ?)
-More doom and gloom.
Geeezzzzzh == hate to sound so negative bout a place I have invested much time and money  into  and  care so much about.
 Guess its not so much negativity  as it is concern.
 

Well thought possibility Clint, did see lotta shorts last season.

Again this is only based off of the lake reports posted on the Internet so other that " reports " it's not based on scientific data.
Out on the lake the majority of salmon being caught with consistency were 2 year old class fish. It was reported that class fish was plentiful and healthy. How that high catch rate this summer will effect next years run will again , yet to be seen.
Not having been to the river myself and only going by Internet chatter, I also believe there was a far lower " run " or amount of returning fish this season.
Yes I know they are there and mostly moving at night but over all it does not seem like a river full of fish as some are used to.
Are they late , still yet to come in big numbers or is it over ?
For the most part from my worthless opinion, what you see is what you got. I'd have to say that the fish are there and there won't be any magical massive push of thousands of fish just waiting to run late .
Maybe a big school of coho ( didn't see many being caught on lake ) might make an appearance but for the most part the last of the kings will just filter in as stragglers .

However I think the steelhead season should be a very good one and only hope the meat hunters got enough salmon to allow the trout fishers to have some uncrowned ( as possible ) to do their thing .
Browns :
Really feel its going to be another down year on the browns in the river. Only based on the fact that the lake guys hammered them hard due to the lack of salmon out there. LOTS of browns hit coolers on boats all summer.

Finally,
I don't know why they stopped the fin clip on hatchery kings but read they are going to be implanting chips above their nostrils instead of the clip. Makes no sense to me to put a higher costing chip into thousands of fish but I guess it's a better method of collecting data .

Had a hell of a 30th party this weekend and got some hunting to attend to this upcoming then I'm ready to wipe the dust off the rods and sink some flies :)

Hate to say it Andy but kinda agree- barring a late miracle run we got what it is.
Heck its only 10 months till August and a new round of great expectations anyhow.
Weekend reports after I left were poor- will be back for a few days of leaves and fishing anyhooo this week .
Might hafta forego my conga revulsion and fish in the zones to get my fix. lol
 Would love to be in my favored  vines but the traffic was so heavy around  there lately that I didn't even bother to venture in- perhaps later this week if the mobs are down.