AUBURN, Wash. — Your best bet for lunch this winter in South Sound doesn't include Ivar's clam chowder or Kidd Valley fries. It includes Pro-Cured eggs, sand shrimp, Fish Doctor jigs, a good shot of crawdad oil and winter steelhead, served up Green River style.

The Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife tells us that the Green River rolls out a modest 600 to 900 sport-caught hatchery winter-runs in a typical November-to-February season.

But those numbers don't offer a hint at what makes this river so damn special: it provides miles of streamside access that slashes right through the heart of South Sound suburbia, literally minutes from greater Auburn/Kent's Strip Mall Central and within shouting distance of the SUVs and minivans scooting down Highway 167.

It's about quality steelheading from the bank, minus the highway time to the Olympic Peninsula, North End or Columbia tributaries.

"That's the great thing about the Green River — it's right here in our backyard," said Tom Pollack at Auburn Sports & Marine (253-833-1440). "This is not a river that demands a two- or three-hour drive. If you have a spare hour, you can drive to the river in 10 minutes and start fishing.

"It has good access throughout the full length of it from the Green River Rearing Ponds down through Kent and Auburn. You can get right to the river, make your two or three or 150 casts and be done. You're fishing, not driving down the highway. You're putting bait in water."

And fresh, nickel-bright winter-runs are attacking that bait with abandon: While the traditional Thanksgiving kickoff of winter steelhead season has yet to come and go, early-season Green River anglers are already tangling with the first waves of fish bound for the Green River Rearing Ponds in Kanasket.

"They're catching steelhead in the river already — we had a couple dozen taken here (in early November)," Pollack said.

"We'll see people get out there with enthusiasm in late November because the silvers have gone through, and the chums are in such bad shape you don't know if you want to even fish for them. We're already getting some of that colder water that triggers spawning steelhead to go skittering up the river."

Section by section

The Green is defined by miles and miles of easy bank access, from where it spills out of the lower end of Howard Hanson Lake and continuing downstream through Palmer, Auburn, Kent and Tukwila before it turns into the Duwamish River, and, eventually, the Duwamish Waterway.

It features a mix of swift-moving drift water, hundreds of slower, deeper pools that demand a float/bait setup, and several stretches of water that are picture perfect for plunking. It's easily accessed via Green River Road, which parallels the river on the east side between Kent and Auburn, and Green Valley Road, which winds alongside the north bank for several miles above Auburn.

"You have access to all types of water from plunk water to bobber water to drift water," Pollack said. "It's dam controlled, so it doesn't go out even when we get a bunch of rain. On the other side of the coin, if we have a stretch where we get no rain, they can periodically pass some water through the dam and the river will come up."