SULTAN, Wash. — Talk about the double bonus: June 1 is the opener for both summer-run steelhead and hatchery Chinook on the Skykomish River.

Summer-runs techniques

Opening day should find steelhead in just about every riffle, run and pocket from Index and Reiter Ponds on down to the Skykomish's confluence with the Snoqualmie.

As long as the water isn't in the trees and the color isn't that plowable-with-a-tractor brown, anyone with a little knowledge (which I hope to share with) and the right gear (which I will also give you a little insight on) will have a shot at hooking a steelhead or three.

The majority of my angling on the Skykomish is with either a float and jig or bait, or drifting the bottom with a Corky or Spin-N-Glo.

I do fish my share of spinners and spoons too, but believe the most productive way to get into fish is floats and drift-fishing.

Even if I'm out dawn to dusk, I still want more time and fish, so I'll stick with the most productive and easiest ways to detect the bite and present the bait and least amount of time retying gear.

If the water is up — like it most likely will be this year — the fish should be easy to get at. Concentrate on the inside corners of the river and really soft inside edges of current seams.

When drift-fishing, if the water has less than 4 feet of visibility, don't be afraid to fish some bigger Corkies and Spin-N-Glo bobbers tipped with a little bait.

Work with dime- to quarter-sized Corkies and Spin-N-Glos and up to an 1½ inches of pencil lead.

If the water is down, make sure to scale down your offering, keeping the bait and Corky no bigger than a nickel at most.

Most likely your lead will be half an inch to an inch long. For float fishing in high water, fish bigger jigs and bait.

I especially like pink worms in limited visibility conditions. Even letting your float work through a very soft back eddy in high water can be productive — more than once this has paid off for me.

If it is down and clear, then faster, deeper water where you can find some cover (like big boulders or choppy faster water) will hold fish.

Steelhead spots

Skykomish summer-runs are like any other hatchery fish I have seen: Most shoot straight upriver and don't slow down until within sight of the hatchery.

So if you don't mind the crowd, head straight for the upper river where the numbers of fish are definitely in your favor (Reiter doesn't open until Aug. 1, however).

If you want to walk the banks and fish, all you have to do is drive up Highway 2 or the Ben Howard Road near Monroe.

Look for the cars and fisherman and you will find spots that likely have decent odds for catching fish.

If you have a drift boat, raft or jet boat, put in at Sultan or Monroe, or up above with a drifter or raft at High Bridge just past Reiter Road on Highway 2. Any likely looking spot will most likely be the spot come June 1!