Among the salmon fishing crowd, June means one thing -- springers. That's right, we're talking about those blue-green and silver, chunky-bodied bulldogs that are back in town and looking for a fight.

Terry Wiest caught and released this chinook on the Humptulips River. Wiest swears by eggs as the best bait for returning chinook. Photo courtesy of Terry Wiest.

Western Washington is blessed with spring chinook runs in most major river systems. You could almost toss a dart at a map and fish a river near where it lands.

SKAGIT RIVER
This is big water. It puts off many anglers who think it can't be fished without a boat or who aren't willing to put in the time to learn the water.

The lower river from Mount Vernon to Skagit Bay is the home of plunkers. Toss your offering into the stream with heavy pyramid sinkers, stick your rods in holders jammed into the sand and wait for a fish heading upstream to smell the bait or see the spinner flash and bite.

You could use a sinker on a 10-inch dropper. Run a white spin bobber and sand shrimp on 30 inches of leader, and then add another three-way swivel above that. Tie on a shorter leader and brass spoon or spinner. Some claim they've caught two fish at a time on this outfit.

Another favorite plunking spot is the big gravel bar just below the Interstate 5 bridge. And another good gravel bar is just above where Washington Highway 9 crosses the river.

This famous river also hosts a substantial run of sockeye salmon that peel off the river at Concrete to head up the Baker River into Baker Lake. When fishing the Skagit, it's important to correctly identify the fish you catch.

Upstream, the Skagit reflects its glacial heritage with sprawling gravel bars, sloughs and side channels festooned with large, woody debris, and long, shallow flats. The glacial origin also can seriously affect visibility downstream of where the Sauk enters at Rockport. In the past several years, the Sauk has suffered a number of claybank slides that can color up the river just as much as the glacial till coming out of the Whitechuck and Suiattle rivers. What this all means is water clarity is always better above Rockport, an important point for gear- and fly-fishers who don't use scent to attract fish.

Howard Miller Steelhead Park at Rockport has plenty of parking, a good boat ramp and plenty of room to camp for those who can spend more than a day on the river. Upstream is another ramp at Sutter Creek, and yet another ramp at Marblemount.

The Marblemount-to-Rockport run is roughly eight river miles. It provides the best fishing on the upper river, in part because of hatchery chinooks heading back to their home at the Marblemount Hatchery on the Cascade River. The hatchery has achieved outstanding success getting their fish to return. At most hatcheries, a 1 percent return after their years at sea is typical. Marblemount generally returns 3 percent.

CASCADE RIVER
Anyone who has fished salmon in Washington knows the regulations are complex. And so it is with the Cascade River. When the springers are in, the river is only open from the mouth up to the Rockport-Cascade Road Bridge. But this short stretch attracts a lot of fish that detour out of the Skagit, and a lot of anglers follow.

Parking is available at the Marblemount Hatchery. During early mornings in June, it's not unusual to see anglers gearing up by flashlight so they can hit the water before the sun comes up. Don't expect to have the water to yourself when the fish are in. Make sure you respect the private property signs on the left bank.