Move over salmon
In a blink!!!!
Fall salmon season 2024 is staggering towards an end here on the Olympic Peninsula’s North coast.
Next weeks rain should wash away the bulk of the anglers, leaving this seasons last few chrome stragglers in relative peace.,
The upper reaches of all the systems now seem to have passable if not exceptional numbers of quickly ripening coho and kings.
There are still some fresh fish in the mix but most are now changing like fall leaves to various shades of pink, red, yellow and brown.
From what I saw, the over all salmon numbers here would rate a grade of a solid B. Not great, but adequate for the system, although my standards are perhaps a bit high. I do believe in these rivers, and their ability to generate and sustain a lot more fish if given the chance.
And I would say that this constitutes a straight up win.
A straight up win for sport fisherman, conservationist, tribal fishermen, salmon and steelhead.
It’s a Cinderella story really.
Snatching an unprecedented success from the maw of doom.
The river behind my house has plenty of large healthy salmon and a whole bunch of them will survive to spawn.
The Quillayute tribe, the Hoh Tribe, and WDFW region six were able to hash out a calm, sensible plan that involved some closures, some restrictions and some patience.
This plan resulted in a bunch of wild salmon, that would normally have been harvested, entering the tributaries to spawn.
This year the tribes agreed to low water restrictions, and then stuck to those restrictions. They agreed to use smaller nets, less nets, no driftnets and to fish less days for less hours a day.
Sport fishermen were temporarily closed out of the Hoh river, and restricted to a one fish limit (down from a typical 6). They were also limited to releasing wild coho in the Quillayute system.
This may not seem like a huge win, but the history here is one of miscalculations, poor monitoring and massive over harvest. And from the outside looking in there didn’t seem to be any indications that things were going to change.
This season is proof we can achieve great things with what we have, where we are, now.
It would be a shame, if the sport fishing and conservation community was unable to take a moment to tip their hat to the tribes, and managers that made this happen.
We get few chances to celebrate here, lets not miss this!
I find early salmon season super interesting, dynamic and exciting, but as we slide into November even if salmon numbers are great, the fishing seems to get a little more…predictable?
No, no, its not that its predictable, its just that the peak is clearly behind us, those days when pulses of chrome fish come unexpectedly crashing through the rapids, and each bend in the river has the possibility to be the best fishing of the season are gone.
Fishing for winter hatchery steelhead though is a different animal, and I love it.
Now its on to winter steelhead!
I have been using this photo a lot the last couple of years, cause its kind of a where’s waldo of hatchery steelhead shots, there is a heater, a coffee cup, a fly rod, hand warmers, Bruce, looking NOT freezing, and his friend, a super chonky chrome bright hatchery hen.
If you want to fish with us for hatchery steelhead this season, we have Novemeber 25 through 30, December 2 through 6, December 12, 13, 21,27,28 and 31. Email jimkerrguides @me.com
Jim Kerr
Rain Coast Guides
Forks wa
