Hoh River

The weekend of November 10 and 11, I fished the Hoh River on the Olympic Peninsula. Fishing was good. Caught a lot of Mountain White Fish up in the fly fish only area on pegged eggs with an adjustable indicator above. Fished lower in the river later in the day above the canyon. Caught 2 nice Cohos: one on a blue and chartreuse Intruder and the other on a black egg-sucking leach with a chartreuse egg. Most guides I saw had limits or close to limits in their boats. Bright Coho are still showing. Fished the river down low on Sunday at Nolan and didn't hook anything. Fish were shooting through really fast. Most fish were moving upriver in a hurry to get to spawning beds. Stayed at the Forks Motel - a good place to stay with a reasonable price - it does the job. 

Olympic Peninsula

 On November 2 and 3, I went to the Olympic Peninsula with friends from Trout Unlimited and checked out the Sol Duc River. Didn't see any fish rolling. The river was fairly clear, about 2-1/2 feet of visibility. Good level, not too high, but no fish. Talked to some guides out there and it was tough fishing.  

Then we went to the Bogachiel River. Fished up by the steelhead ponds. No fish showing up there. Saw a couple of guides go through and they didn't catch anything either.  

So we went down to the fish park gravel bar on the Quillayute River. We got a nice 5 pound Coho and saw three other nice 5-10 pound Coho caught. Fishing was slow in the whole system. Look for a few more pushes in the next week or so. There are still some late Coho to come through.  

In the next 2-3 weeks, look for early winter run steelhead to come trickling in. We fished Saturday down at the fish park gravel bar as well. Only managed to catch a small one salt steelhead.

 

Coho's at Sekiu, Washington

Here's one of the nice Coho's caught at Sekiu, Washington, on August 20. This a great spot to fish on the Olympic Peninsula. Even though King season is closed there, the Coho are biting very strong right now. On our boat with 3 people over a 2 day period we caught and released about 60-65 fish. Out of those, we caught 12 fish that were hatchery fish. The 2-fish limit of Cohos was easy to get but we had to go through a lot native fish to get our 2 hatchery fish per day limit.

King Salmon Off Point No Point

 Caught a 24 pound King Salmon off Point No Point Wednesday, August 8, at tide change. Mooching with a whole herring and a 6 oz weight in about 120 feet of water.  
 Fishing for Kings has been good at Point No Point - look for fish to be holding an hour before and an hour after tide change.  
 Skunk Bay is a good place to troll after tide change on an outgoing tide. Fishing has been good, but sporadic.  This is the case at Point No Point usually.  
 Look for fishing to really start heating up on the north and south end of Vashon Island and also off Manchester-Blake Island area.

Cowlitz River

April 17, 2012: Cowlitz River - Excellent fishing for spring Chinook.

Boat limited out before 1:30 PM using diver and cut plug herring rigs. 12-24 pound fish. Nice chrome-bright hatchery spring Chinook. Look for good springer fishing in the

next few weeks on the Cowlitz and Lewis Rivers. Also above Bonneville

Dam on the Columbia at Drano Lake and Wind River outlet.

Fished the Columbia below the mouth of the Cowlitz and at Dibley Beach,

Oregon on the weekend of April 21-22. Two springers from 3 fishermen

and our boat caught 12-14 pound fish. Fishing wasn't quite on fire

yet. Seems like the main group of springers hasn't come through at this time.

Kitsap Lake continues to be wide open on the trout bite. Trolling spinners and small spoons or cast masters on a flat line work great. The fish are on top since the weather is getting warmer and the water temperature has come up a few degrees. Look for more lakes to be opening on the 28th. All stocked lakes should be pretty good fishing in Kitsap, Jefferson, Mason, Pierce and Thurston Counties.