Why would any rational individual want to spend five or six hours standing navel-deep in 35-degree water, with rain dripping off his/her nose, and with the almost certain knowledge that there is no such thing as a winter steelhead. Especially not in the stretch of river he/she is fishing, with frigid feet and a numb thumb on the reel.
Fun? Really?
It must be the fish itself, because even with all the problems and uncertainties surrounding the Western Washington steelhead fishery, the sea-going rainbow remains arguably the most charismatic of the sportfish species available in our immediate venue. It continues to pull diehard aficionados away from home, hearth and football to the world of Corkies, twitching jigs and sand shrimp, even when landing one keepable hatchery steelie in a season is a major success.
And how does the upcoming fishery look? About the same as last year, according to Bob Leland, steelhead manager for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“We’ve had an upturn in wild-stock winter steelhead (which must be released) and the hatchery fish return should be very similar to last year,” Leland said.
There are exceptions, both good and bad. Smolt plants on the Hoh River, for example, dropped from 135,000 of the young fish in 2012 (which provided the bulk of the adult returns last season), to just 14,000 in 2013, which will provide most of the adult returns this winter. The tribal-run rearing facility suffered a major disease breakout last year, Leland said, which claimed the majority of that year-group.
So don’t expect big catch figures from the Hoh this winter.
Nor from the Sol Duc, where the very successful fishing guide-run and -financed hatchery was shut down by pressure from wild fish advocates and hasn’t put any smolts in the Sol Duc for two years. Leland said anglers should find a few native fish (you can keep one wild steelhead per season from the Forks-area rivers) and a few large leftover hatchery steelhead in the Sol Duc this winter.
“The guides’ organization is looking for a spot to put in a replacement facility on the Bogachiel,” Leland said.
The well-publicized decision by the state to quit planting most Puget Sound tributaries (the Skykomish is an exception) in order to avoid litigation threatened by a local preservation group, will not affect hatchery adults returning this winter from the 2013 plants. But next winter it will.
The North Fork Lewis provides a more positive picture. Smolt plants jumped from 80,000 in 2012 to 178,000 in 2013, the increase provided in part by “wild” smolts as a means of enhancing the wild steelhead portion of the run. Those adults, when they return, will not be fin-clipped and may be caught but not kept.
Following is a list of selected winter steelhead rivers with 2013 smolt plants (from which most adults will return this winter), and whether that is an increase or decrease from 2012 plants:
Nooksack, up 2,500 smolts to 118,800; Skagit, up 10,000 to 235,000; Cascade, up 40,000 to 235,000; North Fork Stillaguamish, down 72,000 to 86,700; Skykomish, up 5,000 to 147,000; Snoqualmie/Tokul Creek, down 10,000 to 153,000; Wallace, up 2,500 to 20,000; Bogachiel, down 7,300 to 100,000; Calawah, down 3,000 to 50,000; Humptulips, down 1,500 to 129,000; Elochoman, down 11,000 to 80,000; Cowlitz, up 7,000 to 689,000; and Kalama, up 15,000 to 125,000 smolts.
As for timing, the coastal rivers are usually earlier than those farther inland. Here’s how a couple of them tuned up last winter: Bogachiel, Dec. 1-5, 18 anglers with two hatchery steelhead; Dec. 6-8, 63 anglers with seven hatchery fish; and Dec. 9-12, 31 anglers with 21 fish. On the Hoh, Dec. 6-8, 84 anglers had 32 hatchery steelhead, and Dec. 9-12, 38 anglers had 20 fish.
Hatchery retreads
You know how the state sometimes “recycles” steelhead it wants caught by trucking them downriver from a capture facility and letting them run the rod-and-reel gauntlet again? Ever wonder whether any or most of those fish get caught the second time through?
Here’s a partial answer, courtesy of state biologist Paul Hoffarth in Pasco: Ringold Springs Hatchery, on the Hanford Reach portion of the Columbia, 10 or 12 miles north of the Tri-Cities, has been trucking all the hatchery steelhead captured downriver to Pasco and releasing them. The fish are specially fin-clipped for identification.
Of the 439 steelhead caught in the Ringold fishery during November, 104 were previously captured at the hatchery trap.
Razor clams
The most recent series of razor clam digs on the coast ended Nov. 26. It was marked by smallish crowds, iffy weather, and an average of about 12 clams per person for the estimated 11,000 diggers. State razor clam manager Dan Ayres in Montesano said diggers were completely blown off the beach on one of the series days.
“That’s typical winter clam digging,” he said. “Some good days, some bad.”
He said there will be a lot of digging around the New Year’s holiday and except for New Year’s Eve (a plus 0.6 feet) there will be some pretty good tides.
Clam populations are solid, he said, and most beaches probably will be open on appropriate tides through May.
The current digging series started Wednesday, and continues as follows: today, 5:02 p.m., minus 0.6 feet, on Long Beach and Twin Harbors beaches; Friday, 5:45 p.m., minus 0.9 feet, on Long Beach, Twin Harbors and Mocrocks; Saturday, 6:26 p.m., minus 1.0 feet, on all beaches except Kalaloch; Sunday, 7:05 p.m., minus 0.9 feet, on Long Beach, Twin Harbors and Mocrocks; Monday, 7:44 p.m., minus 0.6 feet, on Long Beach and Twin Harbors; and Tuesday, 8:21 p.m., minus 0.2 feet, on Long Beach and Twin Harbors beaches.
Tentative future digs include:
Dec. 19-23, best tides minus 1.3 feet on both Dec. 22 and 23; Dec. 31 through Jan. 7, best tides minus 0.5 feet on Jan. 3, 4 and 5; Jan. 17-24, best tides minus 1.4 feet on Jan. 20 and 21; Jan. 30 through Feb. 6, best tides minus 0.1 feet on Feb. 2 and 3; Feb. 15-22, best tides minus 1.1 feet on Feb. 18 and 19.
For more outdoor news, read Wayne Kruse’s blog at www.heraldnet.com/huntingandfishing.
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