THE COMING OF February means many things to many people.
For some, it symbolizes football season coming to an end, leaving behind a dark and depressing void (at least fantasy football junkies like myself) that will be felt for months.
For others, it signals pitchers and catchers are about to report for MLB spring training, filling a dark and depressing void that’s been present for months (or, in Mariners fans’ cases, years).
But for any Peninsulite with even a tinge of outdoors knowledge — like, say, yours truly — it means just one thing:
Wild steelhead season arriving en masse to the North Olympic Peninsula, drawing us into a dark and depressing void that is the West End.
Just kidding . . . at least about that last part.
Getting wild
There are, after all, scads of wild steelhead arriving out west as these final days of January draw out.
This is simply their time of year in rivers across the Peninsula.
“You’re looking for quality and not quantity [at this point],” Bob Aunspach of Swain’s General Store (360-452-2357) in Port Angeles said.
“The guys that are looking for that quality fish, they are definitely going to keep fishing.”
Of course, they’ll have to be happy with not being able to keep any of them.
The wild steelhead fishery is strictly catch-and-release on the Peninsula until Feb. 16.
That’s when the Bogachiel, Calawah, Clearwater, Dickey, Hoh, Quillayute, Quinault and Sol Duc will open to retention of one native fish for the license year.
For certain, many will be just fine with that, since the practice of native retention is considered abhorrent by some in the angling community.
And those who are should expect some pretty good fishing this weekend as long as the status quo remains.
“Fishing has been pretty good, it really has,” Bob Gooding of Olympic Sporting Goods (360-374-6330) in Forks said.
“Not everywhere, but the Sol Duc River has been pretty good, natives and Snider Creek [hatchery] fish. They’ve been doing pretty good.
“I’ve seen some Snider Creek fish that are in the 15- to 18-pound range. That ain’t bad.”
Unlike their native brethren, the Snider Creek broodstock (identified by a missing ventral fin) can be kept since they are hatchery fish.
But those are about the only clipped fish likely to come across as we enter February.
The Bogachiel Hatchery run tends to wind down around this time of year.
Even a few weekends ago, 14 of 17 steelhead hooked by the Old Timers’ Steelhead Club while plunking the Quillayute were wild fish (see picture on Page B4).
• One other river fishing note: Dungeness River, Morse Creek (from mouth to Port Angeles Dam), Salt Creek (from mouth to Highway 112 bridge), Deep Creek, Pysht River, Clallam River and Sekiu River all close Tuesday to fishing.
The early closures were done to protect expected low native steelhead returns this winter.
Ridge news
Things got a little wet atop Hurricane Ridge last weekend.
Spats of rain fell upon the Peninsula’s winter playground Sunday, eating away at the snowpack and putting off hopes of an operational Poma lift for at least another week.
Olympic National Park’s website listed the total snow accumulation at 66 inches as of Thursday.
But that doesn’t account for the patchiness that still dots parts of the north side of the mountain where the Poma lift is located.
“I’m going to need another three feet [of snow] until I start pushing again,” mountain manager Craig Hofer said.
“We are going to go ahead with our wiring project on [the lift], but until we get some more snow we’re on hold.”
Both rope tows will once again be in operation this weekend.
For information on lift rates and the ski school, visit hurricaneridge.com.
Skis are available for rental on the bottom level of the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center.
Snowboards can be rented from North by Northwest Surf Co., 902 S. Lincoln St., in Port Angeles.
Road status and current conditions for Hurricane Ridge Road are available by phoning the park’s recorded information line at 360-565-3131 or by visiting www.nps.gov/olym.
Razor clams
Poor digger success at Kalaloch Beach has Olympic National Park biologists wondering about the health of its razor clam population.
Last weekend’s digs produced sub-par results — about one clam per person — for the second straight opener.
Park officials are worried that could be an indicator of a population on the decline, coastal ecologist Steven Fradkin said.
“It raises a little bit of concern because the last set of digs we had saw a marked decrease in the catch per effort,” said Fradkin, referring to two openers around New Year’s that saw diggers take home 4.1 clams per person.
“This certainly seems to be a drop in the digger success, but the last two sets of digs we’ve had have not really been optimal conditions.”
Indeed, last week’s digs were marred by high surf, while the New Year’s events came during positive tides.
Those down south didn’t fare too well last weekend either, with Twin Harbors (5.2 clams per digger) and Long Beach (9.8) diggers both putting up middling success rates.
There are another set of digs scheduled for Feb. 18-19 at Kalaloch as well as several other ocean beaches.
Fradkin said the park plans on taking a wait-and-see approach with those harvest dates before doing any serious investigating.
“It will really be interesting to see what that next set of digs is in terms of whether we get a bounce back in terms of digger success,” Fradkin said.
“If indeed we do see [another poor dig], then we’ll probably go out and do a more quantitative estimate of the razor clam population just to make sure there hasn’t been a huge drop in the population since our last summer stock assessment.”
Obviously, if such is the case, you can rule out any more Kalaloch razor clam digs the rest of the season.
Hunting tidbits
Hunting season may be over, but there’s still plenty going on in the world of bucks, bulls and black bears:
• Hunter Education courses — required for any new hunter born after Jan. 1, 1972 — are scheduled at sites across the Peninsula in the coming months.
Classes will be offered in February (PA/PT), March (PA/Forks), May (Discovery Bay), June (PA) and August (PA).
Each course is divided into five-class sessions, with the final class held in the field.
Students in the Port Angeles area must now register for classes online at http://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/huntered/classes/basic.php.
Those looking to register for the Port Townsend course — set for late February and early March — must contact Just Ask Rental (360-344-3443) in Port Hadlock.
For more information about Port Angeles-area courses, including specific dates, send an e-mail to pahuntered@gmail.com.
For more information about the Port Townsend course, contact Riley Brazil at 360-732-4003.
• Hunters have until Monday to file mandatory hunting reports for black bear, deer, elk or turkey tags purchased in 2010.
Reports can be done by phone (877-945-3492) or the Internet (http://fishhunt.dfw.wa.gov).
Hunters should be prepared to give the game management unit they hunted and their individual WILD identification number, which is printed on license documents.
Commission meeting
Peninsula outdoors types might want to keep tabs on next week’s Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting.
Set for Feb. 4-5 in Olympia, the meeting will address a number of issues pertaining to outdoor activities on the Peninsula.
Among the items up for consideration are closures associated with the removal of two dams on Elwha River, Puget Sound crab seasons and management alternatives for fisheries in Marine Area 4B (Strait of Juan de Fuca west of Sekiu River).
The commission will convene at 8:30 a.m. both days in Room 175 on the first floor of the Natural Resources Building, 1111 Washington St. S.E.
A complete meeting agenda is available on the commission’s website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/meetings.html.
Also . . .
• Waters West Fly Fishing Outfitters will host a free fly-tying/fishing seminar Saturday at 10 a.m.
This week’s seminar at the Port Angeles shop, 140 W. Front St., will focus on winter steelhead flies like intruder tube flies and string things.
• Crabbers have until Tuesday to submit catch reports to Fish and Wildlife or face a $10 fine when they purchase their 2011 crab endorsement.
Catch reports can be mailed to WDFW CRC Unit, 600 Capitol Way N., Olympia, WA 98501-1091, or submitted online at http://tinyurl.com/yhjxf79.
• Peninsula Trails Coalition will hold its final Friday night slideshow fundraiser tonight at the Port Angeles Senior Center, 328 E. Seventh St., at 7 p.m.
Tonight’s show will focus on the underwater world of the Pacific Northwest, Caribbean, Southeast Pacific and the Southwest Pacific-Indian Ocean region.
Admission is $5, with funds going toward supplies and lunches for volunteers working on Olympic Discovery Trail.
• The Port Ludlow Fly Fishers will host three presentations during the next three months on a variety of topics.
The first talk, set for Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. in Port Ludlow, will feature four club members discussing their knowledge of local waters, equipment and techniques.
Presentations are also scheduled for March 15 and April 19 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. All three will be held at Port Ludlow Bay Club, 190 Spinnaker Place.
• Washington Trails Association will gather an all-day work party at Mount Walker Trail in Jefferson County on Feb. 13.
Volunteers will work on improving the tread of the short, steep trail located just west of Hood Canal. Volunteers must pre-register 48 hours in advance.
To pre-register, contact Washington Trails at 206-625-1367 or visit www.wta.org.
Send photos, stories
Want your event listed in the outdoors column?
Have a fishing or hunting report, an anecdote about an outdoors experience or a tip on gear or technique, why not share it with our readers?
Send it to me, Matt Schubert, Sports Department, Peninsula Daily News, P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362; phone, 360-417-3526; fax, 360-417-3521; e-mail matt.schubert @peninsuladailynews.com.
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Matt Schubert is the outdoors columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. His column appears on Thursdays and Fridays.