NIGHT OWLS AREN’T afforded too many advantages in the fishing realm.
Those who fail to get up and out the door by 4:30 a.m. generally miss out on the best angling opportunities the North Olympic Peninsula has to offer.
One notable exception is the squid fishery in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
With schools of squid running through the Strait from June through August, anglers can encounter the squirmy cephalopoda on Peninsula piers on many a hot summer night. (And by “hot,” I mean 50 degrees.)
The trick is just to pick the right time to go, Brian Menkal of Brian’s Sporting Goods and More (360-683-1950) in Sequim said.
“It’s not really consistent like, say, salmon fishing,” Menkal said. “I don’t know if you can count on going out there and getting these things all the time.
“If nothing happens, don’t beat yourself up over it. They just weren’t there.”
Indeed, that is the way of squid fishing.
Last year, for example, I visited Port Angeles City Pier — regarded as one of the better squidding locations on the Peninsula — on a number of occasions only to come up empty.
Invariably, I’d get word that the squid were running thick again a couple days later.
Be it bad luck or poor timing, I just never seemed to be able to pin down the run. Neither could so many others I talked to.
According to Menkal, the best thing to do is go down to the pier on a warm, calm night and look for streaks of white moving through the water.
“If there’s a bunch of them, you will see little white schools of them going through the water,” he said. “It’s a very quick window normally.
“Years ago when we got started in PA, we had these extremely warm waters come in the Strait . . . and people were all of the sudden going down and getting buckets of them.
“That was in the 1980s. It never really reached that peak again, but people go out and get them.”
As mentioned above, the best time to do so is at night on well-lighted piers.
Depending upon whom you ask, it’s may also be beneficial to fish during a new moon, since that’s when nights are at their darkest.
Squid are attracted to light. Thus, if you can park your keister at a place like Port Angeles City Pier (or, perhaps, some of the lighted piers in Port Townsend), there’s a chance you could run into them.
All one needs are some glow-in-the-dark squid jigs — generally adorned with numerous hooks — and a willingness to bob their arms up and down for hours on end.
If you’re lucky, you’ll get a bucket full of squid two to four inches in length.
“The best way to go is to take a trout rod, a fairly sensitive action trout rod, and if something starts to grab [the jig] you’ll feel it right away,” Menkal said. “If it’s too stiff a rod, you’re not going to feel it.
“Sometimes you can jig it up and down, and sometimes you can just cast it out there and you’ll feel a little bump and [the squid’s] just wrapped its tentacles around it.”
One other note: Wear clothes you don’t mind getting stained. These squid are armed with ink, and they’re not afraid to use it.
Crab news
One may have to harken back to the Summer of Love to find a time when scoring crabs was this easy.
Limits continue to be commonplace throughout much of the Peninsula as we enter the third week of crab season.
It’s been especially hot in the waters around Sequim, Menkal said, with Sequim and Dungeness bays spitting out crabs like it’s 1967.
“I had one guy whose been crabbing here for 30 years, and he says this is the best opener he’s seen,” Menkal said. “Everybody is getting them, it’s just been a banner year.
“The tribal [fishers] hit [Dungeness Bay] last week, but it was still a great weekend. Nobody had any complaints whatsoever.”
Bob Aunspach of Swain’s General Store (360-452-2357) in Port Angeles said things have been consistently good in Port Angeles Harbor and Freshwater Bay as well.
And reports from the Port Townsend area have also been positive.
“[Port Angeles Harbor] has been good at multiple places,” Aunspach said. “It started off pretty gang busters, but it slowed off since.”
Those who have designs on wading out into the surf to catch their crab will have several opportunities to do so this weekend.
Low morning tides are set to hit the area today through Saturday.
A few places that might produce some shapely shellfish: Dungeness Bay, Indian Island County Park and Pillar Point.
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Matt Schubert is the outdoors and sports columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. His column regularly appears on Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at matt.schubert@peninsuladailynews.com.