ENJOY WHILING AWAY a warm fall day fishing on the Quillayute River system?

Congratulations, as recreational anglers will have a much improved season this fall, particularly on the stretch running from the Quillayute River mouth up to the Sol Duc Hatchery.

“The Quillayute River system should provide a nice step up from last year,” state Department of Fish and Wildlife fish biologist Mike Gross said.

“We are still going to practice some conservation there, but on that hatchery corridor from the Quillayute up to the Sol Duc Hatchery the limit will be six fish [salmon], three of which may be adults, one of which may be wild.

“So you could get a chinook or a wild coho to go with three hatchery coho.”

Gross said the Quillayute and Sol Duc should be open as normal in September and October and all the way through to Nov. 30.

That’s in contrast to rivers shuttered last fall during the peak coho run period due to low forecasted coho returns in 2016.

A slightly above normal snowpack should help river conditions, provided we don’t experience a long, hot summer like 2015.

Wild retention

In the Dickey, Bogachiel and Calawah rivers, anglers can take a limit of three salmon, only one of which may be an adult.

Gross said he doesn’t expect hatchery fish to be frequenting those rivers (obviously), so anglers can decide if they want to target wild chinook or coho.

Hoh River steelhead

Further south, Hoh River projections forecast a return of around 1,000 summer chinook, slightly above the river’s escapement goal of 900 fish.

Based on that low number of harvestable fish, Gross said the state elected to take a different path than the Hoh tribe, which will take its share, estimated between 50-60 chinook, in May or June.

“For the sport fishery we elected to take impacts in July and August in a steelhead-only fishery with a standard statewide limit,” Gross said.

Gross said the Hoh tribe did agree to protect some tardy late-spawning summer chinook that tend to congregate in the rivers’ lower sections in late August and early September.

“We encounter a number of dark chinook in that time frame in the lower river, those fish are part of the population that we are trying to protect in that early summer window,” Gross said.

“We offered to close [recreational fishing] for a two-week period in early September,” Gross said.

“And the tribe are concerned enough about the wild chinook impacts that they are going to go along with a two-week closure around Sept. 1 with the purpose of trying to put a few more of those wild summer chinook up on the spawning grounds.”

A Hoh River opener would follow, likely starting Sept. 11 through the 16th and running until the end of November.

Gross said the daily bag limit would be six fish, two adults, only one of which may be a chinook.

Queets issues

The Queets River is having continued problems with coho escapement, so the fishery will be similar to what was offered in 2016.

“The Queets is a more disappointing situation,” Gross said.

“It should be open through September for early hatchery coho returns. But the river will be closed Oct. 1 through Nov. 30.”

Dungeness River

Anglers who enjoy the hatchery coho run on the Dungeness River are safe this fall despite a dire projected return of less than 500 kings.

“We anticipate a similar hatchery coho season with an opener on Oct. 16,” Gross said.

“But if conditions warrant it, we will consider opening as much as a week earlier.”

An early opening would only occur if the river’s chinook run has progressed upstream and the kings are safely spawning on their redds.

Gross made it clear that revisions could occur to these river fisheries before the state’s recreational fish pamphlets are released in June. These seasons are not set in stone nor glacially-scoured river rock.

Anglers meeting

Herb Prins, long time club member, will discuss halibut fishing in the waters off Port Angeles at Thursday’s meeting of the North Olympic Peninsula chapter of Puget Sound Anglers.

The meeting will be held at Trinity United Methodist Church, 100 S. Blake Ave., with time to view raffle prizes and swap fish stories at 6:30 p.m., and the meeting following at 7 p.m.

Prins will cover tackle, bait, tides, currents, anchoring and drifting for the flatfish.

Only three days of halibut fishing are guaranteed this season, so learning as much as possible is important and this popular seminar stands to give anglers a head start.

Refreshments will be served, a raffle of fishing gear will be held, as well as a $50 membership drawing for those present.

The public is welcome to attend.

State website survey

Fish and Wildlife announced a project to “modernize and improve” the agency’s website. The department wants to know how the public uses the site and what they would like to see going forward. A survey to collect responses is at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WCVNNM9.

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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.