After a slow start to the season, the salmon fishing in the outer strait has picked up during the week, despite some heavy afternoon winds, with a 32-pound chinook reported being caught at Green Buoy on Thursday morning.
A 30-pound hatchery chinook was also brought in at Mason’s Olson’s Resort in Sekiu.
“It’s not very often we get a 30-pounder [hatchery fish],” said Brandon Mason at Mason’s Olson Resort. “We’ve had four in the last three years.”
Joe Lawrence at Big Salmon Resort in Neah Bay said “the salmon fishing has been good when the weather has been good,” i.e., when the wind hasn’t been a factor. Lawrence said a number of 10-12 pounders have been brought in with some 20-pounders being hauled in as well. Lawrence said the 32-pounder was caught by a coach from Clover Park High School.
Hot spots around Neah Bay have been Swiftsure Bank, Mushroom Rock and Green Buoy, Lawrence said. He also said that in addition to salmon, there has been good sea bass fishing in the area.
“Friday and Saturday are going to be good fishing days,” he said.
Glenn Teeter of Van Riper’s Resort in Sekiu said the salmon started off slowly, but then really started picking up Monday and Tuesday of this week. Eight- to 10-pound chinook have been common with some catches as big as 19 to 20 pounds. Teeter said probably half the fish being brought in are being caught during the change of the tide at high tide.
Mason’s Olsen Resort in Sekiu said catches have been averaging 16-24 pounds, with the 30-pounder caught early this week.
Mason said fishing has been best in shallow water, 30 feet and in, in the kelp.
“Every day has been a little bit better. We just need the wind to cooperate,” he said. Mason reported that some anglers are having success with small herring while some like herring Aide Coho Kill,
Hoh River
A really nice hike now that the spring and early summer rains have finally mellowed out, is up the Hoh River.
It’s a little daunting driving to the trailhead. Even on a non-holiday weekday, the road from Highway 101 south of Forks was choked with traffic. The parking lot by noon was completely full and the overflow parking lot was quickly filling up.
I visited the Hall of Mosses several years ago on a cold, wet, rainy early fall day. The weather couldn’t have been a whole lot worse, but the good part of it was, it was so bad there was no one out on the trails other than me. I was literally alone in the mosses and the ferns because it takes some pretty hardy people to go out hiking in those conditions. Most everyone just stuck to the visitor’s center.
However, here’s an amazing thing about the Hoh River hike. If you just go the Hall of Mosses and the visitor’s center this time of year, it will be very, very crowded. But get just a half mile or so up the river, and all of a sudden the crowds vanish. You will still pass someone every few minutes, but I wouldn’t call it crowded and you still get a nice wilderness experience, especially for a national park.
It was surprisingly hot the day I hiked the Hoh River, probably low 80s, but after a long Washington winter and spring, it sure felt hotter than that and I ended up wishing I had brought an extra bottle of water. A nice spot to stop for a picnic lunch is at Mount Tom Creek (past a beautiful waterfall from Mineral Creek). You can take some side trails through a camping area, which in the middle of the day was empty but on the weekends might be occupied and make it out to some sand bars in the Hoh River.
These sand bars were hot. Absolutely roasting. A nice wind was gusting above the river channel and it was actually a lot more comfortable than the hot, sticky underbrush of the trail. The river was icy and felt great and such a warm day.
It was only a six-mile hike total, but my feet were hurting afterward. Since some health issues I had in 2014, I haven’t gotten out in the wild as much as I used to (Back in the day, I thought nothing of a 16-mile hike or 3,000-foot climb.), but as sore as I was, I was glad I could still do six measly and mostly flat miles, even if it was pretty warm, and actually be able to move the next day.
I thought it was just me with the heat. But, on the way back, I passed a family that was desperate to find the Mineral Creek Falls because they certainly appeared to be roasting in the heat. Afterward, I thought, “how many days of the year can you really cook yourself on the Hoh River?” I can’t imagine more than a couple of dozen days a year.
I’ve been kind of contemplating hiking all the way out to the Dungeness Spit lighthouse so the Mount Tom Creek was a good warm up for that.
Elwha River story
The Seattle Times this week did a good article on the recovery of the Elwha River fishery since the removal of the Glines Canyon and Elwha dams in 2014 and 2011.
To read the story, you can go to goo.gl/yGQGEw
According to the Times article, chinook have been seen spawning further upstream on the Elwha then ever before with a single chinook salmon redd seen 36 miles upriver near Godkin Creek, 23 miles upstream from the former site of the Glines Canyon Dam. More than 100 chinook redds were seen above the former Glines Canyon Dam site last year, according to the story.
Additionally, Coho were also seen spawning in Cat and Boulder creeks, well above the Glines Canyon Dam site, in 2016 for the first time.
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Sports Editor Pierre LaBossiere can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or plabossiere@peninsuladailynews.com.
Pierre LaBossiere/Peninsula Daily News Mineral Creek in the Hoh River Valley, about 3 miles upstream from the Hoh Forest Visitor’s Center.
