The fishing community is still trying to collect themselves after several weeks of non-stop rain, which has proven to be the story in the fall salmon season. October came in as a record-setting month of rainfall, and it was followed up with an equally wet November.
This kind of massive water invasion translates into swollen rivers with extreme muddy water. Of course, fish don’t mind too much. After all, they live and move in water. The problem has been how do anglers access these waterways to pursue these fish.
The window of opportunity was slim in regard to the salmon run. Anglers have managed to bring home fish. It definitely took some planning and effort to accomplish this task. Fishers could not be too “picky” in regard to fresh verses dark fish. If any fish were on the dark side, they were retained and had smoked salmon value if nothing else.
We can still expect to see some salmon continuing to trickle in as we begin the month of December. However, the salmon time frame is beginning to close. The next wave of fishing opportunity in our local rivers is the winter steelhead season. Hopefully, there will be better cooperation from the weather to make this fishing successful.
Speaking of success, it would be prudent to look at the winter steelhead smolt stocking report for this season. For this year, there are both some ups and downs in this regard.
As it pertains to our Coastal River System, the Quillayute River System is down somewhat from the previous planting cycle. That system obtained 179,243 smolt and the breakdown includes 124,324 smolt in the Bogachiel River and 54,919 smolt in the Calawah River. The other northern rivers obtaining plants are as follows: Hoh River/Chaloat Creek 100,000 smolt and the Salmon River with 169,072 smolt. This plant on the Salmon River is up from the previous year and welcomed news for harborites who fish this stream. The Humptulips River obtained 132,426 smolt which is slightly above the previous plant.
The Chehalis River System is another story. It’s overall plant of 310,500 is down from the previous year. This number is broken down to include 88,740 smolt in the Wynooche River, 61,100 smolt in the East Fork Satsop River, 97,000 in the Skookumchuck River, 34,500 in the Newaukum River and 29,160 in the Upper Chehalis River. It stands to reason that the lower Chehalis River is a good location to intercept fish making their way to rivers feeding into the Chehalis at some point.
The biggest boost by way of a plant goes to the Willapa Bay steelhead fishery. This plant has increased by over 100,000 smolt. The 246,833 plant is shared by 9,800 in the North River, Willapa River 87,583 smolt, North Nemah River 19,675 smolt and the Nasselle River with 129,775 smolt. The biggest increase in this system goes to the Nasselle River by far.
These numbers can be a bit deceiving when it comes to actual returns. The rule of thumb is anywhere between one and three percent return on the plant. So for a realistic number, do the math.
