Doubles for the Can-o-nasty party

STEELHEAD FISHING REPORT

After nearly 20 full winter seasons of guiding steelhead on the Olympic Peninsula I have seen many ups and downs in the fishery. The changing seasons and developments from Puget Sound, north to BC and south to northern California have filtered through the grapevine and now social media since the discovery of Steelhead and salmon runs on the west coast.

History has shown a constant influx of run sizes generically throughout the west coast. Some regions are MUCH more stable than others. This is were the Olympic Peninsula comes into play as a world class steelhead fishery. SO MUCH different from the BC fisheries in so many ways and even different from fisheries in the same state.

Nothing has been more of a beacon of trouble on the OP than river closures within the state of Washington. The conservation groups rally for their economic involvement, the industry players adapt to ever changing regulation and battery from within. The co-managing WDFW has a complaint box so full it can not begin to manage a species and is forced to manage people many of whom are not even hunters or fishers.

The threat of global warming, hatchery abuse, tribal overharvest, overabundance of predation species, Fukashima, Peta, human overpopulation, dugs in the waterways, pollution from roads and industry and even compounding negativity from some conservation groups themselves, all working against a wonderful industry with a tiny ecological footprint trying to hold the Steelhead on a pedestal worthy of worship.

WILD steelhead remain the most consistent thing in my life on this earth, they have battled Ice ages, Volcanic eruptions, climactic changes that we can only speculate upon and now they will battle HUMANS for ever.  Nothing has shown me the adaptability of wild steelhead more that the last 10 years of my guiding career.

We as humans with emotions, opinions and constantly changing science may never really understand the propensity of wild fish and how they adapt to there surroundings before we even know it.

With all the negative BULL SHIT, wild steelhead of the Olympic Peninsula are steady, persistent and a bright ray of hope in the every changing atmosphere of the west coast sport fishing industry.

2018 season:
One for the record books for sure, not in size of fish in any way but the shear consistency of good days fishing, weather and comradery.

This is the second season with the WILD DUC LODGE in operation and if 2018 is any proof, the LOW spot in steelhead returns has been seen and it will be on an upward cycle for a few years to come. This winter / spring season was by far the best SWING fishing season since 2010, some of this from water levels some by the reduced tribal fishing on the Hoh and Queets rivers allowing many more fish to return to the gravel. Even with the foregone opportunity play, by the Quileute tribe the Sol Duc, Calawah and Bogachiel seen good numbers as well. The fish ranged from 7-15 pounds with very few over the magical 20 benchmark. As seasons go, I have had very few better, we lost only a few days to river conditions one small group in January and one small group in April, that in reality, could of been fished on reduced days.

We adamantly stuck to reducing encounters both nymphing and swinging, with the only hook mortalities on the swung fly again for the 5th year in a row,  totaling 3. We have developed a zero hook mortality with the nymphing technique and have managed great strides in reducing the swung fish tongue hooking’s resulting in mortalities. This has been a pet peeve of mine for many years now that every mortality matters. As the general joe steelhead angler is now picking up a spey rod this mortality rate must be addressed or our favored style will need to be regulated intensively.

I estimated our service landed 800 plus steelhead in the winter and spring of 2018 of which 3 were positive mortality, ie: pumping gill blood upon release. All these were from deep hooks in the gill rakers on a swung fly. Since our swung fish catch has quadrupled in 2018 I see this as a huge improvement on the last “best season” when we caught fewer swinging and had a 7 fish mortality.
We have accomplished this in three ways:
1. Tie the fly to ride correct , with hook point up.
2. On soft trailers use a heavy hook so they will ride hook point up,    this will take some LOOKING at the fly in the water and experimental but works great on rabbit leaches.
3. Stop mending so much! a sideways presentation reduces the tongue                                                  hooking’s and increase’s solid hook ups.

As for the future of the OP fishery?
Its going to be bright:
~ Gene Bank philosophy is taking hold state wide.
~  Tribal kill due to less effort has been reduced on most locations.
~ Urban angling should begin seeing increased season lengths in general.
~ Opening of the Skagit R and longer seasons on the north PS rivers will dramatically reduce the       guide pressure on the Peninsula opening space for local anglers.
~ Multiple seasons in a row with good water conditions.
~ Ocean survival on the rise.
~ A good effort to reduce Salmon Farming state wide.
~ Positive conservation efforts are on the rise.

Just look at the scenario unfolding on the Columbia, predation is going to be reduced and the runs are on the rebound just to start! I see great things to come!

Thanks for following , Jeff Brazda