A RUN OF cool, crisp and most importantly, dry weather, the type anglers covet during steelhead season, has hit the North Olympic Peninsula over the past week, surely lowering the stock in hand warmers and fingerless gloves of area merchants.
And related or not, a wild steelhead appeared in the Sol Duc River, earlier than Jerry Wright of Jerry’s Bait and Tackle (360-460-4171) had ever seen before.
Wright discussed his unexpected but certainly appreciated catch-and-release of the gorgeous wild steelhead hen while he drifted the Lower Hoh on Thursday morning, waiting for a tidal change to bring in some fish at Barlow’s.
“Just crazy,” Wright said. “The earliest I’ve ever caught a wild steelhead and maybe one of the most beautiful I’ve ever caught. That was a really nice fish. You can’t get any more pristine than that.”
Wright was drifting the Sol Duc with his good buddy Wil Hart, when he felt a tug on his rod, which was hooked up with a float and eggs.
“I’m thinking to myself, ‘That’s no king, that’s no coho, and there’s only one other option at that point,” Wright said.
“It put up a good fight, plenty of jumping. I’d say it was at least 10 pounds.”
Wil Hart caught this wild king while fishing on the Sol Duc River on Tuesday with Jerry Wright of Jerry’s Bait and Tackle in Port Angeles. Anglers can keep one wild chinook as part of their daily limit on the Sol Duc. (Courtesy photo)
A hatchery steelhead before Halloween would be relatively rare. A wild hen? That’s a collective anointing by the steelheading gods.
“I was just so surprised, me and my partner were just shaking our heads like we couldn’t believe our luck,” Wright said.
“It’s still October. I could understand a hatchery fish straight out of the Bogachiel, but this was something else.”
Wright puts in the time and effort on the water and often catches superb fish, whether it be Sol Duc steelies or a catch-and-release Beardslee trout on Lake Crescent.
“I get lucky, man,” Wright said. “It’s like my friends say, ‘I just don’t know about you.’ I guess I am in the right place, right time.”
Add in the fact that he was fishing with a good friend on a day when their schedules aligned on a river with water levels just high enough to allow one drift boat passenger…it was meant to be.
And to add to the fish tale, Wright thinks he almost caught another on the same trip.
“I made two more casts right after I caught the hen, and it definitely seemed like another steelhead out there. It looked like it was a male. It hit, went out, sizzled me out [of line] and popped off,” Wright said.
It’s not always catching, though.
“Having a hell of a time today, but there is a tide at noon, and we’ll start pushing down to Barlow’s by the mouth. Try and find an inside corner, get the plugs out and see what happens.”
And that’s the key, getting out there.
“You just never know what is going to happen while fishing,” Wright said.
Also on the Hoh
Mike Zavadlov of Mike Z’s Guide Service (360-640-8109) also was drift fishing the Lower Hoh on Thursday morning.
“There been some really nice fish around, here on the Hoh and the Sol Duc,” Zavadlov said.
“We’ve had some nice, big chinook. We haven’t seen the size of these fish in a number of years. Earlier in the year, I heard about a 50-pounder being caught. I know what river, but I’m not going to say. But it’s pretty easy to tell that this year’s chinook and coho fed well out in the ocean.”
Zavadlov said casting spinners and twitching jigs have been working out well for him and his clients.
The most up-to-date reports have a good push of wild fish coming through the Sol Duc.
“We’ve been seeing good numbers,” Zavadlov said. “The Sol Duc had a good push of hatchery fish move through and most recently it’s been a good amount of wilds. But that’s a nice thing to see on the Sol Duc, you always need those wild fish.”
Zavadlov said rivers are seeing a good run of pressure on the weekends, but ample fish spread out across multiple rivers has reduced the crunch.
“Crowds haven’t been bad, you do get a good amount of weekend warriors who are coming out,” Zavadlov said. “All the rivers are fishable, every place has fish, so everybody is spread out and can fish the section they want to fish.”
And Zavadlov said he hasn’t seen any steelhead, wild or hatchery thus far.
“No, but I am looking. I am waiting,” Zavadlov said with a laugh. “First part of November, they might show up. Or start creeping in the Bogey [Bogachiel River]. We had hatchery fish creeping up in the Bogey a few years back and that was in early November.
“You start fishing spinners for the coho, then you realize what you have on your line.”
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-406-0674 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
