Olympic Peninsula Treasures

[Deleted User]

I had a truely rewarding time experiencing the Oly Pen with Marty Machaelis (smilesforu) this weekend. I made it up there to his place in Port Angeles by mid-morn. Sat. in only 4 1/2 hours from west side of Portland. Can someone tell me what the boaters were doing along the west side of Hood's Canal tending large bouy floats? Some were trolling. ... Now, along with being a genuinely nice guy, Marty is the essence of a fishing fanatic! I named his house "Fifth Avenue Tackle". In addition to no less than a half dozen huge stuffed steelhead, of his brother's and his, hanging on various walls he has more fishing tackle and rods than some small tackle shops! And some fishing derby trophys. ... We headed over to the Forks area to fish the afternoon incoming tide on the lower Hoh River. Before that though we stopped at local guide Jim Mansfield's house to get a report. We visited with his nice wife Adina, and just as we were leaving Jim pulled in. He had fished 2 clients on the lower river with no luck. And I was told he's about the best there is on the outer Pen rivers, so that isn't what we wanted to hear. Nice guy to visit with. Then we went to a couple of Marty's favorite holes on the Hoh to give it a try (I won't divulge where because I was his guest, but it is an awesome river). No luck either. We met Jerry D. (Steelheader69) and crew at the designated take out and they hadn't hooked a salmon & steelhead all day either. We figured the Indians may have done some "cerimonial" netting due to the small rain rise (the river was a beautiful azure glacial blue color). No other explaination we could think of. So we put my cat in the lowest launch on the Bogachiel R. and fished a short stretch into the Quilayute R. for spooky clear water rolling fish. No biters there either. We were to meet Jerry and float the upper Hoh Sun. but we told him that we might try another place instead due to the slow bite. On Sun. morning we drove up to the Hurricane Ridge lookout point in the Oly Pen National Park. Marty will post a pic from there of some gorgeous mountains. However, 2 of the most gorgeous couldn't be seen from that vantage point. Right Marty? Then we took his saltwater boat over to fish out of Sekiu on the Straight. The morning bite there was hot and many were already coming in with limits on clipped silvers (the only thing you can keep there right now). We fished most of the afternoon and hooked many fish despite the bite slowdown. Had to release some smaller Kings and native silvers but did keep a hatchry silver that Marty caught. Now you'd think an experienced Oly Pen fisherman would bring a raincoat out onto the Straight of Juan DeFuca when clouds are coming, so it looked kinda funny to me to watch Marty fish in a garbage bag during squals http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif . Great time Marty and thank you so much! ... I drove home on the outside of the Pen that evening to see some of the other famous rivers such as the Queets and Quinalt. And a beautiful sunset on the beaches at Klakwok. Awesome for sure! I was really tired by then so I called it queets and headed for hohm http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif . I will be back for the huge steelhead nates of Feb./March! - RT

[smilesforu]

Proof RT was here doing lots of stuff. http://www.steelheader.net/ridge/images/Pict2_small.JPG

Sigh.....its Michaelis & Kalaloch http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

http://www.steelheader.net/ridge/images/Pict5_small.JPG

I had fun showing RT around and sharing some of our fishing theories. I even took him to the Elwha to see the lower dam and some salmon in the pool. He practiced his race car driving skills and watched the scenery at the same time. Good way to stay wide awake.... http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/shocked.gif Fishing just didn't like us this trip maybe next time.

I was looking good in my garbage bag eating water proof donuts. Rt was just jealous I didn't have another. It worked for about two minutes but the rain was coming down so hard I was completely soaked in minutes.


I have a couple other photos located http://www.steelheader.net/ridge/rt.htm
Sorry RT no pictures of Adina http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif



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Marty
Steelheader.net (http://www.steelheader.net/)

[Steelheader69]

Glad you had fun RT. It was nice to meet you guys. Too bad you didn't at least do the upper float. I had some ultra light rods with and had fun nailing big cutts, bows, and dolly's. It wasn't a salmon or steelhead, but fun nonetheless. I figured there'd be something going on, tons of small fish in the 14-20 inch range. You'll have to make the float one of these days RT, it's very beautiful with lots of scenery.

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You haven't lived til you've rowed a cataraft. Friends don't let friends run Outcasts.

[Deleted User]

Oh ya, I forgot a couple significant things about the OP. Marty mentioned one of them; the Elwha Dam. For those unaware, this is an historic candidate for removal for the restoration of salmon and steelhead runs (they'll never be what they once were though). I knew of this story and about the magnificent runs of huge Steelhead and huge Kings (some over 100 lbs. like the Kenai R. in AK) that were cut off by construction of this damn dam, because the builders lobbied politicians to get a permit to avoid having to build a fish ladder; so as to increase profits. http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/mad.gif A true avoidable fish and nature tragedy. A smaller scale version of the travesty of the Grand Coulee Dam having no fish ladders built and killing off runs of huge Kings and Steelhead from the upper Columbia. Ooooouch! We saw a few salmon and steelhead swimming around in the big pool at the base of Elwha Dam. As I looked up the reservoir behind the dam and up into the great watershed canyon beyond, it did bring on a sadness more profound than when you just read about it. -- The other thing was seeing the protected old growth forests with giant cedar trees, within the park boundries. Rare and beautiful! From what I've seen of the many clearcuts outside the protected zones there I bet many timber companies see a different type of green when they peer into that natural protected beauty. - RT

[smilesforu]

It was confirmed the hoh tribe was netting below us. So this was a major cause to our skunking on the Hoh. Glad to see you made it home in one piece Rt. Did you fish the Queets or go up into the rain forest on the way home?

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Marty
Steelheader.net (http://www.steelheader.net/)

[Deleted User]

Hey Marty, I figured that had to be it. That awesome river comes up some with the rain and has a gorgeous color to it and nothing but small fish on the nice stuff we ran thru good water! I can really feel more for you OP fishers now; having to deal with Indian netting going beyond their supposed allocations and getting the nets in quick with a freshet, like this weekend. They can net anywhere, so why can't there be a trade-off somehow to have them only net above the lower sportfishing areas. The nets block all the fish while they are in, but sportfishers don't come close to picking off a high percentage of the fish, so the Indians would have plenty to net upriver. Ask the Hoh Tribal members what it would take Marty, for this arrangement to occur. More money plus the continued right to net the middle river, yet still allow enough spawning escapement? I've got plenty of negotiation ideas if you, Jim, and Adina could get your feet in the door, so to speak. -- I didn't fish the Queets. I drove up the Hoh to sightsee a bit, then down 101 I couldn't resist the sign pointing in to the giant cedar tree. The best though was sitting a while to watch the sun set on the beaches of Klakwok! As my son would say, "sweeeet, tight, phat, and I mean that!". And then some. By the time I got to the Queets it was getting a bit dark so I went on to see the Quinalt to, while I had enough light. I had to drink plenty of coffee to keep driving. It also helped to take some short power naps while doing 70 mph down long straight stretches http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif . Those ribs wake you up just fine as the curves arrive. - Steve