Fall Salmon Finale in Forks 6

Fishing buddy Steve Maris and I hit the Olympic Peninsula bright and squirrely on Tuesday morning in search of an elk. We drove for three hours in the dark, launched the driftboat on river "X" at sunup in a what-the-hell-are-we-doing-here rain storm and then floated downstream, poking our way into alder bottoms and potential elk safe houses in the brush choked river valley. Like a true outdoor professional I forgot my Grunden's rain pants and while I could drape a Hefty garbage bag over my legs in the boat to shield ma'sef from some of the torrential rain, beating the brush was a different story.

We hit it hard until mid-afternoon and outside of jumping a few blacktails and hooking and losing a chromasome king and a dime bright silver the elk were nowhere to be found. Ya gotta get out in the woods to figure these things out, however, and we were able to find at least a few pieces to the puzzle for the next time we go.

Before we got sidetracked with the elk the original plan was to fish with Forks area guide Bill Myer of Anglers West Guide Service (206-697-2055) on Wednesday for silver salmon on one the local rivers. Steve and I grabbed a room at the Forks Motel and hunkered down for the night, awaiting the next days fishing trip.

As usual, Bill met us with a smile the next morning at breakfast and before long we were heading south to the Bogachiel River. The silver run on the Sol Duc was starting to wane and both the Calawah and Bogey had at least a few bright fish in them. Nothing hot and heavy, but neither Steve and I gave a rip and with little pressure on the Bogey we decided to go that way.

Bill rigged us up with marabou jigs and we were off to the races. While I was busy breaking Bill's jigs off on the bottom Steve quietly picked up his limit of silvers, boating hulky ten and twelve pounders.

I had been twitching my arms off with a jig for about two and a half hours while Steve hucked his favorite spinner repeatedly into the wood piles along the bank. The spinner had accounted for one nice silver early on and outside of that nothing had really payed much attention to the metal. Soooo, he picks up a jig and throws into a hole that I had just thoroughly worked over and WHAMO…fish on! He's limited out and I'm a clearly a loser, at least for now. 

Click on the image below to check out the video of Steve's second fish:

And check out Bill's special technique for bleeding out his salmon. He make's a handle in the fishes tail and then hangs the fish over the side before cutting the gills. The blood is out of the salmon pronto doing it this way. Just make sure the salmon doesn't jump off the handle. 

By lunch time I had hooked a cutthroat, two small silver jacks, a boot king salmon, and a chum that I lost. Things were not good in my camp, but they were about to get better. A salmon had just rolled on the far bank of a productive run and when my jig hit the water close by it was game on immediately. After landing the first silver I nailed another one a few casts later to finally, finally get my limit and hopefully stave off too much more well-deserved abuse.

Bill netting one of my silvers:

Click on the image below to jump over to the video page and check out my second silver of the day.

Bill and Steve wondering just how long it would take for "Corky" to catch a fish.  

Thankfully things got a little better for me in the afternoon and as we cruised downstream I caught and released two more chrome silvers twitching jigs. Even though the salmon run is winding down in Forks there is still some opportunity for bright fish out there, as we saw yesterday, and there's already been word of a few hatchery steelhead showing up.

It was already a great day and things were about to get a lot better. Just below Goodman Mainline Steve and I chucked our jigs into some deep water and I got slammed by a king salmon immediately. The video below tells most of the story:

A great haul of bright silvers for both Steve and I from one of my favorite areas. If you're into the outdoors you need to put Forks, Washington on your bucket list.

Another great day on the water with two friends who don't take themselves too seriously. Don't think these guys can't bring it though, as both of them are accomplished anglers adept at just about any salmon and steelhead technique you can throw at them.

Give Bill a shout for a great guide trip on the Olympic Peninsula and I'm sure you'll see Steve again here soon. Can't wait to get back out to Forks for some steelhead fishing!