Rags to Riches on the Quinault River 5

If you remember my Salmon River blog back in January where I mentioned that you'd better get to the Quinault River after it comes back into shape. It's in shape folks and now is the time to be there. Like…right now!

The Quinault gets it's far share of gagger-sized steelhead in the 20 pound range and about every other year you'll hear of a thumper pulled from a gillnet that's 30 pounds or better. The biggest I can remember was a 38 pounder yanked from a gillnet half a decade ago on this fine coastal river. That one caused me some sleep loss!

The lower Quinault River below the lake lies entirely within the Quinault Indian Reservation and a native guide is required to fish this part of the river. Two hatcheries reside on this stretch, including the Quinault National Fish Hatchery at Cook Creek and a hatchery operated by the tribe at the outlet from Lake Quinault at Highway 101.

Cook Creek is literally stupid with steelhead in November and December and the hatchery at the lake gets it's fish in February and March. The tribe only broodstocks the biggest bruisers they can find at this hatchery and it's no wonder the fish that return there are monsters. That's what we were after…a trophy class winter steelhead.

Scott Sypher showed me around the national fish hatchery while we were waiting for our guide Keenam Howard (360-589-2722) to show up. It's a huge facility that produces big numbers of winter steelhead and fall coho. Scott fishes Cook Creek every year in November and it's nothing for him to hook thirty plus steelhead in a morning.     

The tribe places an electric barrier across the creek when the hatchery fish return to keep them from straying upstream and mixing with the wild fish. I'm fairly certain you don't want to pee on this electric fence, as the results could be deadly.

Keenam showed up at exactly 7:30 a.m. and we followed him to the makeshift ramp on the river. He had the perfect sled for fishing this river and it wasn't long before we were drifting downstream hammering all of the Quinault's trophy steelhead water with Aero Puffs and rags baited with Pautzke cured eggs or fresh sand shrimp.

Keenams uncle, Archie Howard, is also a guide on this river and told us right where the fish were when he was on the river a few days earlier. The gravel bar you see downstream in the photo below is creek "X" and that's where "bidness time" began for us yesterday. We fished a few stellar runs above this that I'm certain hold fish over the course of the winter, but we were only heating up the tires for what was to come.

Scott and I chose to fish rags because the visibility was about two feet and these were agressive wild steelhead. No need to get all micro on these fish. The rags float high off the bottom and when they clamp down on this offering the yarn gets stuck in their yapper, making for a very obvious and fun bite. Tip this riggin's with a cluster of Borax'O Fire cured eggs or a sandshrimp tail and it's business time.

I landed a chrome little 5 pound steelhead right off the mouth of the creek before we drifted down into the main run and the real fun started. Before Scott landed the chrome buck in the photo below we lost 6 straight steelhead. The water was still a little on the cool side and the fish were hitting right the end of the swing, making for a tough, tough hook set. It didn't make no nevermind though because the sun was out and we were having fun! 

Scott stroked into another nice buck of about 12 pounds right after he landed the chromer above. He was fishing a sandshrimp tail with a rag on about a two foot leader and they were pickin' up what he was throwin' down.

I would've liked to have seen more of the river, but we were getting bit so consistently in this run that we just couldn't justify leaving. By mid afternoon we had solid hookups on twelve steelhead, sorry we don't count "bites", and number thirteen was just moments away.

That particular steelhead is one that I won't soon forget. My Aero Puff and egg combo had ticked the bottom for about ten feet when a steelhead started mowwing on it. I lowered the rod to let the fish really get ahold of the bait, waited for a few seconds, and then let him have it!

I came back hard on the fish and nothing happened…it just layed there. I reeled down on it as far as I could and put as much pressure on the fish as I could and still nothing. I mean NOTHING! All of us were looking at my rod thinking it must be a snag when all of a sudden I get three huge headshakes and Kapuuuuuut…out comes the hook. That wasn't just any fish!

Two casts later and a little lower in the tailout I layed into this 16-ish buck that made a spunky showing of himself before coming alongside the boat for a quick photo. Unlucky fish number thirteen, however, is still probably waiting in the tailout for another taste of Pautzke's. Could it have been one of those bruiser Quinny steelhead we always hear about. It certainly could have been. 

After the steelhead frenzy had finally ended Scott hooked into this really nice trout and we had some discussion as to what kind of trout it was. While we were pretty sure it was a cutthroat there were no obvious markings indicating it as such. It had no red slashes under it's jaw and no teeth to speak of. The jaw on a cutty will extend past it's eye and this one's jaw was about even with it's eye. Is this a cutthroat? You tell me.

Every time we landed a fish Scott and I would take a long, hard look at their fins to determine if they were from the tribal hatchery or were actually wild fish. Hatchery steelhead usually have dorsal rays that are disconnected and tattered and most of the fins will have a rounded or worn appearance from swimming in the concrete pools when they are juveniles. We couldn't determine one way or another if any of our fish were hatcheries, so we let them all go.

Here's some video of some of the great fish we caught yesterday with Keenam. Just a taste of what steelhead fishing is all about. To really understand it you'll have to get out there and see it for yourself.

The Quinault River is in shape right now and the steelhead are there. Fishing with a tribal guide means bringing your own tackle, gear, and bait. We were the only boat on the river yesterday and I'll pay for that kind of access any time.

Grab a room at the Quinault Beach Casino soon and hit the Quinault while it's still in shape. There's a clam dig coming up also, a perfect weekend to double dip with some winter steelhead fishing and razor clams.  

Rob Endsley
The Outdoor Line
710 ESPN Seattle
www.theoutdoorline.com