Saturday, October 08, 2005


First Salmon trip outside of Alaska in over 20 years! I had fished a bit of salmon in Canada a long time ago, but this was definitley something new.

Amazing but finally I went slamon fishing in the area. The Quinault River is know for its runs of salmon and Steelhead. I went out with a guest with the help of Frank who also works for the nation in the timber side. I had gone with Frank before and he definitely knows the river.

The rains had muddied up the river a bit but you could tell the fish were in the river. We started by throwing vibrax spinners in sizes 5 and 6. My guest Jim had the hot hands landing a King, a steelhead, and at least 5 nice cohos. His hot lure was a size 5 vibrax with silver blade and orange body. I managed a king and a silver during the trip. I also impressed everyone by not catching fish but catching 2 spinners and another salmon bait rig. At least I must have been near the bottom fishing which is where you need to be.

Given the number of fish we saw rolling and the number of commercial caught salmon being caught in the lower river, the action should have been better. But for a half day trip, it's hard to say that our total of 2 kings, 8 or 9 cohos, and a nice steelhead was anything but a great trip. We only kept enough to use fresh or to turn into lox.