Salmon Fishing on the Queets - 1993

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Salmon Fishing on the Queets - 1993

My neighbor Jim and I made our second annual salmon fishing trip in late October, 1993. We hired guides to float us down the Queets River on the west side of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.

Two of Jim's doc buddies went with us. We left from Jim's office at 3:00 a.m. and after a two hour drive to the west coast of the Olympic Peninsula we arrived at JJ's restaurant for our second annual pre-fish breakfast. They still have deep fried spotted owl on the menu ("tastes just like chicken").

Our guides met us at JJ's and we proceeded to the Queets. Two
guides, two dory boats; two fishers plus a guide to a boat. We put in the Queets about first light as the fog started to slowly lift. The boats are flat bottom doreys that the guide paddles to position near likely spots were the salmon are known to hold.

In the first hour, Jim had put two nice silvers in the boat. The pressure was starting to build because I had not felt any action on my line. We were using spinning rods. Jim was starting to vocalize his oats when I set a new tone by telling the guide, “I would have thrown the fish Jim caught back into the river. I’m after bigger fins.”

BANG, the line whiiiined from the drag on my reel! Twelve minutes later we had a buck silver in the boat. This guy was a keeper! The count: 2 to 1; but the one out weighed the two.

When you fish in these glacier fed rivers with a steady current, the tip of the rod tells the story. It jitters as the lure spins and dances under the water.

All of a sudden, in one motion, my rod tip arched downward, not with a bang but a more like a brake being set.

"Snag", the guide started to say as I set the hook. There was no movement of the kind you usually see when the fish shakes its head to throw the hook. The line on my reel did not strip off as it did when the buck silver hit.

It was a standstill. I tried to reel the line in, but it would simply slip with the drag. And snags don't move away, across the river. The fish was trying to swim to some logs piled on the other side of the river. I lowered the rod to try to take up slack in the line and then slowly pulled the rod tip up in an arch. We had movement. I was slowly getting some line in and the point where the line entered the water started moving up stream.

What a power house; the boat was being pulled up river. Finally we got our first glimpse of it; we were in King country! A really big boy. It took us over twenty minutes to get this Kingster in the boat. The tension was palpable, as I balanced strength and finesse. What relief, as the guide secured the catch
of the day in the net and brought it in the boat. I don't catch many but
I've had some memorable catches one these west side rivers.

The other two fellows in the other boat were skunked out for the day. Jim and I limited out on our salmon cards. The limit is two per day. We gave the two silvers that Jim caught to the other guys and kept my two for ourselves. We cooked half of the silver buck last night when we got home. Today we smoked the rest.

It doesn't get any better than this. Fresh caught salmon on the barbee. A
sapid delight! The smoking ought to be done by now, so I'll sign off. Bon
Appetite!

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Photos

Fish On!
Wrestling with a big King salmon.

Catch of the Day
Bagged the limit on this day!