Sinker good for you. I've gotta agree..unlike last year I have seen zero enforcement in four days on the lower river. Nine out of ten fish down there are comin in tail first or sideways. It was bad last year but not like this..at least they were writing enough tickets to makem nervous.
I'll be calling the local patrol officer Monday too see what the problem is. Most of these guys don't crowd me as they know I will politely inform them that there is open spots well above or below me. The more difficult ones receive a demonstration of the Humptulips Helicopter Cast...4 oz. pyramid I always pack with me for those special moments...whirring noise apparently makes some people nervous. Anyway the lower river is going to rotate into a morning fishery for those big boys on the incoming tide plus we might get rain to deepen the slots down there back into holding water. Right now they just blast on through. As much as I dislike dealing with dogs I'll be hitting the upper river for now.
Maybe a few days of less fresh fish will let the skin grow back on my right thumb. Had another little piggy crank on the afterburners first cast today....but this one is soaking in soy sauce and brown sugar right now so almost everything is right in my world.

I heard rumor that someone on friday got a $500 ticket for using a treble hook. But it was just a rumor.
I've got a feeling they might be turning and looking the other way considering how many fish are in that creek...er I mean river.
Down on the carbon the amount of snagging is sickening, but the hatchery always gets plenty and you never see any enforcement.
The thing with the carbon is that I've never seen people like those Quilbillies casting out and just jerking it back in with everything they have on the carbon.
See a lot of illegally hooked fish being bonked, but nothing like what I seen over there.
Waiting for my call from enforcement to see if they did anything. Gave them all my info, so now I guess I wait.
Heading back up there on Friday, if nothing else heats up in the meantime.
How long do you think this silver run will last?? The rivers around here don't start to see silvers for another month or so.
Is this an indicator of a huge long run or just a very early run??????

Spoke with our local enforcement officer today and he is well aware of the problems. He will be writing copious tickets on the Quil. Snagging is a $500 fine. Closed waters is $125. He has promised no mercy! On a similar note there are socalled sportsman prosecuting the local wild Humpy and listed Chum runs under the disguise of fishing for trout. They readily admit to targeting these salmon with the excuse that they are practicing CNR. These stocks are in trouble and handling mortality even if minute isn't going to help. Also these fish only have so energy reserves to compete for spawning territory and mates....every time you hook, play and release a fish you may be turning that fish into non-contributor to the next generation. Essentially this equals a harvested fish.
If you want to CNR then please direct your attentions to Steelies and hatchery salmon.

Back to the Quil on thursday after work...there's another fresh batch jumpin in the bay.
Hooyah!!!

Goose,
It was great meeting you as well, I have been having a great time teaching Tyler,Zack, and My Zach how to fish. The younger ones get a little abusive on the gear sometimes, but hey there allstar rods so there is no problem with the warranty process. anyways we all limited out so it was all good. By the way I am sure you know Brady, anyways I met him last friday and we fished together, another great guy from over there, anyways he will be stocking the Vision products and maybe allstar as well in the Cove RV park store, good luck and e-mail me and we can hook up over there sometime.
peace Superfly

The nets went in this week so mostly all we are seeing are small fish. The flyfisherman at the mouth are limiting like crazy. Looks like all the other action is in the upper river. Enforcement has put the hurt on the snaggers and it shows especially in the lower river....at least they're lookin over their shoulders now. Fish jumpin all over the bay so it's going to continue. Need rain of any kind please to make this heat up

Goose,
How long do you think this run will last?
We were up there 8-31, fish are alot smaller and darker than last week.
Last week they were all nice and bright. Today had to pick and choose which ones to turn loose there was so many dark ones.
My theory on the upper river small fish was when there was more fish in it, people were more picky and were only keeping the bigger ones. Leaving us small ones now. Those ones today look like they've been in there a while.
Oh yeah, the bigger ones are a bigger bullseye for the snaggers too probly.

A buddy of mine fished the Quilcene this past week, he said he saw one guy get two tickets totalling $1000.00 (for keeping a snagged fish and for using a barbed hook) then about an hour later on a different part of the river, he saw ANOTHER guy get the same thing... $1,000.00 worth of tickets... it sounded like the warden had some helpful eyes running up & down the river. At least the word of this will keep them looking over their shoulders...

He also said the fish were small... any idea on when/if the nets will come out?

-N.

That friggin' Quilcene is the biggest damn joke of a river I've ever seen. Sure there's fish there and all, but 99% of the people I see fishing (note that I said "people" not fisherman) are snagging away and pulling the fish in sideways or by the tail and then keeping them as if they did nothing wrong. I have been there 3 separate days since it opened and I have yet to see a warden. I've never seen such blatant snagging anywhere and I fish all over the state.

Here is the best part:

Last night on the way home from fishing the Quilcene we saw a beater old car with a sign on it that read "FRESH SALMON $1.00 A POUND". It was right in downtown Quilcene and it was a coulpe of white(trash) kids that looked to be in their late teens or early twenties. How legal is that? About as legal as the fish being caught down there at Rodger's St.

Dan S and Superfly if you weren't fishin the lower river between 1 to 5 pm today here's what you missed .
And I thought the BIG run had already come in! Superfly if we don't hookup stake your claim on the alder log & rootwad pile just above where we fished...it's the best holdin water and usely left alone by the snaggers. Lots of small fish but enough piggys to make you wish you'd brought more gear and a new spool of line . Thoroughly ruined the first hundred feet of my line and took me down to my last hook. As for the river being a joke...I'm havin a blast hookin fish legal and from what I've seen on all of these rivers in western Washington the past 30 years jerk snaggers, jerks, fools and plain stupidity is nothing new. I even took the time to show a couple of snaggers how and why I was bustin more fish than they were. Converts? Don't know and don't care because I had fun and they learned the fun way to nail silvers.
Always FishOn
Gooose

Cut it out goose, you're killing me!

I gotta agree with you. You may be in a war zone at the Quilcene, but find a good piece of water, stick with it, and you can have you own little slice of heaven right there.

Sure, watching people snag when you don't have to is aggravating, but if WDFW really cared, they'd be there. It could be a regular cash cow for them, but with few enforcement personnel, the quota met, and bazillions of fish coming back, I think they decided their limited resources could be better used elsewhere.

Glad you're having fun, goose.

Hey Guys,

I thought you could not fish the mouth of the quilcene? Thinking about heading out Wenesday after the rain we are supposed to be having so hopefully some bright fish will be avail. Will be packing the fly rod so I was intrigued by Goose' comments about the fly guys limiting at the mouth. Hope to see some legal gear guys doing thier thing as I have been interested in how you guys target river coho.

Anyway thanks for the help. I appreciate it.

-sean

I grew up in that general area and my dad and I fished the Big Quil when I was a little Kid. I havent been there since it has become a madhouse really I havent fished it for silvers since I was about 6 years old. I have fished it for steelhead a couple of times in the past few years and managed a couple of hatchery strays.

My point is this Quilicine river thing is a joke. These silvers are very good biters from what I remember but that little river cant handle much presure. It yousto be just a few locals I cant imagine what it looks like now. Even though its only 15 minutes from my parents house you wouldnt catch me or my dad there in a thousand years.

Egg it's legal to fish the salt beyond the river mouth. Make sure you understand the reg's definition of a river mouth...page 12. I draw a line between the outermost uplands containing obvious dryland vegetation. The guys out there are pretty savvy so follow their lead. Think small even down to size 10 in pink,purple or black.LOL
Dan S did you ever have one of those moments(several hours actually) where your entire fishin world was nothing more than a tiny 20 square feet piece of water? Nothing else
!? Even the Quilcene snagger zoo disappeared from my world. They just weren't there anymore...just me, my rod, and that dammed tiny piece of water. And more fresh from the salt silvers than I've ever seen in such a tiny space. Sorry to Rich G and the Kid but I'll take moments like that any time and place I can get them. It really takes a lot to unnerve me to the point where rerigging another leader...and gawd almighty there was a painful lot of them...is affected by shaking hands and fingers that don't work anymore. Sorry to rub it in Dan S . By the way how the heck can I get a 1025c...real soon?! My Lami lost its ceramic insert on the first guide by the time this was all over . And I suspect I overstressed the butt section at it's base.

Enforcement in all of east Jeff Co is one guy to cover the Quilcene, Little Quilcene, Dosewallips, Duckabush, Hamma Hamma plus Pt. Wilson, Marrowstone Island and everything else in the area thats hot now. He's been nailing the heck out of the snaggers on the Quil but he's all by himself. The interesting thing is that the tickets he's writing have addresses like Bainbridge, Bremerton, Poulsbo, Port Angeles, Olympia, Tacoma,Seattle and mainly other non Quilcene locations. Yeah there's a large Quil bunch but from my talking with this officer the huge majority of violaters are nonlocal. Is this representative of our recreational sportfishing community(I am not referring to members of this BB)? Quite a few of the snaggers are wearing top of the line neoprenes, fancy vests, packin better rods/reels than most, you know the well equiped sportsman. One group was talkin about fishin for steelies on the Quinalt. Would they never consider snagging or keeping a foul hooked Head? Makes me wonder.
Anyway peace to you all. I am back to my little bit of nirvana about noon tomorrow.
HooYah!!!!
Always FishOn!
Gooose

Sinker I got a call last night that upper Hood Canal was loaded with fresh fish heading south. The area around the Salisbury boat ramp was really producing...even from the bank. My contacts fishing in the salt in Quil Bay tell me it's just loaded. Looks like small trolled or mooched cutplug is the going ticket.
Looks like a bigger and better repeat of last year where we had fish clear through the end of October.

River dropped again making life tough in the lower river. One excellent burst of fish around 6pm. Hooked into a bunch of FishOn! Dam FishOff! Kept a pair of nice hens then released the third..a dink..girlfriend always gives me a bad time about this...seems to consistently affect my ability to land fish. Anyway half way through this I'd converted a half dozen snaggers to fishing black yarn...one guy told me I was just havin too much fun. Plus my converts from the other day showed up with black yarn...one guy drove an hour that morning just to find some. There's a definite lighting affect on the success of my use of this color...7pm I couldn't touch a fish. Thinking of trying blue,purple or violet....any of you got experiences or ideas that might be useful? Had to politely get nasty with a couple of yahoos but Guys in the upper river should have slayed them with the horde that came in yesterday.
My old Lamiglass is now retired to memory corner with a couple of worn out shotguns...
In lieu of getting my hands on an Allstar 1025c I picked uo a nice Shimano from my homestore the Cove RV Park...not bad. Still want the Allstar before winter steelie season.
Always FishOn!
Gooose

I think those Quil Slivers might take the Pink Worm well. Has anybody tried it? Ive incorporated the Pink Worm in my sliver fishin on the Duc the last few weeks and have done well. they smack it like a ton of bricks.

Rich G That's one heck of a good idea!!! I just read Reel Truths column in STS about worms....there's some new territory to explore here. My bass gear is going to suffer before daylight. Pink, purple and black worms are Gooose's research project for tommorrows fish. Thanks for the response...be nice to suprise the snagger regulars with Gooose's new top secret!
They are already trying to come to terms with how it is easier to catch fish legal with black yarn....can't wait to see what something totally off the wall does to these guys. Gawd there's probably no worms of any kind for sale within 50 miles of this place...might be able to make a little beer money with my extras.
Always FishOn!
Gooose

The moving Slivers seem to like the worm best. A worm drifted or on a Jig head would most likely do fine on the Quil slivers since they are a bit more agressive than most river Slivers. On the Duc they wont touch a plain worm, they seem to have to give chase in order to bite, I use the worm as the dressing on another customized lure that I cannot disclose at this time.

Try everything you can think of with the worm, you might be suprised what works. Use the Power bait bublegum!

Rich G thanks for the advice. Superfly gave me some pink works this afternoon on the river. Will be trying them as soon as we get some rain....until then I'll find somewhere else to fish. In this low water the dogs are nearly intolerable...Superfly can testify that I had the new state record meanest bull doggy sitting in the middle of my favorite fishin hole. Looked like a battleship with a bunch of normal sized puppies all around him....and he really loved my precious black yarn. We got a little taste of mass silvers comin in right after SF yelled up river to ask when I thought they would be comin in? I know SF was a tad upset by the freakin snaggers...thats why I stayed in my own little fortress. Good hour or so of FishOn!Dam FishOff! Popped leaders and even broke some hooks...and Bass fisherman talk about fishin structure!!!
Had the biggest chrome hen silver I've ever seen on the bank only to give her the briefest slack then it was Round II which I lost to a TKO...pop goes another 15 lb leader.
Please let it rain but not until next thursday.

Always FishOn! (and a lot of FishOff!)
Gooose

Cove Rv Park & Fishin Tackle Prostaff

Gooose, you mentioned broken hooks, what were you using? if you were fishin with SF I can probably guess what they were. just wondering.

AK they weren't Vision if that's what your talkin ...they were Eagle Claw Lazer Sharps. Had the same problem years ago on the Humptulips. Those Kings were shreddin our Lazer Sharps. They simply won't hold up to the type of fish and water we're fishing.
I'll be giving the Vision products a thorough trial but from what I've seen they don't snap when that 15 lb plus chrome fresh out of the salt silver decides to hit the burners.

Always FishOn!
Gooose