Grandpa ... The Quillayute River is closed to all fishing, that's where probably 95% of the fish in the system are right now, the water conditions are just too low for the fish to go very far up the other streams. They are getting a few silvers in the bottom ends of the other streams, but most are old fish.
The Quillayute tribe continues to pound on the stacked fish in the deep holes and although drift netting isn't terribly effective right now ... they're chasing schools of fish into the nets by rounding them up with sleds. When we were down the river, we heard the netters complaining that they were only getting 20 cents a pound for what they scooping up, I imagine that's even lower yet as the quality of the fish now is very poor.
The Quillayute tribs are open for silvers only, but most of the fish haven't had a chance to get that far up ...
The Hoh remains open for silvers only. There are a fair number of kings in the lower portion of the river, but most of these are also very old and many are already carrying fungus growth. To their credit, the Hoh's have already relaxed a fairly light net schedule and even under that schedule, effort is low.
I have put all my trips on hol until conditions change ... not only because of the type of fishing these conditions have created (sit in one or two holes all day, throw everything you own at the same pods of fish and so-on) but also to give the fish a break. This is my peak salmon time, with many of these dates having been booked up to a year ago and I could have booked many of them several times over. But, in the best interest of my client's experience and the welfare of the fish, we're going to wait and allow conditions and escapement to improve before we begin again.
Not sure where the tribal permit thing comes into play with your friends ... each guide is doing things a little different. This isn't to say that they won't be able to catch fish or anything ... we've just chosen to go another route.
Hope this helps
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