Washington Salmon, Steelhead, and Sturgeon Fishing Guides, Charters & Trips
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Upper Sol Duc hot spot for November silvers
Washington fishing map feature
By Dusty Routh
Fishing and Hunting News
FORKS, Wash. — If you're looking for an Olympic Peninsula river where incoming silvers are stacked up in the holes like cordwood, look no further than the upper stretches of the Sol Duc River.
This incredible fishery is as dependable as it gets come November for big incoming coho that can get as large as anything you'd encounter up in Alaska. Pounds the water throughout the winter starting in November, spending as many as 100 days a season putting the hurt on big silvers, kings and steelhead. The Duc is not only reliable for putting up numbers and big fish, it's reliable because it takes a lot more rain to blow it out than other Olympic Peninsula rivers such as the Hoh and Bogachiel. Thick with big fish "The hatchery produces silvers as big as any wild fish I've caught." These big coho come blasting through the Quillayute first, fresh from the ocean. This is the main-stem river that the Bogachiel to the south and the Sol Duc to the north flow in to. You'd think then the Quillayute would be the place to fish first, but more often than not these fish will shoot right through before they settle down in the deep holes of the Bogie and Sol Duc. "Plunkers can get them sometimes. During salmon season, especially early in the season, the salmon can get thick in the Quillayute if we don't get a lot of rain." "But once the rains start up, the salmon just like the steelhead will shoot on through and end up in either the Bogachiel or the Sol Duc." Timing Rain is the greatest influencer for river fishing on the Peninsula. November is going to be an awesome month. Mid-November should offer the best fishing. If it's like last year, there will be so many fish piled up from the hatchery on down, the holes get so full, you can't fit another fish. "From one hole on down to the next and the next and the next, the fish are incredibly thick." Fisheries managers anticipate such a good year this year that they've raised the limits. Last year it was two salmon in any combination. This year it will be three salmon, with a daily limit of two wild fish from the hatchery down.
Start here Naturally, just below the hatchery on the Sol Duc is one of the hottest places to start fishing. I like to drift from the ramp at the hatchery down to Whitcomb-Dimmel Road in mid-November. Or launch at the hatchery boat launch, and drift to the next launch down which is Maxfield Road. Next launch after that is Whitcomb-Dimmel." Or you can fish all the way down to the next launch, which is Rayonier. The one after that is Leyendeckers where the Sol Duc and Bogachiel come together. That can be a great location too." What you're looking for are deep holes where the silvers and kings are stacked up. How to hook 'em For silvers, your tackle selection is amazingly simple. Start with a quality, 9-foot light-action steelhead rod like a G.Loomis or Okuma. Use a decent baitcasting or spinning reel (Shimano and Okuma are good choices) spooled up with 15-pound Maxima Ultragreen. You can go lighter than 15-pound test for silvers but every now and again you're going to get hit by a big king and you're going to need that extra strength. For the silvers, throw spinners like the No. 3 or No. 4 Blue Fox Vibrax. Or attach a little weight and throw marabou jigs down through the holes. Silvers really go after those marabou jigs, especially in marabou orange You can also back-troll big banana plugs, which is probably the single-most effective way to hook into both silvers and kings when the river's running hard. If the water's dirty, if we get rain, run Kwikfish. As the water clears, the most productive fishing will be with spinners and jigs Kings While you can expect some thumb-burning, rod-bending action on wild and hatchery silvers, don't discount the big kings that lay in the Duc. Boat show The Sol Duc is tough to fish without a drift boat. On some of the best holes I don't see bank anglers because there's not too much access. The locals know a few places where they can get to the river, but it's rare to see bank guys below the hatchery. Position the boat above a good hole and anchor up and throw spinners or drift jigs down through the hole Or back-troll plugs down into the holes. Hoh, Hoh, Hoh: While the Sol Duc is your best bet, particularly if the weather stays wet, don't overlook the upper Hoh above Oxbow if it's not blown out. Same with the upper Bogachiel. And on the Bogachiel, fish from Highway 101 down to Wilson's boat ramp. That drift should be great." Be flexible If you're going to book a trip, it's best to have some calendar flexibility to account for squalls and big rains which can blow any of the Peninsula rivers to smithereens for a day or two and sometimes up to a week. If you ferry over from Seattle on the Edmonds/Kingston ferry, Forks is 113 miles from Kingston.
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