Olympic Peninsula Report

[yubaman]

We managed to get most of our trip in this year, but I think we achieved a PhD in Travel Management in order to do so. While we were there, Washington went to full Shelter in Place and their Governor closed all rivers to recreational fishing at the end of Wednesday. That ended their Steelhead season. Our decision to drive up to Washington on Friday had us on the river Sunday, so we were able to get 4 days in. After getting washed out of two planned Eel trip earlier, we just had to get this one in. We packed a bunched of hand sanitizer and wipes with us.

As I said, we head out mid-day on Friday. We make it to the Kalaloch Lodge, on the OP, at the end of the day on Saturday. We were going to spend 3 nights there, but when we get there the restaurant is closed, and they are shutting down the lodge on Tuesday morning, so we only get 2 nights there. We call the hotel we were heading to next and add an extra day there. When we arrive there that evening, they let us know they will be closing down in 2 days!!!! Next we find a house that we can rent for the remainder of the trip. On top of it, the damn guy had put up a Seahawks logo on the side of his garage that we had to look at everyday. So you get the drift, no pun intended, completely scrambling for lodging. As here, all restaurants were take out only. We ended up doing a lot of our own cooking anyways.

The fishing was ok for the trip. We were able to put 2 days in on the Queets and 2 days in on the Ho. There were 3 of us on the trip. On day one, one of our gang had a big day, and went 5 for 10! The others of us were 0 for 2. The rest of the days, we generally had 3 hookups and landed one or two. All in all, it was slower than most years had been. We each got into at least one large ( 17lb - 20 lb) fish, but only 1 was landed between us. Some great fights though, just Mr. Steel prevailed.

They are finally getting some more weather up there. The rivers were getting low and a little too clear for optimal conditions. But with the closure, now it's onto next year.

Here are a few pictures . . .