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Fishing, Hunting and Shellfish in the PNW Week of October 29, 2022 - Harvest Recreation
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Feb 5, 2025
Week 2 of our weekly series on harvest recreation in the PNW. We start by covering what's new in terms of WDFW emergency rule changes, and news we all need to be aware of. Spoiler alert if you haven't heard! The coast is gonna re-open! Grays Harbor details: https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/emergency-rules/grays-harbor-tributary-fisheries-update-2022-10 North Coast details: https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/emergency-rules/north-coast-tributary-fisheries-update-2022-10 We've got a winter blackmouth opportunity in Marine Area 11 opening up and we also highlight a story about the longer term impact of the drought and late rains this season that may concern all of us. I share the highlights of my trip to the Yakima River where I had some nice success hooking both a chinook and a coho and met some nice people down there. The video also covers the recent hatchery escapement data on several rivers in chart format, some of the numbers are eye popping! Lots and lots of coho! We finish by covering the harvest recreation opportunity we are thinking about: Coho on the coast, shooting a deer before the general season closes, crabbing and maybe squidding in Puget Sound, and lastly taking advantage of the chum that are starting to come up the rivers. Let us know what you liked, what we can do to improve and your own ideas for harvest recreation opportunities this week. Sub to the channel for more content like this coming at you more consistently going forward.
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[Music]
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foreign
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[Music]
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Harvest Recreation this week we got the
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big news the coast is going to reopen
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the coastal streams in the state of
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Washington for uh mostly koho but that's
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exciting the rains brought the fish up
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River and uh yeah we're just in a much
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better spot so we're gonna get those
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openers uh that and a lot of other
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topics too uh stick with us as we jump
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right into what's new
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[Music]
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all right so let's see what's new on
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pnwbestlife.com and what uh the rule
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changes are from wfw that you should
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know about obviously the biggest one we
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got to talk about is fishing on most
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Coastal River rivers and tributaries
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reopening uh beginning Saturday October
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29th for Grace Harbor area rivers and
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the south coast and Monday October 31st
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for the North Coast which I believe the
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dividing line is the Quinault River
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being the North Coast and you have to
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take a look at the specific announcement
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because it in in the e-rags as it has
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each each river system each each stream
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with the specifics in most cases the the
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permanent regulations have been
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reinstated but in some you have um uh
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Chinook retention being removed even if
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it was in the permanent wreck so you
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have to you have to read the specifics
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there very exciting we got the rain and
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now we got the reopener and there's a
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we'll talk about it more in the data but
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I think there's a really healthy Coho
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return on the coast and definitely worth
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your time to get out there and toss some
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Spinners toss some jigs maybe some eggs
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get some code to go out there on the
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coast great opportunity coming up here
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so
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um you know if you're in the North Sound
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fishing on the Cascade River going back
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to seven days per week is definitely
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good news lots of opportunity there
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again you have to you have to read the
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specifics as uh you know you've got uh
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you know I think a bait restriction up
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there read the specifics and the regs
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though on the e-regs and or on
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pnwbestlife.com but there's a good
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there's a good return going on right now
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on this gadget and a lot of those fish
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are bound for the Cascade River the
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Hatchery there take a look at that if
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you're a winter warrior and need an
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excuse to you know get on the water and
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keep the boat running uh you don't
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winterize your boat marinara 11 opening
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for black mouth on November 1st only
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Sunday through Wednesday but hopefully
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hopefully that that'll keep a season
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running as long as possible and maybe
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get us to our next Black Mouth
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opportunity in Marina A10 but we'll see
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um you know Green River Cowlitz County
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not the one near Puget Sound reopens for
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fishing below the two little Hatchery uh
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that's connected to the toodle river
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which is connected to the Cowlitz River
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um there you go then Washougal River
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also returning permanent rule due to
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increased water flows there in returns
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of fish so that's good news for folks
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down south as well all right so we got
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to talk about this other story that the
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Seattle Times put out generally not a
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fan of Seattle Times uh because they're
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you know largely because they're kind of
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anti-recorrectional angler uh with how
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they've covered different issues in the
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past but this is an interesting story
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where they essentially they cover
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someone with the wfw biologists are
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doing with
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um rivers in this case it's the new walk
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river which is a Chehalis trip and
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they're they're doing counts of Reds to
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figure out the health of of uh the wild
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fish returning uh to that tributary and
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and you know that what they essentially
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cover is that due to the drought in the
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low water conditions uh you you've had
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fewer fish moving up to spawn which
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which I think we all would agree that it
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makes sense uh but there are spawning
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locations that they that have spawned it
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seem to be in lower parts of the river
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and so it's interesting that uh you know
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as wfw is evaluating the impact of the
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drought that we we do have a an
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opportunity as we shared earlier uh
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coming up here on the coast
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um but for some of these early fish that
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may have spawned already if they did so
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lower down the problem with that is uh
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you know when when big water comes a lot
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of times it'll wash those breads out
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wash those those eggs out before they
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have a chance to get going so uh we may
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we may see some uh some longer term
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effects from the low water depending on
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how intense uh the winter is and you
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know we've been getting rain but we
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haven't had a real um a real downpour
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that's that's jacked off the rivers up
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by there so
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[Music]
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okay as I was saying last uh last week I
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was going to get to Fish Central
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Washington uh for salmon I I was over uh
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fishing the Yakima which was just a
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really cool opportunity to have kind of
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a change of scenery different type of a
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different type of uh setting for for
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salmon fishing and really nice people I
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met down there really good Sportsmen you
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know everyone's you know using bobber
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jigs or Spinners you know no no
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Shenanigans uh like what we're used to
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on the West Side uh seeing it at any any
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particular popular salmon fishing hole
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so
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um but you know I had just I had my gear
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set up from uh from the last Coastal
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trip and I had a you know a b r shout
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out to b r soft beads you know one of
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their 14 millimeter I believe 16
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millimeter somewhere in there a red soft
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beat on and uh you know I matched my
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bobber stop to what other people were
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doing and just never fished this spot
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before just threw it out there and and
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uh a few you know probably about 10
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seconds into the drift uh bobber down
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fish on and landed this uh you know the
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Chinook that was maybe around 10 pounds
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and you know obviously uh further along
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in the spawning process you know I
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didn't I didn't keep it
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um but just a beautiful fish still and a
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lot of fights still and you know these
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fish come up through the Columbia and
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then 50 miles almost of Yakima River so
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they're you know they definitely uh have
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some wear on them uh but just a really
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cool opportunity uh you know it closes
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though after 31st so you know if you
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were going to do this you'd probably
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need to have plans this weekend to go
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take advantage of it but definitely keep
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it in the back your mind for next year
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or other years as uh when they open it
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it's uh it's a cool opportunity also got
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this Coho on a spinner you know I've
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been tossing Spinners uh you know
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interspersed with the bead and the eggs
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and uh
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and you know but uh I I was hooking
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wasn't hooking anything and then you
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know the sun really broke through and
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got really bright and I said you know
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let me go back to that spinner and see
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sometimes you get a little sometimes the
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sun hurts you sometimes it helps you I
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thought you know let me my spin around a
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little extra flash on it sure enough
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First cast
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um with after the sun really Shone
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through and and uh hooked this this Coho
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very close to my feet which is why you
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know you never give up on a spinner cast
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you work that thing all the way all the
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way back to you because man they they
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often will follow it and hit a few feet
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from you so oh
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my bad
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and she's
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this one
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who's is this
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oh wait wait what
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hola what's up
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I was like who's bobber is this how's
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that even possible
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I moved down here
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it was faster I'm like look at that
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going like is anyone attached to this
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bomber where's this bomber from
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oh where the hell up there
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oh that was funny
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[Music]
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all right stand in time let's talk
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through some of this data here so uh
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first of all we we got to talk about
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stream flows you know we've been getting
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rain off and on for the last week or so
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and uh but but it's been the good kind
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it's been raising water levels getting
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fish into hatcheries back on the
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spawning grounds in the upper parts of
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the river but uh it hasn't been these
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these just you know jacked up flows
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where they go Sky High and uh you know
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then we're waiting a while for them to
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come down
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um so it's been good it's been it's got
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a Goldilocks just enough rain not too
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much uh hopefully that continues I know
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there's a lot of rain coming up over the
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next seven days so we'll see uh with the
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coast reopening though you gotta love uh
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what you're seeing here as these flows
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start to head up and uh just create a
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little bit a little bit more opportunity
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so uh one of the things that I think is
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a little nuts is the return so far
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return on the SATs up this is the
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Chehalis trib uh you know a lot of
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people love to fish it but I had check I
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had looked at my chart and then I had to
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go back to the actual escapement report
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just to make sure the number was
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accurate
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um but yeah like 15 000 Coho returned uh
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or were counted in the last week uh at
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uh one of the hatcheries on the south
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which is a crazy crazy number for that
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stream and the water flow and I gotta
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imagine there's more uh there's more
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stacked up behind uh that those fish
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that came in and so I mean what a great
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opportunity that could be and I wouldn't
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I wouldn't isolate that to the stats up
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I think all your Grays Harbor rivers are
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going to be stuffed with Coho and that
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is going to be a place where a lot of
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people focus uh reopening on Saturday
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and a lot of people will be out there so
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expect some combat fishing conditions
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there I would say but uh yeah that's
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that's going to be a really cool
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opportunity in North Sound you got
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you've got some great uh Coho
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opportunities as well and the samish and
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then and then on this gadget those those
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numbers are fantastic as well as we
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talked about with the Cascade going to
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seven days a week that is a worthwhile
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opportunity you don't want to drive all
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the way to the coast stay local even
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though you're in the north island that
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might really uh right but really pay off
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and of course the Cowlitz may have
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peaked I didn't quite get to 8 000 in a
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week but uh it's still really high I
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mean 7 107 000 fish returning uh
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excellent opportunity especially if
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you've got a boat uh you know a sled you
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can cover that water and get to where
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this Coho are
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um but you know you know from a bank
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balance standpoint you know there's a
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lot a lot of spots on the Cowlitz for
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people to try and toss Spinners top
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casting plugs uh bait will work under a
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bobber a lot of times there as well
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sometimes the fish when you try to hit
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them all the way up at barrier aren't
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very good biters
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um you know you got to stay patient with
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it and try different things twitching
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jigs as well figure out what's going to
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give to go but uh you'll see a lot of
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fish up there and a lot of people trying
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to get them to go so
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talk about the big opportunities for the
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week ahead of course you know we've been
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talking about it but The Coho is a must
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Coho is a must go oh ho on the coast and
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uh yeah you gotta you gotta get it get
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out there and uh and get in on that
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um you know before before some of these
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Rivers get blown out with all the rain
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coming uh definitely love to get take
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advantage of that myself uh well I still
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have uh this uh this tag to fill and
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darn it I am intent on finding a
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Blacktail that is willing to go Monday
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is probably my last day of hunting for
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for that until the late season and uh
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yeah that's gonna be laser focused on
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that
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um so a lot of I know a lot of you will
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as well and uh of course uh you know if
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if uh you're like me you didn't
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winterize your boat uh you know you got
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a clock going I got a clock going in the
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back of my head that's like all right I
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gotta get this boat out again and so
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something to do on the water I'll
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probably have the boat out this week and
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uh you know I haven't really I didn't
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really crab hardly at all during the
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summer and uh certainly haven't cried
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yet in the winter and definitely looking
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to take advantage of that hopefully
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um maybe even look for some squid some
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Daytime squid action and uh you know I I
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know a few folks have been looking at
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that but it seems like you got to have
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something to do while your pots are
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soaking
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um you know years past you know we go
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Hood Canal we drop the pots and uh go
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flounder fishing that's not an option as
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well
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um but with area 9 open you know I'm
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thinking maybe drop up there and then go
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look for some some of that North Sound
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squid daytime squid possibility I don't
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know it's usually not the best when uh
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the rain's coming down so um so we'll
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see uh we'll see what's available there
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I did think about trying marinara 11 a
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black mouth
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um you know definitely it could be good
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on opening day I mean there's a lot of
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fish uh you know around the South Sound
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and uh
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you know that that could be that could
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be a good opener to go do but I don't
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know I'm just not I'm not ready to go uh
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work a downrigger again yet I'm having
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too much fun uh doing things that don't
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involve downriggers and uh so yeah so uh
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so that's probably not it's not my list
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and that but but last uh you've gotta
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you know gotta keep this in mind
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especially if you're in Puget Sound area
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uh the chum uh the chum are in the
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rivers already so I can't believe it's
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already Chum time uh almost ready to
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turn the page November but you know uh
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Chum is uh is incredible experience and
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so easy to get to go on uh on bobber's
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jigs tip a little shrimp and uh I'm
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gonna re release my uh Chum video here
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this weekend as well and uh and uh yeah
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give you some ideas of uh how to get
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those to go as well so
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hope you enjoyed this show uh trying to
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make it better every week and uh more
14:29
entertaining more helpful more
14:30
information for you that helps you be
14:33
successful with Harvest Recreation
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that's what we're all about here pnw
14:37
best life
14:38
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14:41
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14:44
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14:45
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14:48
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14:51
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14:53
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14:59
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15:01
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15:04
well
15:04
hope you have success out there uh this
15:07
week and until next time stay safe take
15:10
care
15:14
[Music]
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