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Insane Chum Fishing! Is Coho over? Coastal steelhead update - PNW Harvest Recreation Nov 11, 2022
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Feb 5, 2025
I got to do so much PNW harvest recreation this week! But nothing more fun than the epic beatdown me and some friends put on the chum! I had so much chum fishing footage to share it was hard to narrow it down. Seriously though, now is the time to get out and do some chum fishing, we give you some ideas on where to go and a simple easy rig to use that will get it done. We start this video with all of the highlights from our trips and from there go into the WDFW rule changes and talk a bit about the coastal steelhead update based on the town hall that WDFW held to propose steelhead season options We try to answer the question with data about whether the coho run is done with this big push of water we had in the past week and give you a few strategy ideas for finding biting coho. We finish by covering the harvest recreation opportunity we are thinking about: Coho on the coast, Chum in the interior rivers and the coast, mushrooms in the mountains...November is chanterelle time! A little bit of big game hunting talk, also our wonderful failure of a daytime squidding trip to Elliot Bay. 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.
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:02
today
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this week's video featured ridiculous
0:06
shell fishing
0:08
fish also share my not so top secret
0:12
Chum fishing rag that hooked up 40 to 50
0:15
Chum this week how long will combo
0:17
season go
0:19
and will we get a coastal steelhead
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season all these questions uh will
0:24
attempt to answer and more wow
0:27
that is beautiful fish
0:29
what is this guy doing on the this log
0:32
trying to trying to net a Chum what is
0:34
he nuts
0:35
[Music]
0:37
they fight really hard
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these are these are fresher
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you're fine you're fine
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nice
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are you serious
0:58
did he jump over
1:01
here
1:02
that's crazy
1:09
maybe he'll jump back
1:16
No Maybe
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[Music]
1:30
got him
1:33
nice job guys
1:37
holy cow
1:41
all right I gotta explain a little bit
1:42
of what was going on here so the first
1:44
day I went out jump fishing I went to
1:46
kind of a popular spot on a fairly
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popular Puget town river you might know
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it and you know I got there nice and
1:53
early got my spot and you know we were
1:55
hooking Chum me and people left to us
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and and people of the ride pretty
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consistently but you know at Subway you
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know I was I was actually what I was
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actually doing I was I was pre-scouting
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for taking some people I met on
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Instagram the kid you know keep in touch
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with throughout the the same season and
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the salt water and then River fishing in
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a long time I was like okay you know
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they reached out to they want to go jump
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fishing
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and you know so I'm like all right let
2:25
me make sure the spot is dialed in but
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man there were so many people there and
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you know day two being Veterans Day uh
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you know just it's like man this is
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gonna be kind of cramped three of us in
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the spot let me check out another spot
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that uh I've been doing before
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as I was hiking in it was really
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challenging uh to get to get through
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there I mean the water was up a lot and
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you had to cross some some sketchy stuff
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but you know when I got there I was like
3:00
oh my goodness there's Chun rolling
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everywhere and there's like 70 yards of
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gravel balls uh to fish with no one else
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here because no one no one wanted to
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cross uh the stuff that I crossed which
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is uh you know uh pretty pretty pretty
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typical for uh one of my Adventures I
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think I found Chum Paradise guys this is
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amazing holy cow there's so many
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challenges full they were right in front
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of me this is just absolutely epic Chum
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fishing here uh as the water has come
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down first of all the water came up all
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the rain brought all these fish of
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stream and it's now dropping and it is
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go time bobber down time all right let's
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cover what I'm doing here I got this i
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got this slip float I like to use this
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clear plastic floats this is just a this
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is just like a an eighth ounce Arrow jig
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number 111 just a little bit of a raw
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shrimp
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uh you know you buy at the store just
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raw frozen shrimp and and uh you tip
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just maybe like a fingernails with a
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mount and let's see how it goes there's
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not a lot of current here so
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I'm just gonna kind of cast it out
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and uh
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and let it and maybe I might just am I
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just reeling a little bit on my own
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and see if there's a Chum that wants to
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wants to go I haven't adjusted my bobber
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stop yet because I don't know how deep
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it is
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so I'm gonna just uh oh my goodness
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there's one just splashed right over
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there
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give it a little bit of
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a little bit of movement let's see
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I need to
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lower my bobber stop might be pretty
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deep in here you know
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see
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a haircut a little bit of current this
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is nice right here
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maybe there'll be some some biting fish
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in the current you know
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Easters
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chomping on it
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what kind of bite was that
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I'm trying to swallow it
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that's funny
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you don't want one of the one of the
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underrated tips for uh going some crazy
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places on the River is is is a waiting
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stick you know like I'll help you get
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some places that will go besides you
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know you know actually have a way to go
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waiter stick and waiting stick and uh
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and a little bit of a little bit of uh
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strategy for wrist mitigation and uh
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you'll find yourself really awesome
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amazing River fishing places with no one
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else and just you and the fish so
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yeah
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just come up and whack it
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oh my goodness some are fun you gotta
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love Chum
6:00
[Applause]
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oh man
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beautiful
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I wish you could shoot those things
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yeah I took him out and you know it's
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day two were there it just the spot
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delivered beautifully uh you know they
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gotta do a whole bunch of chub there's a
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school of them right over there
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oh can you get give it back and I got
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into bull uh I I had a live stream
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on on that I did on on YouTube yeah you
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know you can go oh my chance of bright
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one and check that out where I was live
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for like 45 minutes and of course the
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first team 15 minutes were like we're
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like dead but
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hey these are some Chrome Chum oh
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you know what I had a streak there where
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I think I looked I don't know maybe 10
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fish in a row uh just all live on uh on
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the stream there so you got you have to
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check that out that's pretty cool
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I bet right in this seam here where the
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fast and slow water meat is like gonna
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be deadly
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I bet there's a bunch of Chums sitting
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right here
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foreign
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I'll control my dog
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let's go Gotta Give him exercise every
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day you know
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you don't walk your dog it's
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they find something to destroy
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all right let's talk about the wdfw news
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changes emergency rules changes first of
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all uh we had a limit increased on the
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Chehalis Basin Rivers this this you you
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kind of had to expect right I mean I
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mean the numbers have been insane so
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they have the adult limit to two one
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wild uh most of the Shameless Basin
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Rivers you want to check the actual rule
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change to get all the details that are
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relevant here uh additionally the East
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Gray's Harbor fishery also I think had
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similar kind of a mirror set of rules
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and then uh Kennedy Creek opened for
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Chum retention which is uh an awesome
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place to go Target Chum in November all
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right we got to talk about this uh
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steelhead uh situation on the coast I
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put an article out there on pnw
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bestlife.com
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fairly pessimistic talking about our
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steelhead season in 2022 2023 thinking
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like you know we got all these hatches
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just returning but we are probably not
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going to get a chance to fish on them
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they had a town hall on Thursday which
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uh I I missed but uh uh Andy Wagman over
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at Northwest Sportsman's mag uh covered
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it and and provide some great details
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you want to head over there read that
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story absolutely basically what what it
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comes down to is is like we're still in
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the hole on steelhead return and in
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particular the wild returns all hum
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tulips and the Chehalis Basin rivers are
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not what we need them to be
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unfortunately that's also where most of
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the Hatchery fish are returning to that
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are that are close by and easily
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accessible so I I didn't see that
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there's a clear solution to it because
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the sport impact limit is so small and
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you know the the article mentions you
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know staffing issues with creel report
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monitoring and all of these challenges I
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think was one positive I took from it is
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that it's at least on the table this
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year versus last year it wasn't so
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they're at least trying to figure out
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how we can have that uh Hatchery fishery
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uh Hatchery targeted fishery uh for for
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steelhead and winter time which would be
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which would be awesome and it's a
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fantastic fishery and on those those
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systems you're still gonna have uh you
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know the quinoa you still you know with
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tribal uh from the tribal standpoint
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there you're still going to have an
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opportunity on the on the cool youth uh
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for Hatchery uh the Hatchery fish on the
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bogey early and then late season you
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know you've got a pretty healthy Returns
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on the soul duck for those Wild Winters
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Steelhead and you know support the forks
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guides out there to do a great job some
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of my best times fishing for steelhead
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on the peninsula uh you know Mike Z
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going down the soul duck and like class
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3 Rapids catching Steelheads just epic
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epic adventure I hope that can continue
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in that opportunity to be available
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all right so let's talk about some of
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the data that's going on here so we've
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got uh you know we've got dips in all of
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the uh returns for for color right we
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were tracking the the Chehalis river
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systems like the stats up and and the
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wainucci we're tracking the Cowlitz uh
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we're tracking North down up at the
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Skagit and all the rivers are seeing
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dips in their returns for Hatchery Cole
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well a big part of that is rivers are on
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the drop right we haven't had a drop of
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rain and the rivers are on the drops
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that means fewer fish returning and the
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question people are gonna have is it are
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The Coho runs done well you look at a
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few of these run timing charts here that
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are up on pnw bestlife.com it shows
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typically there's still a late Pusher
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Colo we're definitely past the peak in
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the high water event from uh last week
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definitely was probably the peak but uh
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there should be opportunity in many of
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these systems through uh hopefully
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Thanksgiving so you get up get an
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opportunity to get out there should be
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some coal coming in uh you know rivers
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are going to be on the drop all week
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right we don't we don't really have any
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rain forecasts to speak of until next
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weekend so I expect that you're going to
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have a lot of stale fish and maybe
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Target lower on the system rather than
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higher for those fresher more bite
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willing fish and there's not going to be
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as many but there should be opportunity
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all right let's with Alex out let's just
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jump right to talking about all the big
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wreck opportunities coming up so for
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sure you you've gotta you gotta have
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Chum on there I mean there's there's
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still Chum in Puget Sound Rivers they're
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still Chum in uh these different Creeks
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like Kennedy ninter uh really gets going
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mid-november there's an opportunity to
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Target Chum salt water out in front of
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these Creek malls which can be just
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absolutely epic bobbery anchovy
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hopefully I can I can do that uh one of
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these weeks in November and I'd love to
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share footage of that because that that
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is the blast underrated uh way to spend
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some time on the water in the the late
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fall season here we gotta think about
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squidding you know I I had to get the
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boat out and uh run in a little bit you
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know I don't I don't winterize the boat
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I just try to run it probably once a
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month during winter season and you know
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we went over to Elliott Bay thinking
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maybe there'd be a daytime squidding
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opportunity because the night time's
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been uh uh you know producing here and
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there but uh you know there's just not
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enough squid around for that daytime
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opportunity you still if you get a
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chance to go to the pier or get on a
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guide Center of Seattle squid you know
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definitely check that out
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um but yeah we we it ended up just being
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a nice time on the water for us and uh
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you know we'll probably wait a little
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bit later maybe hit Point Defiance a
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little bit later in November for that
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for that squid opportunity and talking
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about mushrooms you know I was out
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earlier in the week and found some young
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chanterelles unfortunately the places
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where I normally normally been getting
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chanterelles you know I found one maybe
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two and no more so it's either early or
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something's different with these spots
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and so you know this should be Peak for
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chanterelles like this week next week
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around Mount Rainier elevation is above
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1700 I mean it should be absolutely game
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on for chanterelles uh you know there's
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probably some snow on the ground when
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you go above 2 000 you know I saw that
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but you know just below that snow line I
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was getting into chantrall's earlier in
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the week and I'm looking forward to
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coming back and uh checking out these
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spots again next week and hopefully get
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some more hidden gold here you know
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something to keep an eye on you know you
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just you just want to watch the wind
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forecast gonna be out in the woods it
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wasn't a violent place during Windstorm
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trees come down like this one over the
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trail here uh you know we had all that
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rain and Then followed up by a bunch of
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wind and there were I probably counted
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eight to ten down trees big downed trees
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uh in just the short area that I was I
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was working through and you know that
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gets right into the hunting topic you
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know next week you're gonna have the
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late uh Buck a modern firearm season
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start and uh I got I got a blind out
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there in the woods and I got a trail cam
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and and uh you know I I I've got this a
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few different bucks they're showing up
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during the daytime this is right right
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in the Rut period and you know the nice
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thing about that late season is that you
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should still have bucks showing up and
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in the daytime uh chasing does and so
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there's enough There's an opportunity a
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lot of bucks get shot in that late
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season so you know give it a whirl give
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it a try if you've got that tag or a
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multi-season tag uh you know I'm also I
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got the multi-season tag and I'm I'm if
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I don't tag out there uh you know I'll
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shoot a doe I'm not I'm not I don't have
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a problem with that I you know you can't
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eat antlers and I'm a meat Hunter
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ultimately that's what Harvest
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Recreation that's what we're all about
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and I have no problem taking a dough in
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that late muzzle loader season in the
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units that allow it I'm gonna be hunting
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there and uh you know I'll take whatever
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if it's brown it's going down and don't
15:27
forget to like this video subscribe to
15:29
the channel turn your notifications on
15:31
and we'll have a lot more content for
15:33
you as this is just gonna be a fun pack
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fall into the winter season so all right
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I think we've covered all the topics so
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until next time uh you know take care be
15:42
safe out there
15:46
foreign
15:47
[Music]
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