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Easy crabbing without a boat? What's really going on with our Coastal Steelhead? - PNWBestLife
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Feb 5, 2025
I've skipped a few weeks, but I'm back and ready to share the easiest / fastest way to get a limit of Dungeness crab without a boat! I also have a somewhat longer discussion about our Chehalis and Coastal steelhead situation, highlighting an article on PNWBestLife.com. You need to watch this to get an idea of what's really going on with our fishing opportunity... No big WDFW news to highlight, but I do share a new feature on PNWBestLIfe.com that helps you dial in the run timing on SW WA Rivers. We get into the data again by taking a look at coho, chum and of course the early winter hatchery steelhead runs around the state. Where's the best place to hook a steelhead in December?!? In terms of the big opportunities, I highlight steelhead again, but also crab / daytime squid throughout Puget Sound. 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
where's the best place in the state of
0:01
Washington to get a limit of Dungeness
0:03
crabs without a boat and I'm back come
0:06
here put you on the best Harvest
0:08
Recreation opportunities in the Pacific
0:10
Northwest and we got to talk some
0:11
Coastal steelhead some updates on on the
0:14
escapement on what Hatchery fish are
0:15
returning where but also we got to talk
0:17
about the situation with the sahilis
0:19
what's really going on with our Coastal
0:21
steel egg closure and
0:25
all right so this isn't exactly a big
0:27
secret but the public Pier at Westport
0:28
is uh probably the the easiest best
0:31
place all year long to get limit of
0:33
Dungeness crab without a bow it gears
0:36
really simple you know you got these
0:37
folding traps that uh you know when they
0:40
when they drop they open up
0:41
automatically and you can attach to a
0:43
fishing line or or enough
0:46
um enough line that you can that you can
0:48
toss you know I've got two segments of I
0:50
think 50 feet of line combined here you
0:52
know I'm doing two things I'm tossing
0:54
these traps with uh fishing rod and I'm
0:57
also just uh you know hand hand tossing
1:01
them the important thing is you get you
1:02
gotta clear the the riffraff at the
1:04
bottom of the pier so you got to get it
1:06
out far enough for that you know in
1:08
terms of bait super easy chicken
1:10
drumsticks uh you know they hold on
1:12
super well and you just soak them in
1:15
some clam juice overnight and you've got
1:17
you've got a great you know great
1:19
fishing uh bait here oh you can also use
1:22
that potsky's
1:23
um you know crab and shrimp fuel or or
1:25
or procure whatever your brand is of
1:27
that that type of stuff you soak them in
1:29
that too uh that'll work and you wait
1:32
about uh 10 15 minutes and and you bring
1:35
them in you know all right I can't help
1:37
any more African I can't wait any longer
1:43
now you want to make sure you bring them
1:45
in fast so that that that trap clothes
1:48
as you're as you're reeling uh and you
1:50
just kind of sort through you know uh
1:51
sort through your your undersize
1:54
you know the limit out there or the the
1:56
size out there is six inches instead of
1:58
six and a quarter uh like it is in Puget
2:01
Sound
2:02
oh yeah let's see what that is
2:06
it might be a keeper
2:08
done with the mail
2:11
it's measurable but I think it's short
2:13
yeah probably
2:15
yeah you know it's a bit of a drive to
2:16
get all the way out to Westport but uh
2:18
you know I mean there's free crab dinner
2:21
right there I mean beside the cost of
2:23
gas of course
2:26
all right here we go
2:28
you are
2:31
oh there's a big boy
2:33
uh but uh you know you you might be out
2:35
on the coast anyways doing uh various
2:38
things with steelhead or some of the
2:40
other opportunities along the way so
2:42
this could be a great way to
2:44
um you know to get get that crowd and
2:46
get that crab on the menu in time for
2:48
Christmas now there are a couple things
2:49
uh to note here there is a tide aspect
2:53
to this you know you the the best is is
2:56
if you can fish on either incoming or or
2:59
a slack tie you know once that outgoing
3:02
um particularly if it's a big ebb tie
3:04
combined with the currents uh from the
3:07
the river draining into Grace Harbor
3:09
right there the Chehalis the Grace
3:10
Harbor Rivers uh that could produce a
3:12
lot of current and the crabbing
3:14
definitely uh gets uh you know uh worse
3:18
as that ramps up you know you could have
3:20
currents up to like four knots so uh you
3:22
know you definitely want to um be
3:24
mindful of what those currents are doing
3:25
I use the Navionics app to figure that
3:27
out you can also look at the NOAA uh
3:30
forecast for the for the bar and avoid
3:33
periods of Mac
3:34
Max AB you can also just look at the
3:36
tides and make sure you're uh in between
3:39
a low and a high tide and fish that you
3:41
know that the incoming tide
3:47
all right so what's new uh not a lot of
3:49
change from wfw standpoint right we
3:51
don't have any big closures or
3:53
announcements or anything like that
3:55
um but I do want to share uh something
3:57
new on pwbestlife.com so wfw publishes
4:02
the the career report from Southwest
4:04
Washington as as their fishing report uh
4:07
weekly so you know they they creel check
4:10
a lot of the rivers there the cattle is
4:11
the clam of the Lewis the Washougal
4:13
click into all these different Rivers
4:15
the main stem Columbia and they they put
4:18
they publish that creel check report on
4:21
on their website once a week Drive I
4:22
started grabbing that storing it in my
4:24
database putting the charts up there on
4:26
these stealing pages right so if you go
4:29
to kidneybestlife.com go to the the menu
4:32
navigate to the steel and fishing menu
4:33
and uh and pick your pick your River and
4:37
if it's one of these ones in Southwest
4:38
Washington you'll see essentially the uh
4:41
wfw fishing report how many people
4:43
caught from the bank boat kind of fish
4:46
uh you know know kept released Etc and
4:49
obviously it focused on steelhead on
4:50
those steel pages but that's a new
4:52
feature that you'll see uh updated along
4:54
with the factory escapement report uh
4:56
numbers in the graphs as well so uh you
4:59
know hopefully this is all about trying
5:01
to help you uh and everybody shoot I
5:04
look at this too figure out when is the
5:06
time to go when uh fish in
5:09
um there's a lot of other Dynamics to
5:11
look at in terms of river flows and
5:12
things like that I'm gonna do a video at
5:14
some point here but I really where to
5:16
find how to find salmon and steelhead
5:18
looking at all the available information
5:20
before you even go to the river uh the
5:23
bottom line is if you've got time you
5:24
know you go right I mean that's what
5:26
time on the water that's what it's all
5:27
about but you know time is limited gas
5:30
is limited and these tools hopefully
5:33
allow you to make better decisions about
5:36
when to go when it's really worth your
5:38
hard air hard earned so uh take a look
5:41
at those features uh we got up there
5:47
we gotta we gotta talk some data here uh
5:49
on the Colo side right we've got still
5:51
have some fish trickling in uh to the
5:53
kaluits and the Chehalis river system
5:55
will get Coho all through the December
5:57
period but as you know that system shut
6:00
down last week and that's it we don't
6:03
have another opportunity on that more on
6:05
that in a few minutes but uh if you're
6:07
looking for some Coho definitely check
6:09
out uh the Cowlitz is an opportunity uh
6:11
still fish being caught there as well as
6:13
uh you know there's still some Chum
6:15
trickling in to Minter Creek according
6:17
to those Town trees game reports there
6:19
uh usually a lot of people have
6:20
forgotten about child in December but
6:22
they're still getting fished so it might
6:24
be worth an opportunity if you're just
6:25
looking to it's a wet wet a line uh bend
6:28
a rod all right let's talk steelhead
6:30
everyone wants to know what's going on
6:31
with the steel in front and look the
6:33
bogey Shield is getting fish uh here on
6:36
the coast that is uh historically one of
6:39
the best December uh steelhead Rivers
6:42
based on the historical catch data
6:44
that's definitely worth uh your gas in
6:47
your time if you have an opportunity to
6:49
go out there for a day stay a couple
6:51
days that would be it would be optimal
6:54
to get get some steel there's some South
6:56
Coast Washington too as I talked about
6:58
the Lewis River has got that early
6:59
returning run and they're they're in uh
7:02
catches aren't being reported super
7:04
great yet on the fit on the creel check
7:06
but the the fish are there so uh you you
7:09
might want to give that a try get your
7:10
um get your steelhead fix on uh this
7:13
week before Christmas and after now we
7:15
got to tell you a little bit more about
7:16
the Chehalis and Coastal steel situation
7:18
right because uh this this is one that
7:21
like even though you know the the the
7:23
rationale given us by wfw is that like
7:26
you know that is all about protecting
7:28
wild steel that gotta protect the wild
7:30
Steelhead and let's just take a look we
7:31
just want to unpack some take a look at
7:33
it with the numbers with the data uh and
7:35
sort of an impartial way an objective
7:37
way and let's just just see what's going
7:39
on here so all right so this first graph
7:41
here is the uh the wild steelhead uh
7:44
escapement on the Chehalis uh the entire
7:46
Chehalis River Basin and what you see is
7:49
I mean we've only made escapement 10 of
7:52
the last 26 years right we're really
7:53
focused on what's going on right now
7:55
this escapement goals haven't been
7:57
achieved in quite some time the jaylos
7:59
river has had uh challenges you know in
8:02
the past three decades with making these
8:04
escapement goals but let's let's dig
8:06
into a little bit further and kind of
8:08
what's coming up so you know I grabbed
8:10
this out of the north of Falcon process
8:12
this this is looking at the uh the
8:14
correlation of ocean conditions and what
8:17
they are right now as related to uh the
8:19
you know the coastal steelhead return
8:21
and these things are certainly
8:22
correlated with Sam and M with steelhead
8:24
right where uh things aren't looking
8:27
things haven't been great the last few
8:29
years with the warm water blob and all
8:31
these different Dynamics the
8:32
probabilities that they're going to
8:33
happen in an increasing amount as as in
8:35
general the planet is warming and so
8:37
these ocean conditions are are warming
8:39
so this is gonna be this can continue to
8:40
be a challenge for these uh Coastal
8:43
steelhead Chehalis steelhead so let's
8:45
dig into it a little bit more though
8:46
because what what what is the what's the
8:49
viability of the Hatchery run size uh on
8:52
the Chehalis River you know are there
8:53
enough Hatchery fish there to to create
8:56
a fishing opportunity is it is it worth
8:58
trying to figure out these Dynamics
8:59
between wild and Hatchery and uh and
9:02
make this thing go as you can see the
9:05
the Run size of of the Hatchery fish is
9:07
is prolific right there's a there's a
9:10
massive amount of fish planted uh
9:12
steelhead planted on on the tribs of of
9:15
the Chehalis river right whether it's
9:16
the the SATs of wainucci the the
9:19
skukumchuck the nuwacam right you've got
9:21
all these uh these smolts planted and
9:24
and great returns of Hatchery Stila that
9:26
are that are there to provide
9:28
opportunity for uh tribal and
9:31
recreational Harvest but anytime you
9:33
have uh fishing pressure whether it's
9:35
commercial or recreational right and
9:38
you're trying to Target these Hatchery
9:40
fish you you've you're gonna have
9:42
encounters with with wild steel as well
9:44
and that's going to result in Wild
9:45
steelhead mortalities but how much is
9:48
really the question are there ways to
9:49
minimize impact on wild steelhead while
9:52
still providing opportunity for Hatchery
9:56
fish be that you know could be The Coho
9:58
that return all December long uh and
10:01
into January throughout Grace Harbor
10:02
rivers or or even those Hatchery
10:04
steelhead that are that are making their
10:06
way in around the same time as the wild
10:08
fish so there's a scenario that I put
10:10
out there that I know the people who are
10:12
working with uh wfw to come craft these
10:15
Seasons uh also put out there regarding
10:18
uh leaving the entire
10:20
um month of December open for Hatchery
10:24
Coho uh Hatchery steelhead opportunity
10:26
on the lower part of the Chehalis and
10:29
and the satsup river or maybe another
10:31
another tributary that has some some
10:34
early returning uh fish and a lot of
10:36
Coho opportunity and so uh we we were
10:39
able to calculate the steelhead
10:41
estimated mortalities and the uh the
10:45
encounters uh we got the mortality these
10:47
from the encounter based on the
10:49
comparative run sizes right so if you
10:51
know the Run size for wild you know the
10:53
Run size from Hatchery they're arriving
10:55
at the same time although I've heard
10:56
Hatchery tend to arrive a little bit
10:58
earlier than the wild which which makes
11:00
the scenario even better and you could
11:02
say okay if you we and we know what the
11:04
Hatchery catch data is from the catch
11:07
record cards and and and and so we have
11:10
an idea of the likelihood of
11:12
encountering for every Hatchery wow
11:15
Hatchery still had you catch how many
11:16
wild still had you probably encountered
11:19
as well on average uh by month and then
11:22
we can calculate using a 10 mortality
11:24
rate we could say all right this is how
11:26
many wild steelhead will probably
11:28
um die in the process of encountering
11:31
this many hatcheries deal right it's
11:33
pretty it's pretty simple math
11:35
um and and so if you look at this this
11:37
graph right you can see that you know a
11:40
some of these opportunities like a
11:41
December lower SATs up lower or lower
11:44
Chehalis that's a river opportunity
11:47
would uh would would result in less than
11:50
one steelhead uh wild steelhead
11:52
mortality right so uh but this wasn't on
11:54
the tape this wasn't available this is
11:56
not where wdfpmb landed with regards to
11:59
the season now now the question is why
12:01
if there was viable opportunity there
12:02
and um you know the the biologist at wfw
12:06
are looking at this and and and they're
12:09
um you know thumbs upping the science
12:11
and the approach and and if this is
12:13
viable from that time why why wouldn't
12:15
this opportunity be that why would why
12:17
would Folks at wfw shut down
12:20
um this this option now now what was
12:22
stated publicly on uh the town hall was
12:25
that that the uh the this was was shared
12:29
with
12:30
and this was shared with the tribe the
12:32
co-managers and they shut it down uh
12:34
because they wanted maximum protection
12:36
for wild Steelheart no uh I I do think
12:39
the tribe you know probably uh said they
12:43
wanted maximum protection for wild steal
12:45
it because if the wild still had aren't
12:47
protected the tribe doesn't get a
12:49
non-selective season uh down the road on
12:53
this resource so it's very important
12:54
really to everyone that the wild
12:56
steelhead are protected however uh
12:59
what the scenario I've laid out does
13:02
provide maximum protection for wild
13:04
steal it so I I don't think it was the
13:06
tribe who shut down uh and really the
13:09
tribe is is our is our biggest Ally when
13:11
it comes to being pro-consumption pro
13:13
connection with the land and the
13:15
resource and everything that we're about
13:17
in this lifestyle Harvest Recreation so
13:19
it's oftentimes easy to blame the tribe
13:22
and I think sometimes they can become a
13:24
scapegoat for all this but man I I think
13:26
that's that's really um sort of a a lazy
13:29
approach because I don't think that's
13:30
what's going on here all right so one
13:32
thing we do know about what's going on
13:33
here is uh you know there there is a a
13:37
power struggle going on uh at wfw right
13:41
when it comes to the uh hunting angling
13:44
community that works there and is pro
13:47
consumption Pro
13:49
um conservation in this in this um style
13:52
conservation we've had for the last
13:54
century or so uh but there are other
13:56
groups and matter of fact the commission
13:58
is now um is is now has a 5-4 majority
14:02
of uh in the commission and sort of like
14:04
think of it as like a a company board on
14:07
steroids right because they don't just
14:09
um they don't just hire fire the the top
14:11
uh the top person there which would be
14:13
the the director of wfw they also set
14:15
policy so
14:17
um so so this is uh this commission that
14:20
sort of sets policy and and and really
14:23
decides kind of what is going on wfw
14:28
um they are are have a 5-4 majority of
14:31
folks who are who are anti-consumption
14:33
and really I think in the long run uh
14:37
anti-conservation now of course no one's
14:39
gonna say they're anti-conservation but
14:41
if you're anti-consumption and that's
14:43
where all the money for conservation
14:45
comes then uh then what are we talking
14:47
about so you know there there's there's
14:49
these these groups who who uh are really
14:53
making a push making Washington kind of
14:55
a a Battleground state for this idea
14:58
that you can have a a
15:01
approach to conservation that involves
15:03
uh really limited or or no consumption
15:07
so catch and release fishing no hunting
15:10
um this is the group that that took the
15:12
spring blackber hunts off the table uh
15:15
really uh permanently
15:17
um and has made Predator management a
15:19
lot of places around Washington uh
15:21
really challenging that Predator
15:22
management discussion is kind of the
15:24
Battlegrounds for all of this uh of
15:26
what's going on here so
15:28
uh there are folks who work at wfw also
15:31
who are uh in that uh in that same group
15:34
of of you know promoting really what
15:37
they want is catch and release fishing
15:39
no consumption uh so on and so forth so
15:42
I'm not saying I for sure know that
15:44
what's going on here but it wouldn't
15:46
surprise me if some people look at this
15:48
Coastal steelhead situation and they go
15:50
well uh there there's it's a it's an
15:54
excuse It's a ready-made excuse to say
15:55
uh let's let's shut everything down
15:58
because we want to protect the wild
15:59
steelhead rather than looking at it from
16:01
the standpoint of
16:03
um can we protect wild Steelhead and
16:05
provide the maximum opportunity for the
16:09
the the consumption of these Hatchery
16:11
fish whether it's cohort worst Elite and
16:13
I don't think that's the way this is
16:14
being approached a matter of fact I
16:16
think we could say for sure that's not
16:17
how it's being approached because we're
16:19
not getting those seasons and
16:21
um we're not the the alignment isn't
16:23
there uh on the the science side for
16:28
um for this this sort of approach to
16:30
removing consumption opportunities so
16:32
you can read the whole article
16:34
pwbestlife.com it's the 2023 jalis
16:37
Coastal steelhead that's the name of the
16:39
blog post you can you know take a look
16:40
at that and get more dig into more of
16:42
the data and the graphs and all the
16:44
logic behind this but you know um what
16:46
can we do about this right uh I've seen
16:49
great I haven't seen a great answer to
16:51
that I've asked people who are way more
16:53
connected than me that question and I
16:55
don't think we know other than we've got
16:56
to stay engaged you know some people's
16:58
approach is like well I'm not going to
17:00
buy my license blah blah blah and cut
17:02
off funding
17:04
um and I don't think that's I don't
17:05
think that's the right move at this
17:07
point it might it might be down the road
17:09
but uh cutting off funding sort of just
17:12
furthers the goal of those who are anti
17:15
uh anti-consumption I think I think we
17:17
need more engagement I think we need
17:19
more involvement and we need a we need a
17:21
larger and louder voice and certainly
17:23
that's what I'm uh committed to here
17:25
with pnw best life is promoting these
17:27
opportunities and it can be frustrating
17:29
at times but sometimes sometimes I know
17:32
from experience uh you sometimes you've
17:34
got to Circle the Drain just long enough
17:36
on a critical issue uh that the moment
17:40
might appear where where you can you can
17:43
save the issue and you can have a Major
17:44
Impact but you got to kind of write it
17:46
down uh as painful as it is you kind of
17:49
got to go with it and stay engaged and
17:51
be frustrated and and uh and go along
17:53
with it until until that moment appears
17:55
so we haven't hit that yet I I I'm still
17:57
gonna buy my hunting license fishing
17:59
license you can do what you want but uh
18:01
I think this is not the time to pull out
18:06
let's talk about the opportunities in
18:09
the week ahead uh as always it comes
18:11
back to what the weather's doing what
18:12
what are the tides doing and you know
18:15
what what are the critters doing right
18:16
in terms of our opportunity so when it
18:19
comes to you know with with the weather
18:21
uh you know we've got all this like
18:23
Arctic air if you follow the weather
18:25
people in Washington like you get all
18:27
this Arctic air coming down and uh
18:30
really just making things a lot colder
18:31
and there's just there's moisture as
18:33
well so uh we're gonna have some snow
18:35
we're gonna have some ice on the road
18:37
different places this is kind of the
18:38
weather where I don't I don't like you
18:40
don't do a lot I don't want to tow the
18:41
boat around on icy roads you know I
18:43
don't want to drive in like rural areas
18:44
looking for steelhead streams when
18:47
there's you know a lot of ice on the
18:49
road and and so I I might not do a whole
18:52
lot this week I think there's a lot of
18:53
opportunities though for people who do
18:55
want to get out again this is the this
18:57
is the time when those Coastal steelhead
18:58
streams of early returning fish those
19:00
early runs like on the Lewis uh they
19:03
they really they really to pop right and
19:05
that you know this is where the peak
19:08
window really starts so uh you know if
19:10
you've been uh hitting local steelhead
19:13
water that's open as the season on it
19:15
and uh you're waiting for those early
19:17
fish if you still haven't hooked a
19:19
steelhead and you've been going uh this
19:21
week might be your week you know when it
19:23
comes to the Salt Water uh right now
19:25
there's there's a daytime squidding
19:27
opportunity and there's crowding open
19:28
and a lot of infused sound for winter
19:30
crabs so this and you look at the tides
19:33
you've got this like morning flood tide
19:35
which is uh it's in many ways optimal
19:39
for chasing the squid in the daytime and
19:43
for targeting them even in like the
19:45
early morning hours which is something I
19:47
really like to do I'm really looking
19:48
forward to getting out and doing that
19:51
um so that's an opportunity and there's
19:52
the squid are it's happening you know
19:55
even in the South Sound or mid-sound
19:57
places like uh Des Moines Redondo
19:59
certainly Edmonds chill uh in these kind
20:03
of places uh you know I I have got to go
20:06
get out really and do that yet so I'm
20:07
looking forward to that hope you all
20:09
have a good holiday I'll probably make
20:10
one more video before Christmas I'll
20:12
guarantee it
20:14
um and uh yeah until next time
20:20
[Music]
#Fishing