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Ice storm crazy, Steelhead, springers and silly goose stories! PNW Harvest Recreation 12-23-22
Feb 5, 2025
The ice storm stuff is crazy and I've tried to capture some of the slippy slidey action to entertain you while I explain the PNW harvest recreation opportunity this week.
I hooked a steelhead on my little river I've been hitting, but of course it got off. I explain and show exactly what I did to hook that fish.
Incredibly exciting news about springers you are going to want to hear about.
And my first time goose hunting like a complete noob!
I review a few of the rivers that have been getting hatchery steelhead returns and talk about the razor clam situation on the coast.
Also, the weather for the week ahead is going to create lots of problems for all sorts of fishing opportunities, so keep an eye on things!
New merch at the end that I highlight as well. Hit me at kyle@pnwbestlife.com for any of it. Don't forget to check pnwbestlife.com for all your helpful info.
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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0:00
while everyone is slipping and sliding
0:01
out there with this big ice storm from
0:03
Portland Puget Sound we've got some big
0:05
stuff to talk about today we've got
0:07
steelhead updates we got to talk about
0:08
some numbers released on Springers next
0:12
year we got the look ahead for weather
0:13
uh next week and I I wish I could tell
0:16
you it was good news
0:19
all right I know last time I said I
0:21
didn't think I'd make it out because of
0:23
all the snow and the icy conditions but
0:26
they didn't the Snow Line ended up not
0:28
being as South far south and I got out
0:31
uh to a to a secret Little River and I
0:34
did some I did some steelhead fishing
0:35
and I finally hooked I still had on this
0:38
River after some persistent effort
0:40
unfortunately I didn't get video of that
0:41
because I was grinding it out and I
0:43
stopped recording and of course that's
0:45
when I get this takedown and a nice
0:48
hookup and uh I got the I had the fish
0:51
on for about 30 seconds uh maybe longer
0:54
but it came off uh you know hooked on
0:56
this this 20 millimeter BNR soft feed
0:59
orange model bead under float and about
1:02
I don't know four three and a half four
1:04
feet of water and I didn't talk about
1:06
this last video but uh the weekend
1:07
before I got to it I go out and and do
1:10
my first ever goose hunt and I was uh
1:14
staying at the place in Prosser and and
1:16
found some public land near the Yakima
1:18
River and I edit you know we're at about
1:21
four to six inches of snow and ice on
1:23
the ground about 20 degrees and I I had
1:26
these white coveralls on and I kind of
1:28
made a makeshift like layout blind
1:30
situation and uh hidden some brush and
1:34
they were flying by I mean there was
1:35
hundreds of birds flying in the area
1:37
mostly geese put some Mallards to and I
1:41
just couldn't I was only there for an
1:42
hour because I had to leave and beat the
1:44
weather that was showing up in the past
1:45
and so I was just screwing around and I
1:48
took I had multiple shot opportunities
1:50
which I missed I got a little too
1:52
excited and then uh but but I did uh I
1:55
did have one I hit I just didn't I
1:57
didn't lead it far enough so I kind of
1:59
hit it towards the back and and it flew
2:01
off
2:03
um but you know if we continue to get
2:05
this crappy weather and things are cold
2:07
on the other side of the mountains like
2:08
uh the the bird thing is is uh pretty
2:11
exciting in Yakima County open every day
2:13
for geese till January 29th uh I can't
2:16
wait to get back over the past and do
2:17
that uh hopefully pretty soon Junior
2:20
back you know on the steel in front
2:22
maybe this was uh just an opportunity
2:23
remember we have on the coast we have a
2:25
lot of selective gear fishing and while
2:28
uh we can't use uh you know the gray jig
2:31
and tip with prawn that would normally
2:34
be just the ideal winter steelhead setup
2:36
uh you know I I like soft beads as like
2:40
my number two uh when I can't when I
2:42
can't tip to The Jig with prawn I'm
2:43
gonna go soft pizza so the packaging of
2:46
these top beads includes this stopper
2:48
system that you're gonna put your uh
2:51
leader line through on the side opposite
2:54
the hook and I'm just gonna push uh push
2:58
the stopper onto your line really easy
3:01
to do and then you're just gonna pull
3:03
the tag end of the line
3:06
um back through the stopper and now
3:10
you're now you're free
3:13
then you're gonna slide that up almost
3:15
to the hook maybe an inch or two above
3:19
and then you're gonna grab your bead
3:24
and you're gonna put that
3:26
on your leader
3:28
thread it all the way through and slide
3:31
it down to your hook and now you're
3:33
fishing it's that simple
3:35
[Music]
3:39
I'm over the moon excited about what uh
3:43
what I saw hit my hit my feet here with
3:45
uh Springer forecast coming out for
3:47
Columbia River next year oh oh my
3:50
goodness I I mean uh
3:53
dealt about double what it was two years
3:55
ago that's the expectation right uh over
3:58
300 000 uh fish returning Columbia River
4:02
um which would be an improvement from
4:04
last year but double what it was two
4:05
years ago uh I love these buggers I mean
4:08
this is my favorite fish to eat uh not
4:11
as much fun to catch when you're
4:13
grinding it out but uh some of these
4:15
numbers if they hold true and we hit it
4:17
right we could be in for some uh some
4:20
great great days limiting on uh just you
4:23
know what is I think best tasting fish
4:25
in the world the Columbia River Frank
4:26
Chinook
4:27
and also I'm looking at some of the
4:29
numbers for the lower tribs I mean the
4:31
Cowlitz 9 000 fish are you kidding me
4:33
like uh yeah uh the Lewis the Kalama uh
4:37
those numbers are exciting as well so
4:39
and then wfw did announce uh there's
4:41
gonna be uh likely a wild steelhead
4:43
season for uh Catch and Release season
4:46
on the uh it's Gadget socks I haven't
4:49
got digging why I went up there one time
4:51
for kind of a an initial trip and never
4:53
went back for a more serious trip but uh
4:56
I would love to get up there on that
4:57
River and do a little Catch and Release
4:59
but it was uh incredible wild steelhead
5:02
up there you're not gonna catch a ton
5:04
but uh if you hit it right uh the size
5:07
and just the there's is there a more
5:09
beautiful River to fish than the Skagit
5:12
yeah I mean it's incredible so that's a
5:14
great opportunity as well
5:18
all right we gotta talk about the the
5:20
escapement report update throughout the
5:22
date of course and uh we've got Fisher
5:25
continuing rolling on the Bogue Shield
5:27
his historically in the month of
5:29
December on the coast there's no more
5:31
there's no greater place to catch a
5:33
steelhead in December than Bogue Shield
5:35
so hopefully you get a chance to take
5:38
advantage of that particularly before it
5:41
it might blow out in the in the week
5:44
ahead here Southwest Washington you've
5:46
got definitely got fish arriving on the
5:48
Lewis you know the Kalama and the
5:51
Cowlitz less so as they don't have early
5:53
returning fish but they still have a
5:54
trickle of them coming in uh things are
5:57
picking up the Puget Sound a little bit
5:58
you know I saw a note that this guy
6:00
comes to call me and and some of the
6:03
rivers in that area are getting are
6:04
getting their fish you know the skating
6:06
report got a little bump and they're not
6:07
going to get a ton of fish back this
6:09
year but it's a good sign there's fish
6:10
in the river fish being caught if you're
6:12
up in the area why not stay local and
6:15
and give that a try
6:19
all right this week in terms of the big
6:22
opportunities you know there's going to
6:23
be there's gonna be some challenges a
6:25
lot of this stems from uh really what's
6:27
going on in the seven day forecast we've
6:29
got a lot of rain coming here and that's
6:31
on the back of a lot of low wind snow
6:34
snowpack so you know our Coastal Rivers
6:37
Puget Sound Rivers I mean they're they
6:39
are probably going to be blown and we're
6:41
talking chocolate milk we are talking a
6:43
complete uh complete mess so steel
6:46
hitting really at any point in the week
6:48
uh I mean it's gonna be it's gonna be
6:50
super weather dependent and you're gonna
6:51
have to really pick your pick your
6:53
Rivers uh you know when things are like
6:55
this you look for smaller rivers that
6:58
clear quickly and you look for you look
7:00
for rivers with dams on them right
7:02
because that all that uh snowmelt that
7:05
comes down um it ends up filling the
7:07
reservoir behind the dam so I'm talking
7:08
about you know Rivers like the Lewis uh
7:11
like uh the Cowlitz right you know on
7:13
the razor clam front I wish I had better
7:15
news but uh
7:17
FW released another demoic acid test and
7:20
we've got we got stuff on the rise and
7:22
so you know in the near term and really
7:25
probably intermediate Charming we don't
7:26
have we don't have any razor clam dig
7:29
opportunities available to us the last
7:30
week of winter crab opening Puget Sound
7:33
so you might want to get that done if
7:34
you haven't taken advantage yet uh you
7:37
know with all this crappy weather maybe
7:38
it's time to go bird hunting right maybe
7:39
that's why my dad's on the menu as well
7:42
so
7:44
um you know over here or uh over on the
7:47
other side of the mountains all right
7:48
finally we got to new merch we got uh
7:51
the dark uh the dark hoodie uh setup and
7:54
we've got uh a tumbler and water bottle
7:56
again email me Kyle pnwbestlife.com if
8:00
you're interested in any of that merch
8:02
we'll work it out not doing super high
8:03
volume so just just just send me an
8:05
email we'll figure it out uh have a
8:07
great Christmas stay safe out there on
8:09
all these icy conditions and definitely
8:12
watch the weather forecast for the coast
8:14
and rivers to just blow out with all the
8:17
all all in snow and and all the rain
8:19
headed our way so keep an eye on things
8:25
[Music]
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