THE SWITCH HAS been flipped.
As is often the case around this time of year, the Sol Duc River is quickly becoming the destination for steelheaders on the North Olympic Peninsula.
The Bogachiel River hatchery steelhead run is starting to lose steam, and a small run of natives and Snider Creek broodstock are making their presence known on its Quillayute tributary counterpart.
“The Bogachiel, boy, it tailed off pretty quickly,” Bob Gooding of Olympic Sporting Goods (360-374-6330) in Forks said.
“There’s still some fish in there, but it went from really pretty good to not very good in just a couple of days. It just quit.
“It quit raining on us, it got clear and cold, and that might have been a part of it, but it really ground to a halt.”
In its place now is the Sol Duc and, to a lesser degree, the Hoh.
The former often improves around this time in large part because of the Snider Creek broodstock — a run of hatchery-reared fish spawned from wild steelhead.
The Olympic Peninsula Guides Association gather 50 wild fish each year out of the Sol Duc to spawn 50,000 smolts at the Sol Duc Hatchery.
After the smolts have their left ventral fins clipped, they are taken to a location near Snider Creek where they are raised by longtime association member Sam Windle Sr. prior to release.
These fish tend to grow bigger than their hatchery brethren and are thus a prime target for anglers each winter.
“Compared to the Bogachiel [hatchery run], they are way bigger,” Gooding said.
“A little one of those is seven or eight pounds, and I see them in the teens all the time. They get up 17, 18 pounds. They are pretty nice fish.”
Unfortunately, as I noted in a column last month, that run of fish has an expiration date.
Association members will collect fish from the Sol Duc for the final time this winter, with their smolts released back into the river in 2012.
After that, broodstocking operations will likely be transferred to another West End river — either the Calawah or Bogachiel — in 2013.
Consider this winter one of your final chances to take advantage of what has been a wildly popular run on the Sol Duc.
Ridge update
The snowpack is there, it’s just a little too icy to get things started up at Hurricane Ridge this weekend.
Mountain manager Craig Hofer confirmed that the official kickoff of the winter sports season is likely to be next weekend atop the Ridge.
Everything is in place in terms of the intermediate and bunny rope tows being assembled, Hofer said, but Olympic National Park and Winter Sports Club officials agreed conditions weren’t right for things to begin Saturday.
“Conditions are just real poor right at the moment,” Hofer said Thursday afternoon. “It’s solid, hard rock. It’s white, but it’s solid and hard as a rock.
“All I need is some snow we can move around. I just need something to work with, and then we’re a go.”
Thankfully, snow is a part of the extended forecast, so Hofer is optimistic things will be up and running by next weekend.
That will be just in time for the Hurricane Ridge Ski and Snowboard School, which postponed its start dates to Jan 21-22.
“We’re all ready to go. We’re 100 percent,” Hofer said. “The biggest issue that I see is the conditions are so bad that I can’t move this sort of stuff. It’s just ice.”
Added Hofer, “Snow is in the forecast. We’re going to get some snow between Sunday and Wednesday. It isn’t going to take much.”
For more information on winter sports at the Ridge, visit hurricaneridge.com.
Contest winner
Mary Campbell of Port Angeles must have an eye for the outdoors.
For the second time in three years, the New Hampshire transplant was honored by Washington Trails Association in its annual Northwest Exposure Photo Contest.
Campbell’s playful photo of a marmot sunning on the snowpack of Lillian Ridge was awarded second place in the Offbeat Outdoors category.
According to Campbell, it was taken in the summer of 2010 when she and her husband, Ken, were hiking through the Obstruction Point area and came upon a company of marmots.
“We went up and there was still snow there. It was a fairly warm day and [the marmots] were out running around,” Mary said.
“One laid down in front of us, and it just started licking up the snow. It was like he was hot and just trying to cool down and have a snow cone.”
Mary previously won the grand prize in the 2008 edition of the Northwest Exposure Photo Contest for her shot of two black-tail deer fawns at Hurricane Ridge.
She and Ken spend lots of time hiking around the Peninsula shooting outdoor photos for various non-profits.
With both now retired — they had run a golf course in Salem, N.H. — the couple has plenty of time to explore the Pacific Northwest.
In fact, this weekend they are headed to British Columbia to see if they can get a shot of the snowy owls that are now populating the area en masse.
Mary’s photo wasn’t the only one from the area to be honored in the contest, either.
The grand prize photo was also taken at Ruby Beach by Todd Mortensen of Everett.
To view each of the prize winners, visit http://tinyurl.com/6pn6vlk.
Also . . .
■ Crabbers have until Feb. 1 to report their winter harvest to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
To submit catch reports, crabbers can send catch record cards to Fish and Wildlife by mail or file on a special webpage.
The mailing address is WDFW CRC Unit, 600 Capitol Way N., Olympia, WA 98501-1091. The online reporting system can be found at http://tinyurl.com/yhjxf79.
■ Prospective hunters have several options to take Hunter Education classes this year at the Port Angeles Veteran’s Center, 216 S. Francis St.
There will be five courses offered in Port Angeles, with those starting Feb. 7, March 6, May 1, June 5 and Aug. 8 — all Tuesdays. Each class will begin at 5:30 p.m.
To enroll, visit http://tinyurl.com/23p4b5o.
Additional information is available at Swain’s General Store, Doc Neeley’s Cowboys Guns and Gear or Cowboy Country in Port Angeles.
For more information, email pahuntered@gmail.com.
■ Survivor’s Outdoor Experience will conduct a free two-day snowshoe clinic this weekend in Port Angeles.
The first session is set for Saturday at 11 a.m. at Swain’s General Store, 602 E. First St. Students will then take part in a ranger-led snowshoe hike Sunday with the group meeting at the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center at 10:30 a.m.
For more information on the clinic, contact Jack Ganster at 360-477-1619.
■ Admiralty Audubon’s Paula Vanderhuel will lead a birding trip through Chimacum Creek Park and Estuary next Saturday, Jan. 21, at 9 a.m.
A group will meet at Chimacum Creek in Irdonale, then head out into the field to view the various birds that populate the area.
To register for the trip, contact Vanderhuel at pvanderheul@gmail.com.
■ Ken Wiersema will lead a class titled “Corvids in Winter” focusing on the lives of crows, ravens and jays at Dungeness River Audubon Center on Saturday, Jan. 28.
The class will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the River Center, located at 2151 Hendrickson Road in Sequim.
Cost is $10 per person.
To register for the class, contact the River Center at 360-681-4076.
■ The next set of razor clam digs are tentatively scheduled for next Friday and Saturday, Jan. 20-21, at four ocean beaches.
Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis and Mocrocks are all set to open to afternoon digging on both days, pending marine toxin testing.
Send photos, stories
Want your event listed in the outdoors column?
Have a fishing or hunting report, an anecdote about an outdoors experience or a tip on gear or technique, why not share it with our readers?
Send it to me, Matt Schubert, Sports Department, Peninsula Daily News, P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362; phone, 360-417-3526; fax, 360-417-3521; email matt.schubert
@peninsuladailynews.com.
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Matt Schubert is the outdoors columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. His column appears on Thursdays and Fridays.
