Last week’s storms brought the region’s low rivers roaring back to the point that the state Department of Fish and Wildlife reopened the Hoh and South Fork Hoh rivers to fishing Saturday.
State biologists will consider reopening other West End rivers this week after storms dropped several inches of rain on the area, according to the Fish and Wildlife’s Region 6.
Olympic National Park also reopened its sections of several rivers — the Hoh, Quillayute and Dickey rivers — to recreational fishing Saturday.
“Recent rain events over the last 48 hours drastically increased river flows, allowing for unimpeded upstream migration of salmon and the reopening of sport fishing,” said Penny Wagner, park spokeswoman, in a press release issued Friday.
All species are accessible for fishing in the Hoh, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said on its website at wdfw.wa.gov.
The Hoh was closed to fishing Monday because of low stream flow, which impeded salmon migration.
On Oct. 13, it was running at 329 cubic feet per second near Forks, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The median stream flow is 1,640 cfs, according to the USGS gauge. As of Saturday, it was running at 3,120 cfs.
Also closed to fishing Monday were the Quillayute, Sol Duc and Dickey rivers, as well as sections of the Bogachiel and Calawah rivers, Fish and Wildlife said.
The park prohibited fishing in the Quillayute, Dickey and Hoh River mouths and the portions of the rivers within park boundaries.
“The closure was designed to maximize protection of salmon in the lower portions of each river due to concerns about low river flows impeding salmon migration,” Wagner said.
“The Hoh River was at historically low flows during the closure, and the Hoh Tribe closed its treaty fishery during this low flow period. The Quileute Tribe and state Department of Fish and Wildlife also closed treaty and sport fisheries in the Quillayute and Dickey rivers.”
All rivers are running higher than their median stream flows now, according to the USGS.
The Dungeness River opened Monday to fishing.
Three storms hit the North Olympic Peninsula last week, the third one on Saturday.
As of Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service reported the 24-hour rainfall total in Port Angeles as 0.57 inches, Hurricane Ridge as 1.35 inches, Forks as 0.93 inches and Sekiu as 0.95 inches.
The service issued a flood watch from 5 p.m. Saturday until 5 a.m. Monday.
Some power outages affected Jefferson County residents Saturday, according to the county PUD.
An outage affected about 19 customers near West Uncas Road on Saturday afternoon until power was restored around 1:30 p.m., according to the Jefferson PUD’s Twitter page.
Jefferson PUD also restored power to South Jacob Miller Road and the surrounding area around 11 a.m. Saturday after a tree hit a power line, another tweet said.
Clallam PUD experienced one outage around 1 p.m. Saturday in the Blyn area, a radio station reported, dispatchers said.
