FALL LAKE TROUT angling action should pick up thanks to the recent help of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Fish and Wildlife is in the process of stocking 47 western Washington lakes with 340,000 rainbow trout, including three lakes here on the North Olympic Peninsula that have already received their shares.
Leland, Gibbs and Teal lakes in Jefferson County were stocked earlier this month with rainbows raised at the Eels Springs Hatchery near Shelton.
Lake Leland received the majority, 2,000 trout with an average of 0.87 fish per pound.
Gibbs received 350 and Teal 150, each at 0.75 per pound.
“Fishing should be good until the lake water temperature drops below 50 degrees,” said Ward Norden, a fishing tackle wholesaler and former fishery biologist.
“Actually, anglers can be successful all winter as long as the lake isn’t frozen over, but once the lake water gets into the 40s, any more than one fish per day is a good catch.”
Fish and Wildlife has a higher number of fish to stock into lakes this fall because of a legal settlement last spring with the Wild Fish Conservancy that prevented releasing some 900,000 early winter hatchery steelhead into most Puget Sound rivers in 2014.
A total of 10,000 of those hatchery fish would have been planted in the Dungeness River.
Doing some very simple math on those numbers, North Olympic Peninsula anglers come up about 7,500 fish short in this “trade,” a return on investment similar to what the Seattle Seahawks received from Percy Harvin.
More than 300,000 of those steelhead, an ocean- going form of rainbow trout, will instead be released into western Washington lakes in the coming weeks.
“We realized these fish presented a unique opportunity for Washington’s anglers,” Fish and Wildlife inland fish program manager Chris Donley said.
The department held the steelhead over the summer and reared them to catchable trout size to be released into lakes in the Puget Sound area for harvest this fall.
Donley said he expects angling to be great throughout the fall and winter months at all of these lakes.
“Most of the trout are 11 to 13 inches long, with a few larger ones in the mix,” he said.
The fall fish plants are in response to anglers’ requests to increase fall and winter trout fishing opportunities in western Washington, Donley said.
Sailing orientation
The Port Angeles High School Sailing Club, with the support of the Port Angeles Yacht Club, is hosting an orientation Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Yacht Club, 1305 Marine Drive in Port Angeles.
High school students interested in learning how to sail are encouraged to attend.
Members of the Sailing Club who want to compete will be taught the rules of racing for participation in local and regional regattas hosted by the Northwest Interscholastic Sailing Association.
The Sailing Club will have access to the Yacht Club’s fleet of Vanguard 15s, a fiberglass racing dinghy commonly used in regional regattas.
Each boat holds two sailors: a skipper and a crew member.
For more information about the Port Angeles High School Sailing Club or youth sailing through the Port Angeles Yacht Club, email coach Chris Allen at sailing@payc.org.
Send state input
Fish and Wildlife is seeking public input on state status reports and listing recommendations for tufted puffins and Steller sea lions.
The department is recommending listing tufted puffins on the state’s endangered species list and removing Steller sea lions from the state’s threatened species list.
Public comment on the reports and listing recommendations will be accepted through Dec. 11.
The tufted puffin report is available online at tinyurl.com/PDN-Puffin, while the Steller sea lion report is available at tinyurl.com/PDN-SeaLion.
Tufted puffins are native seabirds once considered common in the San Juan Islands, Strait of Juan de Fuca and along the Pacific coast.
Over the last several decades, however, 38 of the 43 breeding sites used historically by tufted puffins in Washington either have been abandoned or have seen significant declines in use.
Steller sea lions are the larger of the two sea lion species found in Washington and have been protected as a state threatened species since 1993.
The numbers of these salmon-chomping menaces have increased in the past two decades from 300 to more than 1,500 glimpsed via aerial surveys.
Written comments on the reports and recommendations can be submitted via email to TandEpubliccom@dfw.wa.gov or by mail to Penny Becker, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, 600 Capitol Way N., Olympia, WA 98501-1091.
Send photos, stories
Have a photograph, a fishing or hunting report, an anecdote about an outdoors experience or a tip on gear or technique?
Send it to
sports@peninsuladailynews.com or P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362.
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Outdoors columnist Michael Carman appears here Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5152 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
