I was looking in the regs yesterday and noticed salmon opens on the upper quinault the first of july. They do not specify any species. I've heard maybe they are sockeye. Does anyone know what they might be?.......... or how to fish them?

Maybe springers.I doubt you can keep any of there sockeye.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

wouldn't it say something about chinook? and I've heard once the fish reach the upper river they're no longer " their" fish. I know there is a species of salmon that live in the lake that reach 6-8 lbs and I've heard them referred to as "Quinault salmon" .......... someone has to know

As far as I know it's jacks only.

It's not. Up to two adults can be retained per the regs.

Quinalt doesn't have a springer program nor, i believe, any semblance of a wild run....perhaps the odd stray.

It does have sockeye......a run native to the system and in the lake as we speak. probably a few trickling into the upper river now, more so in the month ahead.

I'm not in tune to the summer salmon regs for upper quinalt and don't know the history of those regs because I've never targeted upper quinalt salmon. I have been under the impression talking with locals that the upper river has not been open for salmon in years past. Maybe I'm off-base. I do know the sockeye run has been depressed for decades and efforts continue to rebuild the run.....seems odd they'd open it to retention at this time???

I don't know much about the river so I called someone I knew who rectently had fished the lake and was familiar to the area, and he said the same thing. He has caught a few in the lake but had never heard of fishing them in the upper river. He had also hooked one recently near the mouth of the upper river while trout fishing. I would like to try it out if theres somethin worth fishing for.

As far as anything above the lake not being theirs


They think any and all fish on the OP is their fish

Both a depressed run of wild spring chinook and sockeye (classified as healthy) spawn above the lake. In past years it's been open for jacks only, so I'm unsure why they've changed it to allow retention of adults when a run that numbers in the low hundreds is present. Perhaps the numbers have significantly increased since 2003, but I doubt it.

I would hope they would change it for good reason. Is there a way to get current run numbers?

there is a run of spring chinook that spawn above the lake in sept. and the sockeye start running in january and run thru july and sit in the lake until fall time and spawn with the other salmon. they cannot be retained in the lake during the trout and dolly fishery.

Perhaps an error in the regs??

Wouldn't be the first time and there have already been some news releases about errors in this year's regs......don't believe the upper Quinalt was mentioned.

funky

Heading up to the Quinault for the 4th. Will be fishing for 4 days. If the fish are there I will find them. As far as fishing the mouth of the upper river go's you have to be up in the river beyond the lake to be fishing. The tribe says you cannot fish the mouth. Their rules say that there is a line from Onion rock on the north shore At Lochairie Lodge over to the south shore at the Rain Forest Motel dock. You can't fish beyond that line towards the river. However I see boats up there fishing. They are taking a chance as there is a tribal patrolman George , ( very nice guy) on the lake. I'm going to look into the regs to see if it is open for salmon other than just jacks okbye JayPea

are there an ambundance of jacks? According to the regs 2 adults may be retained

I have a call in to Kirt Hughes, WDFW biologist, Region 6.....called Friday but think he was "gone early"....I'll post if I get an answer early next week...

I thought those kingers were always off limits. As far as I remember a few years ago there wasn't a very big run in the upper Quinault. If thats the case and it is still open you might want to let your conscience take over and leavem' alone.

Agreed.

That rule only applies after a certain date, and I'm not sure when that is other than it's late summer. It used to be posted on a sign at the line marker.

the whole lake is closed to the retention of all salmon. only trout and dollys can be kept. as for the upper river, the spring chinook run isn't that big, i do the surveys for them in sept. and also do the queets river. we get flown in 21 miles past sams river and float 3 sections with three crews. the upper part of the lake is closed because that is where a majority of the sockeye go when they enter the lake.