WWTFD

What will the fish do?

Spent last weekend on the lower Hoh trying in vain to get coho to bite. In the lowest three holes on the river there were, in my estimation, at least a thousand fish trapped by low water. In the cliff hole I watched three seals chasing fish that ran the gamut from boot to chromer around the hole. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands...

The questions that I can't help but ask are...If conditions continue to remain as they are through say late November, will the fish just die in the lower stretches of river? Will they eventually try to muscle their way through the three inch riffles? Will they try to spawn in the lower river? Will one good rain raise the levels enough to allow healthy fish passage or may it already be too late?

Just hoping to get some opinions from people who have may have witnessed a similar (but certainly not as drastic) low water/drought scenario...

I think the silvers are going to be okay for a bit ... they by nature by being creek spawners, tend to move a little better under these circumstances than the kings. We are seeing some silver migration, albeit quite slow.

The kings on the other hand, aren't going very far and they're actively spawning in the lowermost sections as we speak. What few didn't get picked off by the nets (more so in the Quillayute than the Hoh) are spawning right in the middle of what would normally be a mini-Mississippi.

If we get some big storms to follow these low water, the reds without a doubt will suffer some scouring in these areas ... not good news for future runs.

A little good news, early models indicate that at the end of next week ... we may get some normal November type weather wihich would be a real Godsend right now!

I was definitely thinking in terms of the kings, we watched several large pods of silvers skitter through the riffles in the evening between Nolan's and Cottonwood....it wasn't easy but they were doing it. Pretty impressive display of the urge to spawn really.....I scouted a spot below the dead end and found one hole full of bootish silvers.

What we didn't see beating it through the riffles were kings. Sad really that in a year where the King runs were supposed to be better than average the fish have to suffer through environmental hardships the likes of which haven't been seen on the Hoh in seventy-five years.

Let's hope the long range forecasts aren't based on computer models...seems there is always two days of rain forecast at the end of every week.

I talked with an upriver old timer this weekend who said they'd never seen it like this...