Docks, and public beaches for pinks near Quilcene

[Lucid Dreams of Fish]

Hello.
I am going to near Quilcene, with my friend who is in charge of the Olmpic Music Festival, this weekend and I am going to spend part of my time fishing and crabbing.:beer1: I never been out to that area before, and have no knowledge area. I was wondering if anybody knew any docks for crabbing, and beaches for fishing for salmon and SRC?:)

[Jake Bannon]

The Duckabush gets a very strong run of Pinks but you cant legally fish for them in the river, so therefore at or near the mouth could be very promising. As for the Quilcene I know it gets good returns of coho but I dont think it gets any pinks. Ive heard SRC fishing there is good but Ive never personally done it. Personally Im not familier with the salt water around there because I usually spend my time in the rivers such as the Duck, the Quilcene and Dosewallips but I hope maybe my info has helped you somewhat, maybe someone else can contribute to my info.

[Dan Cuomo]

I took a ride up to the Duckabush this evening. I'd never been up that way. It's very beautiful and had a nice fishy look about it. I don't know if the land across the road, on the salt side, is open to fishing or not. I didn't see any posted/ no trespassing signs, but I didn't want to assume. I might have if I'd not been pressed for time. I'd take a shot there. My guess is that you may be plesantly surprised. Good luck, and enjoy!
Dan

[Salmon fisher]

There is a run of summer chums (illegal to fish for) and a run of coho at quilcene. Unfortunately, you're too early for the coho. If you don't mind a little bit of a drive, you could hit point-no-point, which has been excellent for coho. Or you could go to hoodsport, but I don't really recomend it unless you know what you're getting into and still want to go. You could also find a beach somewhere and try to find some cutties or returning salmon.

[Benn]

My folks used to have a place on the Duckabush and I fished it a lot mainly because it was there, not because it was particularly good. It is basically a fall chum river (with lots of chum in the lower 3 miles or so). The entire lower river is private property from 101 up through the Mason County Power Lines. It is private upsteam of that too until you hit the National Forest, but it is larger timber owners and you can get in some spots if you want to hike. The power line corridor is not a good access point. Steep, thick brush, and lots of wetlands to slog through.

The pinks in that river tend to be pretty small and they turn quickly. I have caught one or two silver-scaled pinks in August while trout fishing, but it is not really worth the hike in for them and most are in the lower mile anyway where there is no access. You used to be able to fish upstream of the power lines all summer and fall if you targeted steelhead (and there are steelhead and some nice rainbows in there to target, also a decent run of SRC's in the lower 4 miles). But the upper Duckabush is pretty unaccessable for WDFW to patrol and the local snaggers hit it hard when the pinks and coho were in. You can also hike into the falls up at the ranger station about 5 miles up. I have gone back there on a hikes in October and watched gear guys pull coho after coho out of the hole below the falls and bonk them on the head and hold them up to proudy show the hikers up on the rocks. Completely illegal but there is no enforcement presence on that river.

I find it odd that if you even thought about taking an in-shell oyster off the beach, the neighbors will call WDFW in a second, but none of them seem to blink and eye when the banks of the Duckabush are lined with guys throwing 3 oz buzz bombs with big trebles and dragging pinks and coho up on the beach by the tail.

It is unfortunate that some decend SRC and trout fishing in the upper Duckabush had to fall to WDFW's lack of patrol manpower, but I am glad that they they finally closed that loop hole this year and the entire upper river is closed after August 31. Not that it wil stop anybody but us honest folk.

[Jake Bannon]

Ive hit the trout pretty good on the duc but thats because we have a lot of easy access since he owns a cabin right near the river. Ive never been to the ranger hole but I know mt dad has hooked steelhead out of it when I was youger.