Most locals fish yarn-and-bobber rigs or salmon eggs. But if you're an accurate caster, the Hoko is also a good river for small Little Cleo and Wobble-Rite spoons and spinners.

The Hoko-Ozette Road roughly parallels the river from its junction with Highway 112, a few miles west of the salmon-fishing hamlet of Sekiu, and upstream to the concrete Upper Hoko Bridge. This gives anglers about 10 miles of water to fish.

The access varies, from very easy turnouts within sight of the river, to "Don't-even-think-about-it" at the Blue Canyon. There isn't any sign to identify the canyon, but you'll figure it out when the road climbs steeply above the river.

Beyond the canyon, the road drops back down and eventually crosses the river. After the bridge, the Hoko jogs to the east, away from the road. Then the road soon crosses another creek, Big River. If you aren't paying attention, you can confuse the Big River -- which closes at the end of February and has very few steelhead -- with the Hoko.

The section of the Hoko from the Upper Bridge to Ellis Creek is fly-only, catch-and-release, except for a limit of two hatchery steelhead. It remains open through March.

However, the fly water is on timber-company land, and the roads providing access are nearly always gated.

And when they aren't, they might be at any time. That means you'll have to hike beyond the gates or ride a mountain bike.

In addition, aside from the reach just upstream of the bridge, the logging roads don't connect with the river for some distance -- and then only intermittently. This dissuades nearly all anglers from fishing the more remote areas of the fly water.

Does that give anybody an idea?

THREE FACES OF THE SALMON
The Olympic Peninsula's Salmon River is a major tributary of the lower Queets River. It flows into the Queets a couple miles above the Clearwater Road Bridge.

The only road access to it is from the Queets River Road, a gravel road that leaves Highway 101 about 7 miles south of the village of Queets, and the Q1000 road, approximately three miles south of that.

Though the Salmon is a long way from virtually everywhere -- 45 miles south of Forks and 65 miles north of Aberdeen -- it actually draws heavy crowds during the peak of the hatchery run.

That's because the Quinault Tribe plants more than 150,000 steelhead smolts into the upper river annually. During good years, sport anglers intercept upwards of 2,000 fish before they reach the reservation waters.

The bulk of the harvest occurs in December and January, but late-arriving hatchery fish and a handful of wild steelhead (which must be released) provide sport through the close of the season in February.

For the sport angler, there are three basic reaches of the Salmon:
1) The park water,
2) Water managed by the state and
3) The reservation.

Most angling pressure takes place on the section in Olympic National Park. It extends from the mouth upstream past the bridge to the reservation boundary, approximately a mile upstream. The reservation water is inaccessible to non-tribal members unless they hire the services of a Quinault guide.

After meandering through a canyon for several miles, the river briefly leaves the reservation. Non-tribal anglers can once again fish it for a short distance before it flows back into the reservation.