Beautiful fish! I didnt know you can keep Dolly Varden? Is it only some areas that you cant?

Agreed nice fish. Check your regulations. I believe DV's are endangered and your not even supposed to touch them or remove them from the water, but again some areas are different for fishing. Last years reg books are still good but to double check on rules and changes go online and download this years reg books.

You can keep them on Quinault. I believe it's a tribal lake if I'm not mistaken, so you have to get a special license and follow their regs (correct me if I'm wrong Bob).

It's a Quinalt tribal fishery, you need a tribal fishing permit. Bull trout and Dollies are very close genetically and can be diff. to distinguish from each other, thus the state has a general closed policy on them . When they occur in the same waters cross breeding occurs and the dolly genetics take over(at least from the info I've read). There is a season for Dolly Varden on the Skagit so I assume that the Bull trout are absent genetically from those waters. The populaton in the Quinalt system is extremly healthy from our observations over 7 plus years and conversations with tribal biologists and hatchery personal. One large Dolly had a 7 inch salmon(and two smaller ones!) in its guts, the tribe has a hatchery pen sockeye salmon release program so these dollies have a massive food supply. The cutthroat population is not under much pressure, we rarely see other serious fishermen out there after opening day and the derby in June. I think we saw 15 boats Saturday, next day maybe 10. Great lake, does't allow water skiing or jet skis, very canoe and kayak friendly.Some people complain thaty Dolly meat is mushy but we haven't seen that although we bleed and cool our fish right away. Meat was red and firm, had one for dinner last night, really good. Thanks for comments, bob r

Always enjoy your reports and photo's, great looking fish and wildlife.

Hey ya Bob, one thing that's super cool about having a wife for a fishing pardner is the skunk stays off the boat, and they make the boat look good. Kudos to you and Melanie. Keep making great memories.

you are not allowed keep any dollys in state Wa been on list for over thirty years . if I were you call state but wouldnt post pics say keep dollyes get you alot hot water with state.

Like Bob R said... "It's a tribal fishery" The word "State" is not in the sentence. Don't be so quick to bust a guy out. If you do the homework you can see that he is not wrong: http://209.206.175.157/Fishing%20Regs/lake%20quinault%20boat%20and%20sport%20fish.pdf

Forgot to mention, I always appreciate your posts and photos Bob. It's nice of you to still post as regularly on these Quinault trips as you do, considering when you get the flack. Bob could dry up on his reports, and then look how much less interesting life would be.

You can keep dollies on the Skagit also. Bob, I look forward to reading your Quinault reports as well. one of these days we'll make it over there to explore. It's a long haul for us so I think we will have to make it a camping/fishing trip.

I'm not too worried about neg. feedback, you can see how uneducated so many folks are on this site considering the lack of acurate info about regs, either they are catching and releasing while using bait past their limit or misidentifing fish(Riffe Lake Kokanee?). All we can do is keep posting accurate info. Thanks for comments, BobR