Everett, Wash.
Published: Thursday, July 31, 2008

Fewer fish may mean longer season

Wayne Kruse
For the Herald

 The downside of the ongoing selective chinook fishery in Marine Areas 9 and 10 is that fishing has not been nearly as good as last summer's initial edition. The upside, of course, is that the quota-driven fishery will almost certainly last a lot longer than last season's abbreviated event.

According to All Star Charters owner/skipper Gary Krein in Everett, the total cumulative catch for both areas as of Sunday night was about 2,500 clipped kings, less than half of the approximately 7,000-fish quota.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife creel checks over the first weekend of the season, July 19-20, showed anglers in Marine Area 9 averaged about one legal chinook for every six rods, while those fishing Area 10 averaged one keeper for every 20 rods.

"At that rate, we may be fishing through to the scheduled Aug. 15 closing date," Krein said. "Or, since the Area 9 catch has been so much higher, it might close early, leaving 10 open."

Krein said the west side of the two marine areas has offered the best fishing so far -- Port Townsend, Foulweather Bluff, Skunk Bay, Point No Point, Pilot Point, Kingston and Jefferson Head.

"There are chinook moving consistently through the area, and those who know what they're doing are finding a fish or two a day," Krein said.

Port Townsend has been the best, according to reports, on Midchannel Bank and around Marrowstone Island. That's a fair pop from this area, but not so bad if you launch at Keystone, on Whidbey Island, and run across Admiralty Inlet. Krein said roughly 60 to 70 percent of the fish he's hooking have been clipped, and that they're a nice size -- most in the teens and a few over 20, he said.

Above Kingston he's been doing best on "small gear" such as needlefish-size hoochies in green UV, or Coho Killer spoons in green/chrome UV. Herring have been showing farther south, so he goes to larger squids and Coyote spoons in two-tone green/white. Depth varies, he said, but you can't go too far wrong fishing right on bottom in 120 to 150 feet of water.

Mike Chamberlain at Ted's Sport Center in Lynnwood said Lagoon Point and the bay below it have probably been the best on the east side of the two marine areas. The majority of kings being hooked on Possession Bar and off Scatchet Head, he said, have been wild fish.

TJ Nelson, guide, avid fisherman and Lake Stevens resident, has been fishing Midchannel regularly and doing well. He trolls parallel to the bar, on a line between Marrowstone and Point Wilson, on the offshore side in about 100 feet of water, fishing right on the deck. He runs a flasher, 40 inches of leader, and either a yellowtail or green glow Coyote spoon, or a green UV Coho Killer. He likes to replace the factory hooks on the spoons with a single 3/0 Siwash of good quality.

Checks at the Port of Everett ramp on Saturday showed 330 anglers with 24 chinook and 18 coho, while on Sunday it was 154 anglers with 13 chinook and 12 coho.

Anglers in the San Juan Islands continue to find at least fair fishing for some nice chinook, at Tide Point, Lopez Flats, Eagle Bluff and the Indian Village, among other places. Anthon Steen at Holiday Sports in Burlington said flasher/squid or flasher/Ace Hi fly combinations have been popular, and he likes the new UV squids enhanced with a Gulp strip. Steen said the Samish River isn't holding enough fish yet to make it worthwhile.

Checks Saturday at the Washington Park ramp west of Anacortes showed 51 anglers with four chinook.

Neah Bay remains slow, but the Sekiu area picked up a little. Checks at Olson's Resort in Sekiu showed 95 anglers with 17 chinook on Sunday, and at the Port Townsend ramp, 44 with 12 chinook and one coho.

BUOY 10: A strong run of fall chinook is predicted for the Columbia River system this season -- some 376,800 adult hatchery kings compared to 219,600 last year -- and some of those fish are already entering the lower end of the river. TJ Nelson (above) said that while the third week of August is generally considered the peak of the Buoy 10 fishery, there should be enough fish in the area to make the Aug. 1 opener and first weekend productive, particularly because fishing pressure will be down. "At least as good as around here," he said, "and maybe better."

Nelson said the river is colder this year, from a heavy snowpack in the mountains, so the fish might be holding a little deeper. He advises taking ball weights of 8 to 12 ounces to use with or without a diver. Rig a 1-foot dropper and ball at the swivel, then a foot of leader and one of the triangular, rotational flashers, then 6 feet of leader and the bait or lurre. He recommends either blue label plug-cut herring, or one of Yakima Bait's big Toman Thumper spinners.

LAKE WENATCHEE: About 17,000 sockeye had been counted at Tumwater Dam on the Wenatchee River as of Tuesday, well below the 27,000-plus needed to mount a recreational fishery in the lake. Kirk Truscott, the state's Region 2 acting fish program manager said, however, that there are still about 1,000 fish per day coming up the river and he remains optimistic. Also as of Tuesday, the count at Rock Island Dam on the Columbia, below Wenatchee, totalled 192,400 sockeye, and at Rocky Reach Dam, above the mouth of the Wenatchee, 159,600. Many but not all of the 33,000-salmon differential have turned, or will turn, into the Wenatchee, further fueling optimism about a fishing season.

Interested anglers can access sockeye information, including a season opening, on the state's Web site, www.wdfw.wa.gov.

REITER PONDS: Good news for steelhead fishermen comes with the announcement Wednesday that the popular Reiter Ponds section of the upper Skykomish River will open to fishing as scheduled on Aug. 1. State biologist Aaron Bosworth at the agency's Mill Creek office had said on Tuesday that just 180 brood-stock summer steelhead were in hand at the Reiter rearing facility, and that about 350 were needed to fully stock the program. He said there was a possibility, albeit slim, that rain this week would bring more fish up the river.

The slim bet paid off, as enough last-minute fish arrived at the facility to allow managers to open the season, Bosworth said.

The first couple of days could produce top fishing at Reiter, as the summer-run season has been one of the better ones in the last half-dozen years, according to knowledgeable anglers.

COHO DERBY: The Edmonds Coho Derby, scheduled for Sept. 6, has added a weigh station in Everett for those anglers up this way who perhaps would not be thrilled to run all the way down to Edmonds and its crowded marina area to weigh a fish. The Everett station will be located at the new Bayside Marine facility next to the Port of Everett ramp, allowing anglers to enter their fish then travel by car to the Edmonds ceremonies.

The derby will be the final event in this year's Northwest Marine Trade Association's Salmon Derby Series, and the grand finale, including the drawing for the major boats/motors/trailers prizes, will be held at Edmonds after the derby, along with the awarding of specific derby prizes. Anyone entering the derby will be eligible for the NMTA Series drawing, along with those who entered the other series events over the past year.

The sponsoring SnoKing Chapter of Puget Sound Anglers donates proceeds from the derby to a number of causes, including the Everett Derby for the Blind; CAST For Kids; and food for needy seniors through the Senior Center in Edmonds.

Just 750 tickets will be sold for the derby, at $30 a copy, available at Boater's World stores; Bayside Marine in Everett; Ted's Sport Center in Lynnwood; Ed's Surplus in Lynnwood; All Seasons Charters in Edmonds; and Outdoor Emporium in Seattle.

For more derby information and full rules, go to www.edmondscohoderby.com.

OTHER STUFF: Good kokanee fishing in Lake Samish, to 16 or 17 inches, and fair to good (although spotty) in Lake Stevens. Very good crabbing available in a lot of places in north Puget Sound, including around Hat and Saddlebag islands in Samish and Padilla Bays. Excellent summer-run steelheading continues on the Cowlitz, in the vicinity of the barrier dam and the trout hatchery, where one check showed 78 boat anglers with 63 hatchery steelhead recently. Only so-so thus far for summer chinook in the mid-Columbia at Brewster and Wells Dam on the Columbia.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA