Sports

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Report scores and results to 425-339-3470 or 1-866-6-SCORES (Call after 4:30 p.m.) E-mail information including items for Tuesday's Communities Sports Roundup and Thursday's Outdoor Calendar, to sports@heraldnet.com Kevin Brown, Sports Editor kbrown@heraldnet.com   Published: Thursday, January 17, 2008 Skagit late steelhead season in limbo By Wayne Kruse, Herald writer There may be a late winter catch and release steelhead season on the Skagit and/or Sauk rivers after all. Or there may not be a late winter catch and release steelhead season on the Skagit and/or Sauk rivers. Or there may be a late winter catch and release steelhead season on the Skagit and/or Sauk rivers which has been changed from the one currently listed in the fishing regulation pamphlet. Who knows? Apparently not the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, which is re-thinking a statement made last week by biologist Brett Barkdull in La Conner that the season was dead meat. Barkdull, the fish manager with his boots in the water on the Skagit system, apparently thought a predicted return of 5,200 wild winter steelhead, well below the spawning escapement "floor" of 6,000 fish, meant a season closure. And he said so. But he may have been wrong. Or maybe not. Who knows? "I have not been told to cut a regulation (closing the season) yet," said department steelhead program manager Bob Leland, in Olympia, on Wednesday morning. He said it very carefully, and he said fish managers were working through the Skagit system situation, and talking to the tribes, in light of a new, more conservative, statewide steelhead plan, and were cognizant of Endangered Species Act (ESA) listings. "The management team is still becoming familiar with the new plan, and last week we hadn't jumped through all the hoops yet," Leland said. "As of right now, the season is set to open as published in the regulation pamphlet, but there will be changes. It's just that we haven't identified them specifically as yet." Leland declined to speculate on what those changes might be. He said new regulations should be out in "a week or two." The popular late season has normally run March 16 to April 30 on the Skagit, and March 1 to April 30 on the Sauk, and at least this messy indecision should prevent anglers from starting to line up what could be useless guide trips. On a related note, and for the same reasons, the department today closed the Cascade River to recreational fishing, from its mouth upstream to the Rockport-Cascade Road bridge. Leland said returns to the Marblemount Hatchery were below levels needed for broodstock. Blackmouth: Marine Area 9 opened yesterday for two salmon, both of which can be fin-clipped hatchery blackmouth, and that's the first time fishermen have been allowed to keep two chinook there for 10 or 15 years. It was too early at time of writing this to get a line on how anglers were doing Wednesday morning, but the unique selective fishery should be an excellent prospect for this weekend. Biologist Steve Thiesfeld said that when Area 9 closed at the end of November, fishing was good, especially at Possession Bar, Point No Point and Mid-Channel Bank. Action has also been good in neighboring Area 10 (Seattle/Bremerton) and at least fair in local Area 8-2. All Star Charters owner/skipper Gary Krein in Everett said any of the three points of the "golden triangle," -- Possession, Point No Point, or Double Bluff -- should produce, but he favors the east edge of Possession on a morning outgoing tide. On the flood, he said, Point No Point might be a better choice. He fishes Possession close to the bottom in 90 to 120 feet of water, and he recommended any of three standard lure setups: a Tomic 5-inch glow white plug; a flasher/Coyote spoon combo; or a flasher/squid. The "yellowtail" spoon has been a good one this winter, he said, along with the glow white/green patterns. His squid choice would probably be the green spatterback, 34 to 40 inches behind the flasher. Krein said there are a couple of tips that might help those relatively new to Possession Bar. First, he said, is the tide situation. If there isn't more than three feet of tidal change, between high and low slack, there's not enough water movement to concentrate bait, and you might as well go bottomfishing. Second, and probably the most glaring mistake newcomers to the area make, is to not realize that blackmouth are almost always found in pockets. "When people hook a fish, they drift away from the pocket," Krein said, "and they're essentially drifting away from the fish. You have to make some provision for getting back quickly to where you hooked one, not simply turning around and starting to troll in the opposite direction. Picking up and running back to where you started is definitely worth the time and effort." Meanwhile, Saratoga passage, the Langley shoreline, the racetrack, Columbia Beach and other spots have been worth fishing. State checks on Sunday at the Camano State Park ramp showed a good crowd of 50 anglers in 27 boats, with 16 chinook. At the Port of Everett ramp on Saturday, an equally strong turnout of 84 fishermen in 40 boats had 28 blackmouth -- not a bad tally for this point in the season. Boating: Remember that the new statewide Boater Education Certification program kicked in Jan. 1, requiring the $10 proof-of-course-completion card to be carried by operators of all boats with a 15 hp motor or more. The program phases in by age of operator, and the only age group required to take the course and carry the lifetime card this year are those 12 to 20 years. The Everett Sail and Power Squadron offers the required boater education course Saturdays, Feb. 2, 9 and 16, 8 a.m. to noon, at the Port of Everett, 2911 Bond Street, Everett, Room 109. Fee is $35 for adults; spouses are $20; children 13 and older are $20; and kids under 12 attend the Kids Boating class free. To reserve a spot or for more information contact Doug Dahlen at 360-658-0106; e-mail dahlen@fluke.com; or go to www.usps.org/localusps/ everett/. Smelt: Still very little sign of smelt in the Columbia River below the mouth of the Cowlitz, although a small amount of commercial netting has taken place in the Skamokawa/Cathlamet area. State personnel report no sign of significant bird or marine mammal activity between Puget Island and the Cowlitz. Jigging at Oak Harbor has finally picked up, although it's spotty as yet, and Bob Ferber at Holiday Sports in Burlington said it should improve from this point on. The Oak Harbor smelt fishery often starts later in the winter than Cornet Bay or La Conner, and remember that if you plan to participate, be clean and careful. This is one nice fishery that could be closed if there are enough complaints from boat owners in the marina about litter or jigs stuck in their rigging. Brant: Enough brant -- about 9,200 -- were counted on Samish, Fidalgo, and Padilla bays to open a limited hunting season Thursdays and Saturdays, Jan. 20, 22, 24, 26 and 27, with a limit of two birds. The count is roughly equal to the long-term average, and better than the 6,100 birds which showed up last winter. The hunt for the small, dark geese is a relatively sophisticated, specialized one, often involving owned or leased permanent blinds. About 1,500 hunters register for the hunt every year, needing a harvest card and written authorization to participate. Conservation: There's a lot of interest in the relatively new (to the Northwest) Coastal Conservation Association, a national group which started in 1977 on the Gulf Coast to combat drastic commercial overfishing and to conserve the resource. It has been so successful that it expanded up and down the East Coast, and to Washington and Oregon last year. Its model has proven to be a very effective way for sport fishermen to be heard on the local, state and national levels. Fishing rod manufacturer Gary Loomis is a strong advocate, and he will give a presentation on the group's work at 7 p.m. tomorrow, at the Skagit PUD building in Mount Vernon. The PUD is just west of the freeway, and south of College Way, on Freeway Drive. "Want more salmon and steelhead? Then come hear Gary talk," said Eric Nordstrom, event organizer.

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