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, February 7, 2008 Search for winter chinook goes on By Wayne Kruse, Herald Writer The wind was coming down the Strait of Juan de Fuca last Friday from somewhere up north, hitting the San Juan Islands broadside, and it was cold. Rosario Strait had that mean, iron-gray look about it, flecked with whitecaps and getting worse. All in all it was a fairly typical day -- that is to say, bordering on miserable -- to be fishing winter blackmouth. The good part is that if you can get across Rosario from the Washington Park ramp west of Anacortes, there is always sheltered water somewhere in the islands. And at least it wasn't raining ... or snowing. Marine Area 7 opened last week for a month-long, two-clipped chinook winter season (after a month, it reverts to one chinook, clipped or unclipped). When conditions are right, the islands and the banks to the west offer some of the best blackmouth fishing in Western Washington, and the past couple openers have been very productive. Although it's early, and reports are sketchy, this season's opening week probably won't be considered a blue-chipper. On a tour of some of the more productive spots "inside" the islands (the wind made our preferred spots -- President's Channel or Salmon Bank -- untenable), we marked very little bait, and talked to few anglers with fish in the box. One guy had released two nice natives, one about 10 pounds and one in the teens, at Eagle Bluff, and our boat fought and released a gorgeous chromer we estimated at about 15 pounds at Humphrey Head, hooked on a Coyote spoon at 80 feet. That fish, plus one other takedown, was our total for the day on a tour of Thatcher Pass, Lopez Pass, Kellett Ledge and a couple of other spots. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife checker at the ramp told us he had tallied just five clipped blackmouth for 30-plus anglers, at about 3 p.m. Checks there Saturday weren't great, either, showing 81 anglers in 32 boats with 17 fish. The weather improved a little on Sunday and so did the fishing: 50 anglers in 22 boats with 18 blackmouth. "It was probably not as good an opener as last year," said Bob Ferber at Holiday Sports in Burlington, "although we weighed an 18-pounder and a couple in the 10- and 12-pound range. The 18 came from Guemes Channel on a flasher-squid rig." Ferber said popular Lopez Flats wasn't hot by any means, and wasn't showing a lot of bait, but still put out a few fish. The same could be said of Parker Reef, Point Lawrence, and Eagle Bluff. "Before the opener, fishermen up here were hoping the clipped fin rate this season would be maybe 60 percent or so," Ferber said. "Our guestimate, from early reports, is that it is running more like 50 percent." Marine Area 9 hasn't picked up to any degree from a slow opener, although Gary Krein of All Star Charters in Everett said Saturday on Possession Bar was significantly better than it had been. Checks at the Port of Everett ramp backed him up on that, showing 17 boats with 15 fish on Saturday. Unfortunately, action fell off again Sunday (although the weather was poor) at just three fish for 14 boats checked. Area 8-2 continues to offer fair fishing at times, but the north portion of Area 8-1 is perhaps the best bet in the general area, with blackmouth being caught off the green can at Oak Harbor, at Polnell Point, and off Onomac. The Baby Island-Greenbank slot is also putting out the occasional fish, on up to Ole's Hole, but across Saratoga Passage, Elger Bay hasn't shown either bait or blackmouth to any degree. Weekend results from the Port Townsend area, mostly fishermen working Midchannel Bank, were very good. Checks at the Port Townsend Boat Haven ramp showed nine anglers in five boats with 10 fish. Salmon derby: In what was considered a wildly successful initial effort, last year's Anacortes Salmon Derby pulled 752 contestants out of the woodwork and raised $24,000 for scholarships benefiting students in fisheries and related sciences. Tickets are now on sale for the 2008 event, scheduled for March 29-30, but organizers have limited sales to a maximum of 800. That could well mean more interested fishermen than spaces this time around, so if you plan to fish, you might want to pick up your ticket sooner rather than later. The $50 entry fee includes moorage and launching at the Cap Sante Boat Haven, along with other activities: a Friday night kick-off meeting featuring John Keizer speaking on blackmouth techniques, and Jay Field on where to fish in the San Juans; a Saturday night no-host social; and a barbecue on Sunday afternoon during the awards ceremony. Joel Shangle of KJR Radio's Northwest Wild Country will bring his crew to the derby for a live broadcast, and Glenn Hall of FSN will film his popular "Hawg Quest" TV show around the derby. Tickets are available at the following locations: Holiday Sports, Burlington; Ace Hardware, Anacortes; LFS Marine & Outdoor, Bellingham; Outdoor Emporium, Seattle; John's Sporting Goods, Everett; Sportco, Fife; Auburn Sports and Marine, Auburn; Ace Hardware, Oak Harbor; and Three Rivers Marine, Woodinville. For more information on the derby go to www.anacortessalmonderby.com. Smelt: Still no movement of smelt from the Columbia River into the lower Cowlitz, according to state biologist Joe Hymer in Vancouver. Water temperatures in both rivers are lower than those smelt prefer. Brant: The seven-day season in January turned out to be a poor one, according to state waterfowl program manager Don Kraege in Olympia, largely because wind and heavy weather conditions made hunting on the open water, which brant prefer, a difficult game. The numbers won't be available for a while, but Kraege said his staff didn't even see the 200 birds they wanted to check for avian flu virus. Cascade reopens: State hatchery personnel at Marblemount trapped the broodstock they needed for their winter steelhead program, so the Cascade reopened to fishing effective Feb. 1. There should be at least limited numbers of hatchery steelhead left to catch in the area, although it's getting late in the season for that fishery. A few natives are starting to show farther down the Skagit, along with some late hatchery fish, particularly in the Rockport/Sauk River area. Plunkers on the lower river, around Burlington and Mount Vernon, are also starting to show a little more interest, according to Bob Ferber at Holiday Sports in Burlington. Guide and Arlington resident Sam Ingram said the winter steelhead season on the Skykomish has been another one of those "challenging" situations this year. "It's been a scenario where you have to believe that a day on the river is worth the time and effort, regardless of whether there are any fish around or not," Ingram said. But he added that, traditionally, the two-week period starting around Feb. 5 has usually hosted a shot of native steelhead in the Sky, and he plans to fish it hard. Another traditional fishery, he said, has been the last two weeks of the month on the Pilchuck River. More chinook for sportsmen?: An interesting situation has developed around sports/commercial fishing allocations for spring chinook on the Columbia River. Fish and Wildlife commissioner Conrad Mahnken, at a public meeting on Saturday, proposed changing allocation guidelines for this year's spring fishery on the lower river in favor of recreationists. Because a portion of the spring chinook run is under Endangered Species Act (ESA) listing, rules limit incidental mortality for wild fish intercepted and released to 2 percent of the total run. Within that 2 percent limit, Mahnken's proposal would allocate 65 percent of incidental mortality to the recreational fishery and 35 percent to commercials. The formula would provide more fishing opportunity for sportsmen and fewer for commercials than under the 2005-07 guidelines, which allocated the impacts at 57/43 percent. The nine-member citizen oversight commission split 4-4 on a vote (commissioner Chuck Perry was absent from that meeting) and has re-scheduled action on Mahnken's proposal for a conference call Friday. Those interested in hearing the discussion can do so via speaker phone at 5 p.m. Friday, at the state office in Mill Creek. The telephone number at the Mill Creek office is 425-775-1311, and addresses for all regional offices are available at wdfw.wa.gov/reg/regions.htm.

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