Published: Thursday, July 30, 2009
Jump start your salmon season with some pinks
Marine areas 8-1 and 8-2 will open for the summer salmon season Saturday morning, and if you’re really, REALLY, anxious to jump-start your personal humpy campaign, you can probably hook an early pink or two down around the shipwreck. All Star Charters skipper Nick Kester put one in the box and lost four others just south of the shipwreck on Monday, between Mukilteo and Edmonds, while stopping for a quick test on the way back from fishing chinook. He hit the pinks in 75 to 90 feet of water, and said he figures we’re about 6 to 8 days away from the start of really decent action in local waters.
Anglers on the Skagit are seeing the occasional pink while fishing chinook or sturgeon, according to Anthon Steen at Holiday Sports in Burlington. Humpy season on the river doesn’t open until the 16th.
As usual, a bunch of pinks are streaming down the Strait of Juan de Fuca, where Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife creel checks on Sunday at Olson’s Resort in Sekiu tallied 294 anglers with 62 chinook, 134 coho and 141 humpies. A lot of local fishermen there, according to personnel at Olson’s, are going out early for kings, then finishing the morning with silvers or pinks. Great fishing right now.
Kester (above) said the Area 9-10 selective chinook fishery remains so-so.
“It’s been scratchy,” he said. “Kind of touch and go. Certainly not hot, but reasonably consistent on Midchannel Bank off Port Townsend. A fish or two a day if you know what you’re doing and put in your hours, averaging maybe 16 to 18 pounds, with a top of 28 pounds for my boat so far.”
Possession Bar has been slow, Kester said, indicating few fish crossing the bar toward the Snohomish or other northern rivers. Better results at Pilot Point and Jefferson Head, he said, are on south-Sound-bound kings.
At Midchannel, Kester has had his best luck on UV green or yellowtail Coho Killer spoons behind a green flasher, but uses the UV lures only after the day has brightened. He trolls only with the tidal run, then picks up and starts over.
The lower Skagit summer chinook fishery has also been slow, but has perhaps picked up a little in the last week, and Steen (above) said state biologists are still predicting at least a few more fish in the river before the season ends on Aug. 9. As of Tuesday, Steen said the hot weather had brought some snow melt down, but that the river was still in fairly decent shape and visibility was okay. What Wednesday and Thursday temps did, however, remains to be seen.
Buoy 10
Arguably the most popular single salmon fishery in the state, the Buoy 10 season on the bottom 16 miles of the Columbia River opens Saturday. Washington and Oregon salmon managers expect the best run of coho since 2001 — some 700,000 fish — to enter the Columbia this summer and fall, along with a very decent chinook run, and they have predicted a recreational catch of 10,700 kings and 119,000 hatchery coho in the lower Columbia fishery.
State biologist Joe Hymer in Vancouver said he expects the chinook catch to peak in the second or third week of August, and for the coho harvest to build through about Labor Day.
Traditionally, he said, chinook fishermen on the lower river have trolled a diver followed by a herring, on about 25 pulls of line. More recently, fishermen are going to spoons behind a planer such as the Pink Lady or Dipsy Diver, or a Fish Flash followed by a spinner or herring. The closer to buoy 10, the more important an incoming tide is to the fishery, Hymer said, while up around the Astoria Bridge, anglers fish either tide.
Charters sometimes fish in-river, he said, and visiting anglers looking for a boat might want to call the Long Beach C of C at 1-800-451-2542, or go to www.funbeach.com on the Internet. The Columbia’s North Jetty is also popular with land-bound salmon fishermen, where they cast weighted spinners or drift herring under a bobber with the tide.
On the opener, the limit is two salmon, only one of which can be either a wild or hatchery chinook. On September 1, the fishery closes for chinook but allows up to three hatchery coho per day.
Hymer said the state will start posting buoy 10 catch data on the agency Web site, www.wdfw.wa.gov, go to fishing/shellfishing, and then southwest Washington fishing reports.
The size of the expected coho run has caused the state to raise hatchery coho limits on the eight Columbia tributaries below Bonneville Dam to six adult salmon per day, starting Saturday. That’s up from two salmon in recent years, and it requires that at least four of the six be fin-clipped coho. No wild coho may be retained, and chinook rules within the six-salmon limit vary from river to river. Streams included in the new regulations are the Cowlitz, Elochoman, Grays, Kalama, Lewis, Toutle, and Washougal, plus the Klickitat above Bonneville.
Echoes of Elliot Bay
Allegations that rules violations should have disqualified the winning 29.9-pound king in the July 18th Elliot Bay Derby have apparently not been quieted. Ex-fishing guide and Marysville resident Scott Harrison called saying that a friend of his, Colton Chandler, visiting from Weiser, Idaho, caught what was judged the second-place fish at 28 pounds even and awarded $2,000. That’s $3,000 (“significant college money,” according to Harrison) below the first-place cash Chandler might have won.
Allegations have circulated — on the Internet, primarily — that not all the anglers on the charterboat from which the winner was caught had derby tickets. The rule requiring complete boat participation, common among Puget Sound salmon derbies, was apparently in place for the Elliot Bay event but was not enforced.
Harrison said Chandler’s prime king was his first salmon ever, and was caught 60 feet deep over 160 feet of water directly off Edmonds, on a white cuttlefish hoochie.
There are rumors, Harrison said, that the state Gambling Commission is looking into the matter.
Samish hassle
According to Anthon Steen at Holiday Sports in Burlington, most of the private property offering access to the lower Samish River and its popular run of chinook has been posted. Seems a major confrontation last year between a fisherman and a landowner prompted several owners in the area to meet about the issue, tired of dealing with the few anglers who won’t respect their property. Hopefully the problems can be resolved before chinook start to show, Steen said, but if they aren’t, fishermen will be forced to work the run by boat, in Samish Bay.
Coastal salmon
Still mostly limits on coho off Ilwaco for charterboaters, according to state creel checks last week, where 4,992 anglers had 8,664 silvers and 629 chinook. At Westport it was about one coho per rod and one chinook for every four rods, totalling 1.19 salmon per angler trip. At Neah Bay, 1,984 anglers had 475 chinook and 1,527 coho.
All the coastal salmon fisheries, from Ilwaco north to Neah Bay, are now open seven days a week, through the end of the season.
Tuna
Westport and Ilwaco tuna charters are booking dates and running trips, averaging between five and 10 fish per rod recently.
Crab
Best recreational crabbing now is in the San Juan Islands and adjacent waters in Marine Area 7. Try the Anacortes/Saddlebag Island area.
Columbia steelhead
Good steelheading to be had on the lower mainstem Columbia, particularly in the Kalama area, and at certain other spots above Bonneville Dam. State checks last week tallied 1,329 bank anglers with 518 steelhead, and 276 boat anglers with 121 steelhead. Just over half the steelhead were kept.
At Drano Lake, boat fishermen averaged 1.7 steelhead per rod, but about two-thirds were wild fish that had to be released.
Bank fishermen at the mouth of the White Salmon River were also taking steelhead, but about half the catch were wild fish.
Women hunters
The National Rifle Association sponsors hunting excursions for women each year, for either the experienced or the novice, where carefully selected outfitters and scenic locations make each hunt a memorable one. According to spokeswoman Andrea Cerwinske, the hunts are a welcoming environment where the skills necessary to be a successful hunter are taught.
Elk, quail, boar, turkey, deer, dove, antelope, bear, goose, duck and pheasant hunts are available this year, in Colorado, Maine, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. Call Ann Marie Foster at 703-267-1413 for more information.
Anglers on the Skagit are seeing the occasional pink while fishing chinook or sturgeon, according to Anthon Steen at Holiday Sports in Burlington. Humpy season on the river doesn’t open until the 16th.
As usual, a bunch of pinks are streaming down the Strait of Juan de Fuca, where Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife creel checks on Sunday at Olson’s Resort in Sekiu tallied 294 anglers with 62 chinook, 134 coho and 141 humpies. A lot of local fishermen there, according to personnel at Olson’s, are going out early for kings, then finishing the morning with silvers or pinks. Great fishing right now.
Kester (above) said the Area 9-10 selective chinook fishery remains so-so.
“It’s been scratchy,” he said. “Kind of touch and go. Certainly not hot, but reasonably consistent on Midchannel Bank off Port Townsend. A fish or two a day if you know what you’re doing and put in your hours, averaging maybe 16 to 18 pounds, with a top of 28 pounds for my boat so far.”
Possession Bar has been slow, Kester said, indicating few fish crossing the bar toward the Snohomish or other northern rivers. Better results at Pilot Point and Jefferson Head, he said, are on south-Sound-bound kings.
At Midchannel, Kester has had his best luck on UV green or yellowtail Coho Killer spoons behind a green flasher, but uses the UV lures only after the day has brightened. He trolls only with the tidal run, then picks up and starts over.
The lower Skagit summer chinook fishery has also been slow, but has perhaps picked up a little in the last week, and Steen (above) said state biologists are still predicting at least a few more fish in the river before the season ends on Aug. 9. As of Tuesday, Steen said the hot weather had brought some snow melt down, but that the river was still in fairly decent shape and visibility was okay. What Wednesday and Thursday temps did, however, remains to be seen.
Buoy 10
Arguably the most popular single salmon fishery in the state, the Buoy 10 season on the bottom 16 miles of the Columbia River opens Saturday. Washington and Oregon salmon managers expect the best run of coho since 2001 — some 700,000 fish — to enter the Columbia this summer and fall, along with a very decent chinook run, and they have predicted a recreational catch of 10,700 kings and 119,000 hatchery coho in the lower Columbia fishery.
State biologist Joe Hymer in Vancouver said he expects the chinook catch to peak in the second or third week of August, and for the coho harvest to build through about Labor Day.
Traditionally, he said, chinook fishermen on the lower river have trolled a diver followed by a herring, on about 25 pulls of line. More recently, fishermen are going to spoons behind a planer such as the Pink Lady or Dipsy Diver, or a Fish Flash followed by a spinner or herring. The closer to buoy 10, the more important an incoming tide is to the fishery, Hymer said, while up around the Astoria Bridge, anglers fish either tide.
Charters sometimes fish in-river, he said, and visiting anglers looking for a boat might want to call the Long Beach C of C at 1-800-451-2542, or go to www.funbeach.com on the Internet. The Columbia’s North Jetty is also popular with land-bound salmon fishermen, where they cast weighted spinners or drift herring under a bobber with the tide.
On the opener, the limit is two salmon, only one of which can be either a wild or hatchery chinook. On September 1, the fishery closes for chinook but allows up to three hatchery coho per day.
Hymer said the state will start posting buoy 10 catch data on the agency Web site, www.wdfw.wa.gov, go to fishing/shellfishing, and then southwest Washington fishing reports.
The size of the expected coho run has caused the state to raise hatchery coho limits on the eight Columbia tributaries below Bonneville Dam to six adult salmon per day, starting Saturday. That’s up from two salmon in recent years, and it requires that at least four of the six be fin-clipped coho. No wild coho may be retained, and chinook rules within the six-salmon limit vary from river to river. Streams included in the new regulations are the Cowlitz, Elochoman, Grays, Kalama, Lewis, Toutle, and Washougal, plus the Klickitat above Bonneville.
Echoes of Elliot Bay
Allegations that rules violations should have disqualified the winning 29.9-pound king in the July 18th Elliot Bay Derby have apparently not been quieted. Ex-fishing guide and Marysville resident Scott Harrison called saying that a friend of his, Colton Chandler, visiting from Weiser, Idaho, caught what was judged the second-place fish at 28 pounds even and awarded $2,000. That’s $3,000 (“significant college money,” according to Harrison) below the first-place cash Chandler might have won.
Allegations have circulated — on the Internet, primarily — that not all the anglers on the charterboat from which the winner was caught had derby tickets. The rule requiring complete boat participation, common among Puget Sound salmon derbies, was apparently in place for the Elliot Bay event but was not enforced.
Harrison said Chandler’s prime king was his first salmon ever, and was caught 60 feet deep over 160 feet of water directly off Edmonds, on a white cuttlefish hoochie.
There are rumors, Harrison said, that the state Gambling Commission is looking into the matter.
Samish hassle
According to Anthon Steen at Holiday Sports in Burlington, most of the private property offering access to the lower Samish River and its popular run of chinook has been posted. Seems a major confrontation last year between a fisherman and a landowner prompted several owners in the area to meet about the issue, tired of dealing with the few anglers who won’t respect their property. Hopefully the problems can be resolved before chinook start to show, Steen said, but if they aren’t, fishermen will be forced to work the run by boat, in Samish Bay.
Coastal salmon
Still mostly limits on coho off Ilwaco for charterboaters, according to state creel checks last week, where 4,992 anglers had 8,664 silvers and 629 chinook. At Westport it was about one coho per rod and one chinook for every four rods, totalling 1.19 salmon per angler trip. At Neah Bay, 1,984 anglers had 475 chinook and 1,527 coho.
All the coastal salmon fisheries, from Ilwaco north to Neah Bay, are now open seven days a week, through the end of the season.
Tuna
Westport and Ilwaco tuna charters are booking dates and running trips, averaging between five and 10 fish per rod recently.
Crab
Best recreational crabbing now is in the San Juan Islands and adjacent waters in Marine Area 7. Try the Anacortes/Saddlebag Island area.
Columbia steelhead
Good steelheading to be had on the lower mainstem Columbia, particularly in the Kalama area, and at certain other spots above Bonneville Dam. State checks last week tallied 1,329 bank anglers with 518 steelhead, and 276 boat anglers with 121 steelhead. Just over half the steelhead were kept.
At Drano Lake, boat fishermen averaged 1.7 steelhead per rod, but about two-thirds were wild fish that had to be released.
Bank fishermen at the mouth of the White Salmon River were also taking steelhead, but about half the catch were wild fish.
Women hunters
The National Rifle Association sponsors hunting excursions for women each year, for either the experienced or the novice, where carefully selected outfitters and scenic locations make each hunt a memorable one. According to spokeswoman Andrea Cerwinske, the hunts are a welcoming environment where the skills necessary to be a successful hunter are taught.
Elk, quail, boar, turkey, deer, dove, antelope, bear, goose, duck and pheasant hunts are available this year, in Colorado, Maine, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. Call Ann Marie Foster at 703-267-1413 for more information.
Comments
(