| HeraldNet - Snohomish County's online news source |
 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2009 1:38 am |
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Sports 
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Winter blackmouth season opens Sunday We haven't had a full six- or seven-month winter blackmouth season around here for several years, for various reasons, but recreational fishing activists managed to negotiate one during the last North of Falcon season-setting process and it opens Sunday morning.Fishermen will be able to keep hatchery chinook in Marine Areas 8-1 and 8-2 through the end of April, and in Marine Area 9 for the month of November — a big improvement over last year when local waters didn't open until Jan. 1. All Star Charters owner Gary Krein in Everett said he expects “a reasonably good” start to the winter season, based on the number of fish taken recently in already-open Area 10. “We've been hitting lots of nice blackmouth in the 7- to 9-pound range at Jefferson Head during October,” Krein said, “and marking good concentrations of bait. I would expect the same situation to apply to Possession Bar and some of the other spots closer to Everett.” Krein said 2-year-old blackmouth in Area 10 have mostly been sublegal, at 19 to 21 inches, so the usual 5- and 6-pound fish have been absent from the catch. High tide Sunday morning is at about 4 a.m. (standard time, remember), with enough light to be fishing by about 7 a.m. “That puts you halfway through the outgoing tide and in good shape to fish the low change at about 9 a.m.,” Krein said. “The low tide change has been particularly good down in Area 10 this month.” Possession is almost always a blackmouth prospect, Krein said, but the usual Saratoga Passage hot spots — such as Elger Bay and the Baby Island area — could be just as good. The “race track,” between Hat Island and Camano Head, is sometimes an early-season producer as well, and these northern spots have traditionally put out larger fish than those found on Possession Bar. The trolling slot from Sandy Point north, hugging the east Whidbey Island shoreline, offers both good fishing and water protected from prevailing southwesterly winds. That sometimes becomes important during iffy winter weather conditions. A bonus in local saltwater, Krein said, would be the chance of hitting an adult chum in the 10- to 15-pound range for at least the first week or 10 days of the season. A fair number of chums have been boated in Area 10 the past couple of weeks. Krein said his larger fish recently have mostly been caught on Hot Spot flasher and green spatterback squid. He's become convinced that the UV squid will out-produce standard models on a bright or sunny day, but not necessarily on a dark day, when he prefers to go with the more usual glow-in-the-dark variety. Chums have started to show in the lower ends of most of our river systems, including the Snohomish and Skagit, but coho are still the target of choice, particularly on the Skagit. Anthon Steen at Holiday Sports in Burlington reports good coho fishing with Hot Shots and Brad's Wigglers between storm fronts. Guide and Arlington resident Sam Ingram called from the lower Skykomish on Wednesday morning. He had just put a bright 10-pound chum in the box at the Ben Howard hole. He said he had about two feet of visibility, which is fishable with a big, bright plug, but that the weather forecast didn't sound too promising. He suggested Kwikfish K-14s or 15s in dirty water, perhaps in the funky chicken color combo, in the slots closer to shore. The Cowlitz is a good bet for a mix of coho, early winter steelhead and sea-run cutthroat in the foot-long range. On the Lewis, checks showed anglers near the salmon hatchery averaging about one adult silver for every two rods last week, along with a few late chinook and a scattering of steelhead. The Hanford Reach is closed now, but data indicates a good harvest there. An estimated 7,100 boat trips took about 6,555 adult fall chinook, 2,080 jacks, 10 coho and 114 hatchery steelhead, between Aug. 16 and Oct. 22. An additional 159 adult chinook, 127 jacks, 10 hatchery steelhead and 135 wild steelhead were released. Chum salmon beach fisheries on Hood Canal and in south Puget Sound are under way, and should continue to improve over the next week or two. State Fish and Wildlife Department checks at the Hoodsport Hatchery outlet late last week showed 20 anglers with 10 fish. At the south Sound's Kennedy Creek bank fishery, 39 anglers were checked Saturday with seven chums. The first few days of the Okanogan mule deer season produced hunting pressure about equal to last year but a buck harvest well above the 2008 harvest, according to state biologist Scott Fitkin. He said the success ratio was close to double that of last year, probably due to a combination of wetter weather and a season that was a little later in the year. “The harvest also tended toward older, larger bucks,” Fitken said. “That was a good news, bad news scenario, because of low numbers of younger animals. Three bad winters in a row have resulted in low fawn recruitment and so fewer young bucks available.” He said the animals checked were fat and healthy, however, and he expects to see much better fawn ratios on his next count. Pretty good fishing now for sturgeon just below Bonneville Dam, where about one in 10 bank anglers had a legal fish during state checks last week. According to state Fish and Wildlife Department data, some 104,634 recreational crab license holders complied with regulations and returned their completed catch reports by the Sept. 21 reporting deadline. That was out of a total of more than 236,000 licenses sold, and included more than 70,000 who filed their summer reports online. Those who failed to report will be hit with a $10 fine when they apply for a 2010 Puget Sound crab endorsement. State shellfish manager Rich Childers in Olympia suggested that people with winter catch cards, but who don't intend to go crabbing, send in their cards now. Mail them to WDFW CRC Unit, 600 Capitol Way N., Olympia, Wash., 98501. The online reporting system will not be available until Jan. 3. The large run of hatchery steelhead returning to upper Columbia River tributaries prodded state fish managers to open the previously closed “Miller Hole” on the bottom end of the Methow River a week ago — the spot where the river meets slack water of the Columbia pool and probably the most popular and productive area on the river. Fishing has been good there, according to Anton Jones of Darrell & Dad's Family Guide Service in Chelan if, that is, you can find a rock to stand on amid the crowd. Fly fishermen are scoring with glo bugs or tinsel flies under strike indicators, or by swinging wooly buggers on sinking line. Gear fishermen are using Mack's Jigs under a float, or various spoons and spinners. From the folks at Outdoor Outfitters in Burlington: Try Big Lake for bass and some nice trout; Lake Campbell for big triploid rainbow, deep, and good bass fishing; Clear Lake for bass and perch; Lake Erie for trout; Beaver Lake for big bass and lots of perch; Heart Lake and Lake McMurray for fair bass fishing; Lake Sixteen for bass and perch; and Lake Stevens for kokanee and smallmouth bass. Holiday Sports in Burlington reported good kokanee action in Lake Samish for fish in the 12- to 13-inch range, on downriggers, with Wedding Ring spinners and Berkley Alive Maggots. |
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