Published: Thursday, July 29, 2010
Chinook derby still going strong
A note to the fisherman who hooked a chinook Saturday morning on a green flasher/green squid combo while trolling Possession Bar, and then had the fish cut off by an adjacent boat's downrigger cable: No, it wasn't the 30-plus pound fish of a lifetime from which you were brutally separated, and no, you couldn't have kept it anyway.
Sam Ingram knows this. The Arlington resident foul-hooked your lost tackle, and fish, on his own gear later that morning and landed and released your 10-pound, wild-stock chinook unharmed. All Star Charters skipper Nick Kester has your flasher, hoochie, and 60 feet of line, Ingram said, and you can call Kester at 425-870-1722.
So we all Hope you haven't been telling your friends about the huge king you lost over the weekend.
And now, moving right along, the word is out that this hugely popular selective chinook fishery in marine areas 9 and 10 has slowed from the first couple of days, but that there's still plenty of opportunity to tangle with a salmon going 10 or 12 pounds up to the 20-pound range. Possession has been the best bet, with experienced anglers taking fish on a regular basis and charters scoring at about a fish per rod success rate. Longtime charter owner Gary Krein of Everett said the fishery is perhaps only a half-step below the gangbuster season of three years ago, in his opinion.
Krein has, admittedly, had the hot hand recently. His party hooked 16 fish on Saturday and kept 8; hooked 14 on Sunday and kept 7; and had hooked 12 by 8:30 Monday morning when I called him. "Everybody knows that's the way the game goes," he said. "Next week I probably won't be able to buy a strike."
Krein has been pulling 5-inch Tomic plugs in white or mother of pearl, 30 feet behind his 'rigger cable, close to bottom in 120 feet of water. There's a lot of bait on the bar, he said, and it's important to keep your lure right in the bait.
Midchannel Bank has put out good fishing as well. Point No Point has been so-so, Krein said, with moochers getting chinook on the tide changes.
State Fish and Wildlife Department creel checks show an average of about one king for every 7 or 8 private-boat anglers over the weekend at most of the popular spots, but some did better than that. Checks at the Kingston ramp on Saturday showed 159 anglers with 34 chinook, and at Van Riper's Resort in Sekiu, it was 34 with 16.
The San Juan Islands have seen tough fishing, most days. Checks at the Washington Park ramp on Saturday and Sunday showed a total of 32 fishermen with zip.
On the coast, charters out of Ilwaco have been producing slightly over a fish per rod, three-quarters coho. At Westport, the success rate is a little under one per rod, but running 65 percent chinook, and at Neah Bay, about a half-fish per person, fairly evenly split between chinook and coho.
Baker Lake sockeye
The first-ever sockeye fishery on Baker Lake is, in the words of state biologist Brett Barkdull, "Going great."
The lake opened last Thursday and drew a fairly good crowd of maybe 120 boats on Saturday, but Barkdull said fishing pressure was substantially below what he would have anticipated, overall. He said anglers were learning quickly where and how to fish the run, and that success rates have gone up significantly from the 24 fish for 96 anglers checked on opening day.
Most of the sockeye, he said, are apparently holding over the old river channel in "a lot of water," and anglers are hitting them between 40 and 70 feet. The lake is vaguely shaped like an upside-down "L," and the hot area is along the south shore, from the bend in the "L" all the way up the upper leg of the "L" to the mouth of the Baker River. There are also a few fish apparently holding where they were planted after being trucked up from the lower Baker trap, at Kulshan Campground, but not a whole bunch.
Stuart Forst at Holiday Sports in Burlington said the standard setup is an "0" or "00" chrome dodger, 14 inches of leader, and a single or double 1/0 colored hook, with or without a piece of shrimp. A lot of fishermen replace the bare hook or hooks with a pink mini-squid, and Barkdull said he thinks more sockeye are being taken on the pink hoochie than the other rigs.
"These fish are in great shape, real beauties," Barkdull said, "and with no heavier pressure than we've seen, we're not even close to filling the quota."
Crab
The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission is finally, apparently because of a mandate from Governor Christine Gregoire, going to consider increasing the numbers of Puget Sound Dungeness crab available to recreational crabbers. Not via quota, apparently, but via more time on the water.
The commission -- a 9-member citizen oversight panel -- will hold a public hearing Aug. 6-7 in Olympia on three potential alternatives to revise recreational crab fishing seasons.
Lake Stevens resident Tom Nelson, outdoor talk show host of ESPN 710 Radio on Saturday mornings, said the recreationist's favored alternative is Option "A," which would provide a fixed season, July through Labor Day, 5 days per week, including weekends, plus an October through December winter season seven days per seek, and a 5-crab daily bag limit.
Nelson said this package should result in a higher recreational Puget Sound crab take, and he urges crabbers to check out the options at http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/meetings/2010/06/ps_dungeness_alternatives.pdf., and then e-mail the commission with your comments, commission@dfw.wa.gov.
For an extended version of Wayne Kruse's Outdoor Outlook colum, visit www.heraldnet.com
Upper Columbia
Good fishing off the mouth of the Okanogan River for sockeye, above Brewster, slow trolling with a chrome dodger followed by a Mack's Lures mini-squid rig, or a tandem red hook setup with Pautzke cured shrimp chunks. The chinook fishery in the same water continues to build, as more kings are counted over Wells Dam, and anglers are scoring with sardine-wrapped T55 Flatfish in Clown or Michael Jackson patterns.
Limited-entry deer drawing
Hunters have until Aug. 18 to apply for an opportunity to hunt deer this fall on the 6,000-acre Eder Unit of the Scotch Creek Wildlife Area near Oroville in northeast Okanogan County. Applications are free for this limited-entry deer hunt drawing, and can be submitted on the state's website, wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/permits/scotchcreek/ or by calling the agency in Olympia at 360-902-2515.
Of the 18 permits avaiable this year, six will be for bowhunters, six for muzzleloaders and six for modern firearm hunters. The results of the drawing will be posted on the state's Web site the last week of August and hunters who are drawn will receive an access permit and a boundary map in the mail.
Fishing lake treatment proposals
A number of Eastern Washington trout lakes are scheduled for rotenone treatment to eliminate undesirable fish species this fall, including Martha, Upper Caliche, Lower Caliche, West Caliche, North Teal, South Teal, Herman, Lyle, Heart, June, North-North Windmill, North Windmill, Windmill, Canal, Pit, Harris, Sedge, Tern, Dune and Beda.
Call biologist Chad Jackson at the Ephrata office, 509-754-4624, ext. 250.
Skokomish opens
The lower end of the Skokomish River, which has provided a hot king salmon fishery the past couple of years but also significant problems with litter and human waste, opens Aug. 1 under new rules and increased enforcement. The state urges interested anglers to read the regulation pamphlet carefully, because there are several major changes in the fishery.
Sturgeon
Charter anglers on the lower Columbia averaged slightly better than a legal keeper per every 3 rods last week, while private boaters sampled at the Ports of Chinook and Ilwaco averaged one per every 6.6 rods. Effort was higher, but the success rate was about the same as the previous week. If an angler caught a fish, there was a 37-percent chance it would be a keeper.
Sam Ingram knows this. The Arlington resident foul-hooked your lost tackle, and fish, on his own gear later that morning and landed and released your 10-pound, wild-stock chinook unharmed. All Star Charters skipper Nick Kester has your flasher, hoochie, and 60 feet of line, Ingram said, and you can call Kester at 425-870-1722.
So we all Hope you haven't been telling your friends about the huge king you lost over the weekend.
And now, moving right along, the word is out that this hugely popular selective chinook fishery in marine areas 9 and 10 has slowed from the first couple of days, but that there's still plenty of opportunity to tangle with a salmon going 10 or 12 pounds up to the 20-pound range. Possession has been the best bet, with experienced anglers taking fish on a regular basis and charters scoring at about a fish per rod success rate. Longtime charter owner Gary Krein of Everett said the fishery is perhaps only a half-step below the gangbuster season of three years ago, in his opinion.
Krein has, admittedly, had the hot hand recently. His party hooked 16 fish on Saturday and kept 8; hooked 14 on Sunday and kept 7; and had hooked 12 by 8:30 Monday morning when I called him. "Everybody knows that's the way the game goes," he said. "Next week I probably won't be able to buy a strike."
Krein has been pulling 5-inch Tomic plugs in white or mother of pearl, 30 feet behind his 'rigger cable, close to bottom in 120 feet of water. There's a lot of bait on the bar, he said, and it's important to keep your lure right in the bait.
Midchannel Bank has put out good fishing as well. Point No Point has been so-so, Krein said, with moochers getting chinook on the tide changes.
State Fish and Wildlife Department creel checks show an average of about one king for every 7 or 8 private-boat anglers over the weekend at most of the popular spots, but some did better than that. Checks at the Kingston ramp on Saturday showed 159 anglers with 34 chinook, and at Van Riper's Resort in Sekiu, it was 34 with 16.
The San Juan Islands have seen tough fishing, most days. Checks at the Washington Park ramp on Saturday and Sunday showed a total of 32 fishermen with zip.
On the coast, charters out of Ilwaco have been producing slightly over a fish per rod, three-quarters coho. At Westport, the success rate is a little under one per rod, but running 65 percent chinook, and at Neah Bay, about a half-fish per person, fairly evenly split between chinook and coho.
Baker Lake sockeye
The first-ever sockeye fishery on Baker Lake is, in the words of state biologist Brett Barkdull, "Going great."
The lake opened last Thursday and drew a fairly good crowd of maybe 120 boats on Saturday, but Barkdull said fishing pressure was substantially below what he would have anticipated, overall. He said anglers were learning quickly where and how to fish the run, and that success rates have gone up significantly from the 24 fish for 96 anglers checked on opening day.
Most of the sockeye, he said, are apparently holding over the old river channel in "a lot of water," and anglers are hitting them between 40 and 70 feet. The lake is vaguely shaped like an upside-down "L," and the hot area is along the south shore, from the bend in the "L" all the way up the upper leg of the "L" to the mouth of the Baker River. There are also a few fish apparently holding where they were planted after being trucked up from the lower Baker trap, at Kulshan Campground, but not a whole bunch.
Stuart Forst at Holiday Sports in Burlington said the standard setup is an "0" or "00" chrome dodger, 14 inches of leader, and a single or double 1/0 colored hook, with or without a piece of shrimp. A lot of fishermen replace the bare hook or hooks with a pink mini-squid, and Barkdull said he thinks more sockeye are being taken on the pink hoochie than the other rigs.
"These fish are in great shape, real beauties," Barkdull said, "and with no heavier pressure than we've seen, we're not even close to filling the quota."
Crab
The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission is finally, apparently because of a mandate from Governor Christine Gregoire, going to consider increasing the numbers of Puget Sound Dungeness crab available to recreational crabbers. Not via quota, apparently, but via more time on the water.
The commission -- a 9-member citizen oversight panel -- will hold a public hearing Aug. 6-7 in Olympia on three potential alternatives to revise recreational crab fishing seasons.
Lake Stevens resident Tom Nelson, outdoor talk show host of ESPN 710 Radio on Saturday mornings, said the recreationist's favored alternative is Option "A," which would provide a fixed season, July through Labor Day, 5 days per week, including weekends, plus an October through December winter season seven days per seek, and a 5-crab daily bag limit.
Nelson said this package should result in a higher recreational Puget Sound crab take, and he urges crabbers to check out the options at http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/meetings/2010/06/ps_dungeness_alternatives.pdf., and then e-mail the commission with your comments, commission@dfw.wa.gov.
For an extended version of Wayne Kruse's Outdoor Outlook colum, visit www.heraldnet.com
Upper Columbia
Good fishing off the mouth of the Okanogan River for sockeye, above Brewster, slow trolling with a chrome dodger followed by a Mack's Lures mini-squid rig, or a tandem red hook setup with Pautzke cured shrimp chunks. The chinook fishery in the same water continues to build, as more kings are counted over Wells Dam, and anglers are scoring with sardine-wrapped T55 Flatfish in Clown or Michael Jackson patterns.
Limited-entry deer drawing
Hunters have until Aug. 18 to apply for an opportunity to hunt deer this fall on the 6,000-acre Eder Unit of the Scotch Creek Wildlife Area near Oroville in northeast Okanogan County. Applications are free for this limited-entry deer hunt drawing, and can be submitted on the state's website, wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/permits/scotchcreek/ or by calling the agency in Olympia at 360-902-2515.
Of the 18 permits avaiable this year, six will be for bowhunters, six for muzzleloaders and six for modern firearm hunters. The results of the drawing will be posted on the state's Web site the last week of August and hunters who are drawn will receive an access permit and a boundary map in the mail.
Fishing lake treatment proposals
A number of Eastern Washington trout lakes are scheduled for rotenone treatment to eliminate undesirable fish species this fall, including Martha, Upper Caliche, Lower Caliche, West Caliche, North Teal, South Teal, Herman, Lyle, Heart, June, North-North Windmill, North Windmill, Windmill, Canal, Pit, Harris, Sedge, Tern, Dune and Beda.
Call biologist Chad Jackson at the Ephrata office, 509-754-4624, ext. 250.
Skokomish opens
The lower end of the Skokomish River, which has provided a hot king salmon fishery the past couple of years but also significant problems with litter and human waste, opens Aug. 1 under new rules and increased enforcement. The state urges interested anglers to read the regulation pamphlet carefully, because there are several major changes in the fishery.
Sturgeon
Charter anglers on the lower Columbia averaged slightly better than a legal keeper per every 3 rods last week, while private boaters sampled at the Ports of Chinook and Ilwaco averaged one per every 6.6 rods. Effort was higher, but the success rate was about the same as the previous week. If an angler caught a fish, there was a 37-percent chance it would be a keeper.
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