Water conditions were at least partially to blame for the low catch rate during Tuesday’s Skagit River sockeye opener, according to state Fish and Wildlife Department biologist Brett Barkdull in La Conner.
“There are a fair number of Baker Lake fish in the river,” Barkdull said, “but it’s so low and clear that fishing is tough. Spots that produced well the last couple of years may not be where fishermen will find them under these conditions.”
By noon Tuesday, creel checkers had tallied just three sockeye for 70 anglers contacted, Barkdull said, and all three fish came from Young’s Bar, on the west side of the river at Mount Vernon.
“That’s really not bad,” he said. “It’s not uncommon for the first fish to show up in the (Baker River) trap around June 25.”
The first four sockeye this year were trapped June 4, which Barkdull said “seems a little early to me.”
As of Tuesday, a total of 42 fish had been trapped, and 33 of those had been transferred to Baker Lake. The trap numbers — daily, cumulative and transferred to the lake — can be found by typing “Baker sockeye” in your search window, or visiting www.wdfw.wa.gov/fishing and clicking on fish counts.
Kevin John at Holiday Sports in Burlington cited customer reports of a fish or two from the Sedro-Woolley area and from “the soccer fields” in Burlington.
“It was about what we expected,” John said. “Not a ton of fish around, but at least a few here and there.”
Earlier reports of a possible shortage of sand shrimp this summer have not proven accurate — at least not yet.
“We have plenty of shrimp so far,” John said. “But we’ll see how that plays out.”
Columbia River sockeye counts are on pace to set a record, according to state biologist Joe Hymer in Vancouver. Through Monday, some 39,000 fish had been counted at Bonneville Dam, compared to the old record of 33,200 at this date, set in 2001.
The total Columbia forecast is for about 392,000 fish, 286,000 of which are headed for the Okanogan. That should make for excellent sockeye fishing in Lake Wenatchee later in the year, and at the mouths of Columbia tributaries between Wenatchee and Brewster. Even better, the Columbia likely will develop a “warm water barrier” this summer that will keep sockeye hanging in the big river and available to anglers instead of shooting immediately up the tribs.
The Lake Washington sockeye outlook, however, is not as rosy as all the above. The forecast is for 165,000 fish, which is well below the 350,000 needed for spawning escapement.
Eddie’s back
Eddie Adams brings the third edition of his Speedcrabbing Derby to the Port of Everett ramp July 11. The event is fun, free and benefits a major local charity.
“Last year we had 75 participants, caught over 250 pounds of crab, and earned over $2,300 in donations to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance,” Adams said. “This year we hope to do even better. We try to bring the crabbing community together to help pass along the correct way to fish crab and hopefully to develop a sense of stewardship.”
Teams of two to four crabbers try to take the 10 best crab by weight, while keeping in mind the speed factor: come in early and receive a weight bonus, come in late and get a weight penalty. The winning team takes the title of Puget Sound’s Greatest Recreational Crabber, gets a trophy and first pick from the prize pool. Second place gets second pick, and so on. Last year’s first pick was a Brutus Hauler, and Adams said the Grunden duffle bags were popular.
Adams calls the event “Speedcrabbing For A Cure,” and says each pound of crab entered creates a donation to the Cancer Alliance, and access to a charity prize pool.
There’s also a lunker award that goes to the heaviest single crab entered. Last year’s winner weighed 2.56 pounds. The derby record is 3.26 pounds.
For more information or to register a team, go to www.speedcrabbing.com or send an e-mail to ask@speedcrabbing.com. The home site also includes videos and 2014 results.
Coastal salmon
The coastal salmon fishery switched Saturday from mark-selective chinook to the traditional summer salmon regulations, but it didn’t seem to improve what had been slow fishing.
“Bad weather over the weekend didn’t help a lot, and it wasn’t what you could call a good opener,” said Wendy Beeghley, the state’s coastal creel sampling coordinator.
Ilwaco was best, showing close to a fish per person on a mix of chinook and coho. The silvers were running 4 or 5 pounds, Beeghley said.
At Westport, no private boat checked had a fish, she said. Charters had a few, all chinook in the 9- or 10-pound range. “A lot of the charters are still choosing to book bottomfish trips,” Beeghley said.
Neah Bay anglers scored catch success somewhere between Ilwaco and Westport, mostly feeder chinook going 8 or 9 pounds on the average, along with a couple of pinks.
Shad
It’s not a great year for shad anglers on the Columbia, according to state biologist Joe Hymer in Vancouver. This year’s shad count of about 900,000 fish over Bonneville Dam through June 15 is about half the 1.8 million counted at the same time last year. It’s also, according to Hymer, about 60 percent of the 10-year average of 1.5 million fish.
Creel checks reflect those numbers, with bank fishermen on the Washington side below Bonneville Dam averaging just over two fish kept/released per rod. Boat anglers averaged less than a fish per rod, while checks on the Oregon side were better.
Columbia Basin
Post-spawn yellow perch fishing has picked up in Potholes Reservoir for fish to 12 inches on trolled spinner/nightcrawler combinations. The Crab Creek channel is putting out walleye in the 25-inch range for trollers working along the weed lines in 5 to 11 feet of water. Bass fishing is very good in the sand dunes, on top-water lures, spinner-baits, Senkos and a wide range of plastics. Nice crappie ranging from 10 to 14 inches are being taken off the MarDon Resort dock, And rainbows to 24 inches are responding to Needlefish, Rapala Shad Raps and spinner/crawler combos in 20 to 35 feet of water.
For more outdoor news, read Wayne Kruse’s blog at www.heraldnet.com/huntingandfishing.
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