You a competitive salmon fisherman? Big time? Here’s your shot at glory: two derbies on successive weekends, close to home, offering a total of almost $30,000 in cash prizes. The gutters and the lawn can wait. Go for it.
The Edmonds Coho Derby hits the water this Saturday, and the larger Everett Coho Derby follows, on Sept. 19-20.
The Everett event is preceded on Friday by a free coho fishing seminar featuring expert angler and tackle shop owner John Martinis, at Bayside Marine, starting at 7 p.m.
Adult tickets for the derby are $30, while young people 12 and under enter the youth division free. Find tickets and full derby rules at most tackle shops, marinas and other fishing-related outlets in the area.
Prizes are $10,000, $5,000, $2,500, $1,000 and $500 for first through fifth place, respectively. The Mystery Fish Weight offers a Dodge Ram 1500 4×4 (the pickup is harder to win than it sounds; read the rules); the Average Fish Weight winner gets a $250 gift certificate at Performance Marine; and the Grand Prize Raffle awards $2,000 and $1,000 cash. Youth prizes are $300, $200, and $100.
The team competition is open to up to four members per team, and prizes are awarded according to total weight (see the web site for rules). Proceeds from the Beer Garden go to Salmon for Soldiers.
Participants in the derby are eligible for the Northwest Salmon Derby Series prize drawings, and local rivers are included in derby waters, if open to fishing under state Fish and Wildlife Department rules. For more information, go to www.everettcohoderby.com.
Last year’s derby drew just under 2,000 participants, plus 250 youth division young people with free tickets. First place went to Gary Hamlin of Marysville, with a coho of 11.9 pounds taken in deep water off Mukilteo, on a purple haze flasher/squid setup. Roughly 800 total fish were weighed in.
Derby chairman Mark Spada is a river coho specialist, and he said if he could enter his own derby, he would be fishing the upper Snohomish River, probably above Crabb Bar, drifting and casting a Dick Nite spoon in 50-50, green or chartreuse. Note that the Stillaguamish has been taken off the list of drought-caused river closures in Western Washington.
Anglers in both derbies should find plenty of local coho, according to Mike Chamberlain at Ted’s Sports Center in Lynnwood. “Coho fishing has been pretty good the last few days,” Chamberlain said. “We’re past the peak of the humpy run and the silvers are moving in to take up the slack. They’re a little smaller than usual, at 4 to 6 pounds with a few in the 10- or 11-pound range, and scattered all over the area.”
Chamberlain says a basic coho rig would be a Gibbs or Hot Spot 11-inch flasher, 28 to 36 inches of leader, and a glow green, glow white or chartreuse squid. Grand Slam Bucktails and Ace Hi flies are also popular he said. Start at a depth of 25 to 35 feet at daylight, and go a little deeper later, depending on success or lack of it up high. If you’re doing everything right and still not catching fish, Chamberlain says the most common cure is to shorten your leader.
State Fish and Wildlife catch sampling over the weekend showed good success rates. Saturday at the Port of Everett ramp showed 532 anglers with 220 coho and 265 pinks. At Olson’s Resort in Sekiu on Saturday, 165 anglers had 232 coho and 16 pinks, and at Van Riper’s, also in Sekiu, 79 anglers had 119 coho.
Even beach fishermen were catching silvers. State checks at Point Wilson, near Port Townsend, showed 30 beach casters with eight coho, and at Marrowstone Island, 43 had 24 coho. Anglers working the beaches on the west side of Whidbey Island were also doing well.
Kevin John at Holiday Sports in Burlington said the Skagit cleared up from recent rains late last week and that action was good over the weekend for both pinks and early coho. Both were running a little smaller than usual, John said — the pinks at 3 or 4 pounds and the coho at 4 to 6 pounds. Fishermen working the hole at Deception Pass, however, were reporting more silvers in the 7- or 8-pound range, and headed for the Skagit.
Jigs have been the hot lure, John said, in pink or red for humpies and green or chartreuse for coho. Both can be caught on the same rig, he said, but if you’re targeting both, go with the green.
Best fishing on the Skagit has been from the spud house, below Mount Vernon, up to Gardner Road just above Burlington, and again up around the Highway 9 bridge at Sedro-Woolley.
Mike Chamberlain said humpy action on the Snohomish has been spotty, but generally good numbers on an incoming tide in the lower river. The Thomas’ Eddy area has also been producing pinks, Chamberlain said, but that far up the river the fish are starting to take on some color.
River closures eased
The state last week eased drought-related fishing restrictions and closures on more than a dozen rivers where conditions have improved. Hoot owl hours were lifted on the Naches, and Yakima rivers, and Rattlesnake Creek in the Yakima area; and reopened to fishing on the Stillaguamish and lower Skykomish, locally.
Youth waterfowl hunts
The Northwest Chapter of the Washington Waterfowl Association once again offers its popular youth waterfowl hunts, guided by club experts, on Sept. 19-20. The hunts will be from the dike at the Port Susan Restoration Site, a saltwater/tidal bay south of Stanwood. Reservations are required, first come-first served, by contacting Rick Skiba at 360-387-2225, or e-mailing reskiba@msn.com.
Boat show
Seattle’s annual Lake Union Boats Afloat Show is scheduled for Sept. 16-20 this year, on south Lake Union, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekends. Tickets are $12 for adults, $5 for young people 12-17, and free for kids under 11, and can be purchased online at www.boatsafloatshow.com.
There will be free sailing lessons for kids, free toy boat building, free sailboat rides for all ages, and adult sailing lesson packages. Some activities require advance sign-up; go to showinfo@boatsafloatshow.com.
Ringold access improved
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife Department has improved the Ringold Springs water access site on the Hanford Reach portion of the Columbia, very popular with fall salmon and steelhead anglers. Located upriver from the Tri-Cities and southwest of Basin City in Franklin County, the site now has expanded parking and two camping areas, each with about 15 camping sites.
Camping is limited to three days in a seven-day period and requires registration at the site. Vehicles must display a WDFW vehicle access pass (which comes with a fishing or hunting license) or a Discover Pass.
A map of the area is available on the Ringold Springs access site webpage at http://wdfw.wa.gov/lands/water_access/30083/.
For details on the fisheries, see page 54 of the 2015-16 Sport Fishing Rules at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/.
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