Time’s running short to pick up a ticket for Saturday’s 7th running of the popular Lake Stevens Kokanee Derby, featuring a first-place cash prize of $1,000, a $500 gift card for the heaviest 10-fish boat limit, and separate kids’ derby prizes. Tickets are available at Greg’s Custom Rods, John’s Sporting Goods, Ted’s Sports Center, Triangle Bait &Tackle, Three Rivers Marine, and Holiday Sports. Adult tickets are $20; kids 14 and under fish free.
Greg Rockenbach of Greg’s Custom Rods in Lake Stevens says ticket sales have been brisk and that he expects a crowd of between 200 and 300 anglers, similar to last year and what he calls “a decent turnout.” The word is out, he said, that fishing has been pretty good so far this spring, and that kokanee are perhaps a little larger than usual.
Traffic coordinators will be on hand Saturday morning to direct fishermen to parking areas around the free state Fish and Wildlife ramp in Lake Stevens, and the Wyatt Park launch on the west side of the lake will be open all night prior to derby day.
“That west shore ramp, however, has limited parking space,” Rockenbach said. “Maybe enough for 20 or 25 rigs. And I believe it costs $10 a pop to launch there.”
Finding the fish, of course, is the critical factor on Lake Stevens, particularly with kokanee, an open water species not necessarily attuned to structure. Rockenbach says the aerator, in the northwest portion of the lake, is one of the few readily recognizable physical features on which anglers tend to focus, and that the aerator area has been productive recently. Most fish are being found between 12 and 25 feet, with a few coming from as deep as 40 feet.
The standard tackle setup, Rockenbach says, is a small Dick Nite dodger, 12 to 14 inches of leader, and a Wedding Ring spinner tipped with a kernel of shoepeg corn. The corn is usually soaked in any of several scents, “bloody tuna” being one of the most popular.
Another productive lure is the newer Kokanee Assassin, rigged the same way as the Wedding Ring, and with the same bait. Effective lure colors so far this spring have been greens and chartreuse, Rockenbach says.
The second largest kokanee will win $500; third, $250; and fourth, $100. Young people 14 and under will vie for $100, $75 and $50, first through third respectively. The first-place fish must be a kokanee, but the other two cash winners can be any species caught in the lake on derby day.
Icicle kings
With chinook still not available to recreational fishermen on Puget Sound, eastside rivers are looking better all the time. The Icicle — tributary to the Wenatchee at Leavenworth — opened to hatchery kings Monday, and while fishing was slow, the outlook for the next few weeks is not bad.
The run to the Icicle is predicted to be about 3,000 fish, with 1,600 needed for Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery operations. The daily limit is two hatchery chinook, adult or jack, a Columbia endorsement is needed, mandatory retention of hatchery fish is in effect, and the two-rod opportunity does not apply to this fishery.
Johnny Stavenjord at Hooked On Toys in Wenatchee said of the 40 fishermen checked Monday, two had a spring chinook. “Beautiful fish,” Stavenjord said, “going 14 or 15 pounds, and it’s only going to get better.”
He said the spring chinook count over Rock Island Dam has spiked substantially the last few days and that those fish will be in the Icicle before too long. The river is running high he said, but that’s a good thing, pulling salmon into the small river from the Wenatchee.
Most anglers plunk in the area below the hatchery and most use a whole herring with a Spin N Glo in front. Whole baits hold up better under the high water conditions than do plug-cut herring, Stavenjord says. And fairly heavy sinkers, in the 8- to 10-ounce range, are necessary as well.
Drift-boaters also fish the river (no motorized craft are allowed) down to the deadline, 800 feet above its confluence with the Wenatchee, but there isn’t a lot of room and property owners there tend to be touchy.
Razor clams
Last chance until autumn to dig a limit of razor clams comes up this weekend, with the final opening of the 2015-16 season scheduled for May 20, 21 and 22. Mocrocks and Copalis beaches will be open Friday and Saturday, but only Mocrocks on Sunday.
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife coastal shellfish manager Dan Ayres, in Montesano, said both beaches still carry enough clams to provide good digging, but that Mocrocks beach — particularly its north half — will probably produce larger clams.
“We’ve seen some real beauties — six-inch clams — coming from there,” he said.
Following are the tides for the final dig:
May 20, 6:37 a.m., minus 0.3 feet, Mocrocks and Copalis; May 21, 7:12 a.m., minus 0.6 feet, Mocrocks and Copalis; and May 22, 7:47 a.m., minus 0.8 feet, Mocrocks only. All other beaches remain closed.
Personnel will conduct WDFW’s annual summer assessment of clam stocks, and will hope to open beaches again sometime in October, Ayres said.
Local trout
Plants of trout in local lakes for the month of May, all rainbow and most a little under a half-pound in weight, are:
Lake Ballinger, planted May 3 with 2,000 fish; Blackmans Lake, May 2 with 2,036; Boucher pond, May 5, with 1,071; Chain Lake, May 2, with 1,200; Flowing Lake, May 3 with 3,550; North Gissberg Pond (juveniles fishing only), May 3, with 500; South Gissberg Pond, May 5, with 1,100, plus 148 “jumbos,” between 1 and 2 pounds; Jennings Park Pond, May 6, 1,500; Lake Roesiger, May 10, 328 jumbos, 1-2 pounds; Lake Shoecraft, May 3, 2,000; Martha Lake (Warm Beach), May 3, 3,000; Silver Lake May 3, 2,000, May 10, 287 jumbos, between 1 and 2 pounds, and May 13, 1,700; and Lake Tye, May 2, 2,500 and May 10, 123 jumbos between 1 and 2 pounds.
Baker Lake derby?
Tony Bakke, with the North Sound Chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association, called to say the group had been planning a sockeye derby, July 29, 30 and 31, until the summer salmon seasons all went south. Nothing official has been heard from WDFW since that time, Bakke said, but the group believes the fishery should still be allowed since it’s behind a dam and no threatened/endangered stocks will be in the area.
He said the group must know yea or nay by June 15 in order to cancel everything by July 1 if the news is bad.
“Sportsmen need to know these things,” he said.
Neither Annette Hoffmann nor Brett Barkdull were immediately available for comment. Hoffmann is WDFW’s Region 4 fish program manager, in Mill Creek, and Barkdull is area biologist for the Skagit system.
Lake Chelan kokanee
Trolling for Lake Chelan kokanee has been excellent lately, according to Anton Jones of Darrell &Dad’s Family Guide Service (509-687-0709) in Manson. Pull Mack’s Lures Kokanee Pro Wedding Rings on a short leader behind Double D Dodgers in 00 to 0000 sizes. Bait with Pautzke’s Fire Corn in natural, pink or yellow and work the water column anywhere from the surface down to 60 feet.
For more outdoor news, read Wayne Kruse’s blog at www.heraldnet.com/huntingandfishing.
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