October is a great month to be outdoors

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, October 10, 2001

The outdoor aficionado needs at least four arms and two Labrador retrievers each year when autumn rolls around. With salmon and trout and razor clams and waterfowl and deer, plus a dozen other opportunities, there just isn’t enough time on the October clock to do it all.

Locally, coho are still the hot item – in the river systems, in saltwater, and now in the north end of Lake Washington. Some 30,000 silvers are expected through the Lake Washington-Lake Sammamish system, and the state has opened a season in the big lake north of the Evergreen Point floating bridge. Early checks at the Kenmore ramp on Saturday showed 40 anglers with five coho averaging 6 pounds, but fishing should get better than that.

Mike Chamberlain at Ted’s Sport Center in Lynnwood (425-743-9505) says most of his customers fishing the coho season in Lake Washington have been concentrating on the northeast corner, from Hunt’s Point north to Saint Edward’s Seminary, just southeast of Kenmore. Troll Wiggle Warts in fluorescent red or silver/chartreuse, Chamberlain says, or No. 3 Needlefish or Coyote spoons in Fire Tiger or other bright color patterns.

“Some guys are also doing well pulling a size ‘0’ dodger followed with an F-4 or F-5 Flatfish in black with silver fleck,” he says.

Vertical jigging with Buzz Bombs, Point Wilson darts or Kastmaster spoons will also work.

“This is fun fishing but not a great salmon producer,” Chamberlain says. “As in all other freshwater fisheries, the coho in Lake Washington are moody and temperamental. If there’s one critical word to remember for freshwater coho, it’s perseverance.”

In the Snohomish and the Skagit, it’s simply a matter of “running up the crick until you spot coho jumping, then casting green frog or half &half Dick Nites on long leaders in the morning, and cluster eggs when the fish go deeper at mid-day,” according to river guide Tom Nelson (tom@fishskagit.com). “And remember that those mallards tootling down the rivers are now fair game, as long as your boat is drifting or anchored, and not under power.”

Recent rain and a forecast for several more fronts coming should bring a welcome rise in river levels and, when they clear, at least a few days of hot coho action. Besides Dick Nites, other recommended lures include number 1 or 2 Flicker Spinners, marabou or fur jigs, and small Buzz Bombs equipped with single hooks. Trollers in tidewater sections are using Wiggle Warts or U-20 or X-5 Flatfish.

Chamberlain says the Cascade has been pretty good since it opened Oct. 1, for a mix of Dolly Varden, late summer-run steelhead, and fresh (although small) coho. Most anglers on the Skagit tributary, he says, drift small egg clusters.

Bird hunting: General waterfowl and upland bird seasons opened Saturday to mixed results. For several years straight, a bumper crop of ducks and geese have provided hunters with their top action and, even though duck numbers are down slightly this year, that was again the case.

Mike Meseberg at MarDon Resort (509-765-5061) on Grant County’s Potholes Reservoir said duck hunting has been outstanding.

“All the local guys are shaking their heads, wondering when it’s going to slow down,” Meseberg said. “It has been much, much better than usual, and for a longer period of time on our locally produced birds.”

He said action has been equally good in the sand dunes at the reservoir’s north end, and on the feeder waterways as well. In an unusual occurrence, one party came in with five snow geese, he said, almost unheard of in the Columbia Basin.

Meseberg said a combination fish/hunt trip to the Potholes area would be a great idea right now, with excellent fishing available for walleye to 4 or 5 pounds (a 13-pounder was taken last week) and rainbow to 5 or 6 pounds. The bows are falling to bait fishermen right on the MarDon pier, while the walleye are being taken by slow-trollers pulling spinner/nightcrawler combinations.

Too-mild weather conditions held down hunter success over the weekend on the Skagit Wildlife Area, according to area manager John Garrett. Hunters there scored at a clip of only 1.43 ducks per person, Garrett says, which is slow for opening weekend on the Skagit. “I don’t think I checked a single limit, and that’s unusual for opening weekend as well,” he says.

Better (meaning worse) weather conditions and more birds coming all the time should improve prospects for the next few days.

“Hunters should be aware that, for budget and other reasons, I have only 220 acres in barley this year,” Garrett says, “160 acres on the Welts property up on Samish Bay and 60 acres on the west side of the Island segment here at headquarters.”

More positive, however, is the news that there are already significant numbers of snow geese on the Fir Island reserve.

“That’s early, and it may indicate a good season,” says waterfowl chief Don Kraege in Olympia. “Our best years on snows up that way have usually been early years too.”

Kraege says the word from Russian biologists on Wrangell Island, where almost all Pacific Flyway snow geese are raised, is that this was an excellent spring for goose production. There is some speculation, in fact, that we could see a record number of overwintering snows in Western Washington and on the Fraser River delta in British Columbia.

Meseberg said pheasant hunting pressure was down in Grant County this year, and that the success rate was only fair, at best. Sweet corn has been harvested, he said, but field corn is still standing, offering a lot of pheasant cover and making hunting more difficult.

“One positive point,” he said, “is that we’ve been seeing some really nice, big, mature cocks with blue tags, and I understand that they’re from a special pen-raised planting project.”

Garrett says he has 3,800 pen-raised birds to release on the Skagit this year, which is a little higher than normal, thanks to birds available from Whidbey Island. The Whidbey Island Naval Air Station is locked up because of security concerns, and release sites there are also, of course, closed to the public.

Saltwater: Coho numbers are starting to slip a little on the local saltchuck, but there are still plenty of big fish to go around. Checks on Saturday and Sunday at the Port of Everett ramp showed 412 anglers with 223 coho and one chum.

Hanford Reach: Chinook fishing on the mid-Columbia River continues very good, with checks last weekend showing a king for each four bank anglers and one for every 2.4 boat fishermen. Backtrolling with divers and bait, or diving plugs or plug-cut herring off downriggers, is the most popular fishing method. Good plugs include Magnum Wiggle Warts, M-2 Flatfish, Hawg Boss Super Toads, and Kwikfish in fluorescent red or chartreuse, orange or chrome.

The Hanford Reach area is open through Oct. 22 up to the Vernita Bridge, and until Oct. 31 from the bridge up to Priest Rapids Dam.

The upper portion of the Yakima River open to salmon fishing produced a chinook for every six anglers over the weekend, and the only boat fisherman checked had two kings.

Razor clams: Remember the first opening of a widely scattered fall/winter razor clam season on the coastal beaches comes up Tuesday on Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis and Mocrocks beaches. The low afternoon tide that day is a minus 0.8 feet at 6:59 p.m.