Selective chinook salmon fishery to open on Saturday
Published 4:26 pm Wednesday, July 13, 2016
By Wayne Kruse
Herald Writer
Some years pretty good fishing, some years very slow, Saturday’s opening of the selective chinook fishery in marine areas 9 and 10 is, with the possible exception of the Tulalip bubble, the best chance for anglers here to tangle with a close-to-home adult king. That’s a prize these days and is why, of course, the short fishery is so popular.
Gary Krein, owner/skipper of All Star Charters, said he hopes the season runs for at least 10 days, but estimating when the quota will be reached and the fishery closed is a wild guess, at best. It will close a lot sooner, he said, if fishermen elect to keep all the blackmouth they’re sure to hook.
“There are some kings on Possession Bar, but more legal length blackmouth (smaller feeder chinook),” Krein said. “The limit is one hatchery chinook per person, and blackmouth count against the quota. We’re hoping fishermen will use common sense in order to stretch the season as far as possible.”
Krein would fish the east side of the bar on an ebb (outgoing) tide, and the west side on the flood, in 120 to 250 feet of water. These fish are not necessarily bottom-huggers, however, so he would try to set his ‘riggers just above any bait in the area, often about 120 to 130 feet. There are a lot of dogfish on the bar right now, Krein said, and they’re likely to be a problem. If they are, stay away from bait and UV lures, which seem to be a favorite with the doggies. Go to Coyote spoons, or the Gold Star chrome-back variety, or try pulling Tomic plugs in Mother of Pearl.
“Another trick to discourage dogfish is to crank your speed up a little — to around 2.5 mph or so,” he said.
Krein has been working the Area 10 (Edmonds to Seattle) catch and release fishery, and doing very well with blackmouth of 5 or 6 pounds and kings from 10 or 11 pounds to the low teens. Both Jefferson Head and the Kingston area have been productive, and that sounds promising for the upcoming catch and keep opening.
The western portion of Area 9, mainly Midchannel Bark near Port Townsend, will be an even better choice for those who can run that far, Krein said.
Speed crabbing results
The fourth running of Eddie Adams’ weird and wild Puget Sound Speed Crabbing Derby over the weekend set new records and near records for number of participants, pounds of crab caught, and money donated to the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. The first place winner at the Port of Everett ramp was Team Top Pot, with 9 crab weighing 21.8 pounds, and the crew selected the King Kooker crab boiler prize.
Some 39 teams entered the free event, a new record. They caught a total of 344 crab weighing 650.4 pounds, an average of 2.8 crab per person, weighing an average of 1.9 pounds per crab.
Donations to the Alliance are still being taken through Sunday evening, so the total is not yet available. Donations from last year’s event, however, were over $4,000. Anyone interested in sharing a few bucks can do so at www.speedcrabbing.com/SCFAC.
New sturgeon fishery
For the first time in 20 years, anglers will be able to catch and keep hatchery sturgeon in the central Columbia River, according to WDFW regional fish biologist Chad Jackson in Ephrata. The July 1-Sept. 30 season will allow retention of two hatchery sturgeon daily, between 38 and 72 inches fork-length, in Wanapum and Priest Rapids reservoirs. The fish will not count against an angler’s season sturgeon limit, and they will not need to be recorded on catch record cards.
Several thousand juvenile sturgeon were released into the Columbia in 2003 and recent surveys indicate many of these hatchery fish have reached harvestable size. Biologists estimate about 4,000 of the fish reside in Wanapum Reservoir and roughly 2,000 in Priest Rapids Reservoir. The plan is designed to reduce the population of hatchery fish to lessen interaction between hatchery and wild stocks, by encouraging recreational harvest. The length limits target hatchery fish while protecting larger wild fish.
Biologist Travis Maitland checked anglers on the river opening day and saw 3 fish between 43 and 59 inches. All were caught below Rock Island Dam, which is the area Maitland predicted would offer the best fishing. The largest fish —which would have weighed 50 or 60 pounds, Maitland said — was taken by a bank angler, while the other two were caught by boaters. Fishermen were baiting with pickled squid, herring, pickled herring, and chunks of pikeminnow.
Maitland said he heard of a 9-footer caught and released recently in that area, and rumors of 11- and 12-footers seen.
Ocean salmon
After a slow start everywhere except Ilwaco, the coastal salmon fishery has picked up. State coastal salmon coordinator Wendy Beeghley said that despite some poor weather conditions over the weekend, fishing remained good at Ilwaco and improved at Westport and Neah Bay, Beeghley said. LaPush remained slow.
Most of the catch at Ilwaco has been coho, but nice fish in the 5- to 6-pound range, Beeghley said. Averages at Westport picked up to about a half-fish per rod, she said, not great but better than last week.
Neah Bay put out some very good fishing over the weekend, at about three-quarters of a chinook per person, going 12 to 15 pounds.
Columbia sockeye
The forecast sockeye run on the Columbia was recently upgraded to 350,000 fish, greatly exceeding the earlier forecast of 102,000 fish. Barring extremely high water temperatures, such as the situation last year which caused unprecedented mortality, the run is expected to produce sufficient escapement to meet spawning needs in the Wenatchee and Okanogan rivers.
Because of that, sockeye fisheries on the Columbia have been opened as follows: Priest Rapids Dam to Rock Island Dam, July 7-Aug. 31; Rock Island to Wells Dam, July 7-Oct. 15; Wells to Brewster, July 16-Aug. 31; and Brewster to Chief Joseph Dam, July 7-Oct. 15.
Limited-entry deer hunt
Eighteen hunters will be drawn in late August to hunt for deer this fall on the 6,000-acre Eder Unit of the Scotch Creek Wildlife Aarea in northeastern Okanogan County. The deadline to submit an application for the quality, limited entry hunt is midnight, Aug. 14. Submit an application by going to http://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/permits/scotchcreek, or by calling WDFW’s Northcentral Region at 509-754-4624, or headquarters at 360-902-2515.
