Trout appear to have survived a tough winter
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, April 12, 2017
By Wayne Kruse
For the Herald
Chad Jackson, a biologist in the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Region 2 office in Ephrata, oversees a bunch of the better trout fishing lakes in the state, and he was afraid the long, cold winter may have resulted in fish kills on some of his choice waters.
Fortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case.
“There’s no evidence of winter-kill,” Jackson said, “and fishing on the early-opening lakes has been normal.”
“Normal” in this case means good, so what are a few of the better choices right now in the Columbia Basin for the avid trout fisherman?
Several of the seep lakes below Potholes Reservoir are fishing well, Jackson said, along with Quincy Lake, Dry Falls, and Lenore. Quincy is a slow starter and should continue to improve this month. Dry Falls is under selective-gear regulations (no bait, single barbless hooks), and Lenore’s big Lahontan cutthroat must be released at this point in the season. Most anglers fishing Dry Falls are fly fishermen, Jackson said, but it’s legal to launch a boat and troll hardware.
Larger trout are coming out of Quincy, Lower Hampton, the Windmill/Canal pair, and Dry Falls.
Jackson manages just seven lakes that are traditional “opening day” trout waters, and the best prospects for the April 22 opener are Park and Blue lakes, and Deep Lake, he said. Park and Blue are popular with camping anglers because both are close to Sun Lakes State Park and to resorts.
The two waters are a couple of the best trout fishing lakes in the state, and you won’t be lonesome on either one, but they both were treated with rotenone last fall to eliminate undesirable species, and then planted with “catchable” rainbows — 100,000 for Blue, and 70,000 for Park. With plants that size, fishing should still be good, but you won’t see any of the larger holdover rainbows.
The phone number for the Ephrata office is 509-754-4624.
Blackmouth
Winter blackmouth fishing in the Strait of Juan de Fuca was hot for a time and is still very good, according to Glenn Jeeter at Van Riper’s Resort in Sekiu. Jeeter said many of the fish are going 8 to 10 pounds, with a few in the mid-teens, and there have been a couple of 17-pounders landed since February, one of them cleaned weight.
“The average among the more knowledgeable fishermen has been better than one per rod for quite a while,” Jeeter said. “I would estimate they’ve been taking 80 percent limits.”
Eagle Bay has been the most reliable fishery, he said, using a mix of baits — candlefish, anchovies, red label herring. A lot of the blackmouth are apparently roaming the bottom for sand lance, and small spoons will catch fish, Jeeter said, but the larger blackmouth have tended to have herring in their stomachs.
“The regulars here pretty much stick to bait,” he said.
The season at Sekiu runs through the end of the month.
Farther east in the Strait, state creel checks Saturday tallied 17 anglers with six fish at Ediz Hook, and 18 with nine at the Port Townsend Boat Haven ramp. On Sunday, it was 33 with 17 at Port Townsend, and 46 with 16 at Ediz Hook.
San Juan Islands
Only a step or two behind the Strait for blackmouth action is Marine Area 7, the San Juan Islands, where state creel checks tallied 22 anglers with 11 chinook at the Bellingham ramp, and 38 with 11 at the Washington Park ramp in Anacortes.
Area 7 reopened March 25 and runs through the end of the month.
“Just when our salmon fishery is starting to roll,” said Kevin John at Holiday Sports in Burlington. “And these blackmouth are a better size than in our earlier opening — quite a few in the 10- to 12-pound range.”
John likes the prospects at Fidalgo Head, Lopez flats, Point Lawrence and Parker Reef, using small baits behind a flasher. Spoons like the 3-inch Kingfisher and Coho Killer are good, he said, in herring aid or cookies ‘n cream patterns, right on the bottom.
Checks over the weekend in our local waters were fair. At the Maplegrove ramp on Camano Island on Sunday, eight anglers had two chinook, and at the Port of Everett ramp, also on Sunday, it was 79 anglers with 10 fish.
Razor clams
Folks hankering to put one more batch of razor clams on the table are running short of time, as the coastal season starts to wind down. The current dig, running through Sunday, could be the last shot at Copalis Beach, according to Dan Ayres, coastal shellfish manager for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. On the other hand, Twin Harbors and Long Beach, which have hardly been heard from this season because of unsafe levels of marine toxins, will come on line together this month, and possibly into May. In fact, this will be the first dig at Long Beach this season.
Ayres said Mocrocks is likely to last into May as well.
Tides for the ongoing dig are as follows:
Today, 8:43 a.m., 0.0 feet, Long Beach, Twin Harbors and Copalis.
Friday, 9:18 a.m., plus 0.1 feet, Long Beach, Twin Harbors and Mocrocks.
Saturday, 9:55 a.m., plus 0.3 feet, Long Beach, Twin Harbors and Copalis.
Sunday, 10:36 a.m., plus 0.5 feet, Long Beach, Twin Harbors and Copalis.
The next dig has been tentatively set for April 27-30, which features some of the best tides of the season. They run from minus 1.3 feet to the April 28 tide at minus 1.8 feet.
