Meeting set on tribal elk hunt plan

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, June 6, 2007

If you’re at all interested in deer, elk, big-game hunting or tribal treaty rights, here’s a hot date you’ll want to put on your calendar: June 20, 6-9 p.m., in the Cascade Ballroom of the Cottontree Inn in Mount Vernon.

It should be a lively evening, as representatives of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife attempt to explain recent negotiations with nine tribes to hunt elk on private land in Skagit County. The facility is just west of Riverside Drive (the main north-south arterial through “new” Mount Vernon), just before crossing the Skagit River bridge into Burlington.

The draft proposal calls for a total of 30 bull permits this year, from the “Nooksack herd,” to be split between Indian and non-Indian hunters. Most of the tribal hunting will take place on Sierra Pacific and Trillium Corporation private timberland in the Concrete-Rockport area, Game Management Unit 418, said state assistant director Phil Anderson in Olympia. While private parties do not have the authority to grant or limit treaty rights, the two timber companies have apparently granted permission for tribal hunts, Anderson said.

Tribal wildlife managers have cooperated with the state over the past two years to transplant surplus elk from the Mount St. Helens area to the Nooksack herd, which had dwindled from a high of about 1,700 animals in the 1990s to just 350 or so two years ago. The department estimates a population of 400 to 450 animals currently, with 30 bulls available for harvest by permit only.

Anderson stressed that no “deal” has been made with the tribes, and no final agreement signed. He also said he felt the 50-50 split and the private land issue would not set a precedent for other elk and deer hunting areas in the state.

“The Nooksack is a unique situation,” Anderson said, “with all the help the tribes have given us relocating the animals, I don’t see it opening the door to similar ‘allocation’ demands from other tribes for the Blue Mountains herd or the Yakima herd, or others.”

Anderson said the department hopes negotiation will result in establishment of better communications between tribal hunters and the state, so the department will have a much more accurate idea of the numbers of animals being taken from specific herds and can thus develop effective management plans. Many tribes now do not report hunting results at all, he said, and other attempts to develop a central reporting system – particularly in Eastern Washington – have failed miserably for 10 years.

Good data and a good management plan are crucial to the whole problem, Anderson said.

“Actually, a 50-50 split in some cases could be to our advantage,” he said, “because there are indications that in the Blue Mountains, for instance, the tribes are perhaps taking more animals than we are.”

Generally, however, Anderson said tribal hunters around the state are probably taking just 5 to 10 percent of the deer being harvested, and substantially below 50 percent of the elk.

“That being the case,” he said, “this would not seem to be the right time to risk everything on a roll of the dice by going to court. That time may come, but not right now.”

River fishing: Rivers opened on June 1, but the Skykomish has been so murky that there has been little action on either spring chinook or summer steelhead. Guide and Arlington resident Sam Ingram said it’s dropping into shape and may well be fishable by this weekend.

Up on the Skagit, anglers have been doing surprising well, considering it, too, has provided limited visibility. Bob Ferber at Holiday Market Sports in Burlington said the fishery so far has been very encouraging, with maybe two dozen fish or more taken both Saturday and Sunday on the lower end of the Cascade and in the Big Eddy area on the Skagit. The kings are running 8 to 10 pounds, mostly, with a few in the 12- to 15-pound range, Ferber said.

“Right now,” he said, “shrimp or eggs under a float is the way to go, with the dirty water, but as it clears, more guys will go to plugs and even Corky-yarn combinations.”

Remember that Dolly Varden/bull trout are off-limits in the Skagit from Rockport to Gorge Dam, in the entire Cascade, and in the entire Sauk.

Shrimp: Fishing closed for spot shrimp last week, but will reopen for one day (today) in Hood Canal, and for four days – June 20-23 – in the south portion of the San Juan Islands, including popular Iceberg Point.

The season for smaller shrimp, coonstripe and pink, is underway in Marine Areas 8-1 and 8-2 and, while not as popular as that for the big spot prawns, there are a number of fishermen who work it. All Star Charters owner/skipper Gary Krein said they fish generally the same waters they would for spots, except closer to shore to comply with the 150-foot maximum depth restriction. The Everett-Mukilteo shoreline should produce, he said, particularly closer to Mukilteo. Another popular spot is off the “Bait Box,” the bait/tackle facility on the southeast tip of Whidbey Island.

Saltwater salmon: Both the Tulalip bubble and Marine Area 10 opened to salmon fishing on June 1, albeit with completely different regulations. The Marine Area 10 fishery is catch and release for chinook, a mix of adults headed to south-Sound rivers and resident blackmouth, while the bubble is a unique fishery for adult kings coming back to the Tulalip tribal hatchery system.

Krein said Tulalip has had a pretty good opener, considering it’s not a hot fishery at best and a slow starter. The crack of dawn crowd, and those who fished Saturday and Sunday evenings, hit a pretty good bite and took probably a half-dozen nice kings for eight or 10 boats, Krein said, but daylight fishing has been mostly the usual four or five fish for 40 boats. The majority of the chinook are in the teens, with a few in the low 20s and the occasional 5- or 6-pound blackmouth.

Krein recommends a 4- or 5-inch frog racer Coyote spoon, 40 to 48 inches behind a flasher. Depth has varied, starting at maybe 40 feet early in the morning, but Krein said 70 feet has probably been the most consistent.

Anglers in Marine Area 10 are finding decent fishing for adult kings to the low 20s and blackmouth to about 7 pounds, between President Point and Apple Cove Point in the Kingston area. A flasher or dodger followed by a green squid is a good setup, Krein said, or a funky chicken or frog racer Coyote spoon. Fishermen are working right on bottom in 80 to 150 feet of water.

Surf perch: Jim Jackson at Angler Charters in Westport put on his annual surf perch derby May 26, and drew enough long-rodders to split $736 in prize money. The Big Fish weighed 2 pounds, 10 ounces, and was caught by Elmer Winter of Aberdeen. Heaviest five fish string weighed 10 pounds, 9 ounces, and was entered by Tom Hefner of Sargent, Texas. Second and third-heaviest strings went to anglers from Grayland.

New kid on the block: The new Sportsmen’s Warehouse opened in Burlington last week, ready to go head-to-head with the newish Joe’s (formerly G.I. Joe’s) store in Mount Vernon. The chain has 63 stores across most of the country, carrying fishing, hunting, camping, muzzleloading and archery gear, as well as clothing, outdoor footwear, canoes, kayaks, trolling motors and a lot more. This one is a pretty impressive facility, across the street from Boaters World in the new mall, between I-5 and Riverside Drive, just north of the Skagit River. See sportsmanswarehouse.com.