It’s the 10th hour in 2002 salmon season-setting negotiations, after the last public North of Falcon meeting earlier this week, and recreational fishermen can start to get a sense of how this summer’s regulations will shake down.
The final meeting in the process, involving federal, state, tribal, recreational and commercial fishing interests, is Monday through next Friday in Portland, but many of the issues have pretty much been settled.
Guide and Arlington resident Sam Ingram says the Skykomish River chinook season (one clipped-fish limit), proposed for June and July from the mouth of the Wallace downstream to the Lewis Street bridge in Monroe, seems to be on a path to acceptance. “I haven’t had any luck trying to convince them to open the lower river, however,” Ingram says.
A return of the “Bait Box” coho beach fishery the last two weeks of July (before the regular season opens) on the southeast corner of Whidbey Island, may also be adopted, Ingram says. The popular fishery, on silvers returning to a rearing pond project at the bait/tackle facility staffed by fishing club members, was open two years ago but closed last year.
The Tulalip bubble chinook season will probably also be approved again this summer, and the daily limit may be raised to two fish. Recreational fishermen would again be limited to a Friday-Saturday-Sunday week.
A proposal for a new winter blackmouth season format in Area 9 garnered a lot of attention from this area’s sport fishermen, but its chances are iffy. One option would open the area next winter in November, December and January, and the other in December, January and February. These would be continuous seasons, as opposed to the split-season format in effect recently.
Everett charter operator Gary Krein, a veteran of these salmon “wars,” says he doesn’t think either proposal will fly, at this late date.
“I’d like to see it happen,” he says, “and it was worth throwing into the ring, but to take it back through the whole process at this point probably won’t happen.”
Another proposal which may or may not be adopted would open Area 9 for coho on July 1, as opposed to the usual Aug. 1 opener of recent years.
And except for those possibilities, this summer’s seasons in areas 8-1, 8-2 and 9 should end up pretty much like last year’s, Krein says.
Marine preserves: The state Fish and Wildlife Commission last week designated three new underwater marine sanctuaries in Puget Sound, but dropped the one proposed for Scatchet Head. The sanctuaries are an attempt to enhance rockfish and other groundfish species by outlawing fishing in small areas of the rocky structure they favor.
Generally, fishing – even trolling for salmon – is prohibited in the preserves, so local anglers had misgivings about the one proposed for popular Scatchet Head. It was dropped because no logical boundaries could be devised, without using GPS, that would be easily recognizable by the public.
The preserve at Keystone, near Fort Casey, also got a hard look from recreational anglers because of popular beach fisheries in the area for steelhead and salmon. Morris Barker, Fish and Wildlife Department spokesman in Olympia, said the small preserve was positioned to eliminate conflict with most beach fishing.
Local blackmouth: Meanwhile, the tail end of the winter blackmouth season locally is providing at least decent fishing in a number of areas. Krein, above (425-252-4188), has been taking his customers most days to the “racetrack” between Hat Island and Camano head. He reports spotty fishing there, and uses Possession Bar as a backup.
Marysville resident Tom Nelson (tom@fishskagit.com) says good fishing can be found off Onamac Point and in the Greenbank area of Saratoga Passage, with a few fish showing in the 15-pound range. Up in the San Juans, he picks Point Lawrence, Orcas Island and Spring Pass.
Checks at the Port of Everett ramp Sunday showed 90 anglers with 23 chinook, averaging 7 pounds, plus one 48-inch sturgeon. A weekend check at Cornet Bay tallied three blackmouth for the six anglers checked, and at Washington Park, west of Anacortes, it was 10 anglers with five fish, also averaging 7 pounds. There was little fishing pressure out at Sekiu, but a check at Olson’s Resort showed three fishermen with two fish, averaging 10 pounds.
Feast or famine: Tom Nelson wonders why all the shoes drop at once.
“The situation I had hoped would not arise has indeed reared its scaly head,” he says. “The Skagit and Sauk have good numbers of large, wild steelhead; blackmouth action is very solid; spring chinook are showing on the Peninsula; and the Columbia is producing increasing numbers of springers. Oh, and don’t forget planted trout in a lot of area lakes. The table is spread.”
Nelson hit six steelhead and boated four Friday at Rockport on the Skagit, and talked to several driftboaters who had found fish on the lower Sauk. He says there’s still good steelheading on the Hoh, over on the Peninsula, and that springers are already showing in the Sol Duc.
“The Columbia gillnetters have finally taken their quota of chinook,” he says, “and now sportfishing will begin in earnest. Watch the dam counts, because they’ll be picking up soon.”
Shrimp: The special, experimental, recreational shrimp season in the Edmonds area will remain open through 7 p.m. Sunday, according to state biologist Mark O’Toole in La Conner. The open area runs from Point Edwards to the shipwreck, out to one mile offshore.
All of Marine Area 9 will then reopen as part of the general Puget Sound shrimp opener on April 20.
Trout: According to Arlington Hatchery manager Loren Dingwall, the following area lakes have been planted with trout so far this spring:
Gissberg Ponds was planted once earlier, and will be again late this week with a total of about 5,000 catchable rainbow. The balance of its scheduled 10,000 fish will go into the water around the first of May and the first of June, including 950 multi-pound trophies.
Chain, 1,500 catchable rainbow.
Goodwin: 4,500 of its scheduled total of 12,000 catchable rainbow are in the water. The rest go in about mid-May.
Roesiger has its allotment of 6,000 catchable and 1,000 jumbo (half-pounders) for the spring.
Panther, 3,000 catchable rainbow.
Blackman’s has roughly two-thirds of its allotment of 6,000 catchables, 1,500 jumbos, and 300 multi-pounders. The rest will be planted in June.
Cassidy, 4,000 catchables.
Silver, south Everett, has about half its allotment of 4,000 catchables and 350 multi-pounders. The rest will be planted about May 1.
Ballinger has about 2,000 of its allotment of 6,000 catchables. The rest will be planted about May 1.
Serene has been or will be by the end of this week, planted with its total allotment of 3,000 catchables and 1,500 jumbos, but doesn’t open until the general April 27 opener, on a split season, April-June, September-October.
Lone Lake on Whidbey Island has received its allotment of 4,000 catchables and 350 multi-pounders.
Hunting fee increase: The price of the state duck stamp will go up from $6 to $10 on June 12, according to legislation signed recently in Olympia. The last increase was in 1991, said the bill’s author, Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island. Proceeds from the stamp are dedicated by law to acquiring and developing migratory wildfowl habitat in Washington, Haugen said.
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