Columbia springers have sprung, and fishing for an expected hefty run of spring chinook in the big river is starting to get serious.
“Both effort and catch are expanding rapidly down here,” state biologist Joe Hymer said from his Vancouver office, “even though the run seems to be a little later than last spring. Saturday’s flyover counted 1,500 boats from Bonneville Dam down to Cathlamet, and over 300 in the relatively short stretch from Camas down to the I-205 bridge.”
Checks at area boat ramps showed an average of one springer for every 4.3 rods, while the 400 bank anglers on the Washington shore below Bonneville scored at a clip of one fish for every 16 rods.
Sunday’s ladder count at Bonneville showed the first 1,000-chinook day so far this spring, Hymer said. The total over Bonneville as of Sunday has been about 8,000 chinook, which is lagging far behind the 62,800 counted by the same date last year.
Most anglers from this area, however, wait until fishing starts to peak at the easier-to-access fisheries at Drano Lake and the mouths of other Bonneville Pool tributary rivers. The best fishing so far has been at the Wind River, where about two dozen boats were counted Saturday morning and checks showed a fish for each 10 rods. Shore fishing there has been slow.
Action at Drano Lake has been similar to that at the Wind, Hymer says, and about the same level of fishing pressure was checked there over the weekend.
A spring chinook season has been set on the Yakima River for April 20 to June 16, between Granger and Roza Dam, for two hatchery kings daily and a season limit of 10. Only adipose-clipped fish may be retained, and there is a single, barbless hook regulation in place. Anglers planning to fish from the bank on the Yakima Reservation side (south or west side) of the river between Ahtanum Creek at Union Gap, downstream to Granger, must purchase a tribal permit in addition to a state 2002-03 freshwater license and salmon report card.
Tribal and state biologists predict a return of 12,300 hatchery and 9,500 wild springers to the Yakima this year, the largest return of hatchery fish since inception of the Yakima/Klickitat hatchery at Cle Elum.
Local salmon seasons: Regulations for many salmon seasons were still being negotiated by North of Falcon parties at the time this was written, with most of the late wheeling and dealing having to do with winter blackmouth.
Everett charter owner/skipper Gary Krein said recreational groups were pushing for staggered winter seasons in areas 8-1 through 11 so that anglers willing to travel a little could find blackmouth action somewhere, all winter.
The Area 9 July opening for coho and the two-fish chinook limit in the Tulalip bubble were pretty much set, Krein said.
Steelhead: As the steelhead season winds down, anglers are finding larger fish on many of the rivers still open. The catch-and-release fishery on the middle Skagit and the Sauk below Darrington has been at least fair, and some big steelies (along with a lot of Dolly Varden) are finally showing. The season closes April 30, but there’s still time to dance with a real trophy.
Tom Nelson of Marysville reports good fishing on the Olympic Peninsula, where he and a party of friends found top action over the weekend on the Hoh. Among others, the group landed a 27-pounder, Nelson said.
“That’s the largest steelhead I’ve ever had the honor of netting, and let me tell you that my knees were applauding so hard I could barely stand up,” he said.
The big buck fell to Marysville native Larry Stauffer, on his 41st birthday, and took a chrome/black Warden’s Fat Fish plug.
The trio hooked eight fish and boated five on the trip to Forks.
Latest checks on the Bogachiel/Quillayute showed 94 anglers with 47 wild and 16 hatchery steelhead (29 released); on the Sol Duc, 74 had 36 steelhead and three chinook; while 12 had 23 wild steelhead on the Calawah. The Hoh closes Monday, but the Quillayute system is open through April 30.
Steelheading on the Cowlitz is still pretty good, and the river is also open for hatchery spring chinook for the first time in several years. Boat anglers from Mission Bar upstream averaged close to a steelhead per rod late last week and over the weekend, and bank anglers at the barrier dam are also taking some fish. A few chinook are being reported taken, mostly by boaters.
Clams: What is probably the last razor clam dig of the winter/spring season takes place on all five major coastal beaches Friday-Wednesday, morning tides only. State shellfish biologist Dan Ayres said an additional limited dig or two on a specific beach may be possible under current quotas, but that recreationists shouldn’t count on it this spring.
Ayres reminds diggers that they must have a new, 2002/03 shellfish license.
Crab: As of 6 p.m. Monday, all of Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca will be closed to recreational crabbing, according to state marine resources manager Morris Barker. By mid-April, most crab in most parts of the sound have soft shells, although the molt begins earlier in Hood Canal and a number of other spots where crab fishing has been closed for a month or more.
“Crabbing has been good this year, with record-high harvests in Hood Canal, and central and northern Puget Sound,” Barker said.
He added that crab in the Everett area, where fishing has been closed since mid-January, are now beginning to harden and should be available for harvest by late this month.
Shrimp: A short and successful recreational spot shrimp fishery off Edmonds was marred when state enforcement agents nailed two men at a boat launch on the first day of the season with an estimated 1,050 shrimp. Since the limit was 80 shrimp per person, per day, the pair face charges of first-degree unlawful recreational fishing, a gross misdemeanor carrying penalties of up to a year in jail and a fine of $5,000.
The poaching incident will reduce the amount of shrimp available to legitimate recreationists when the general shrimp fishery opens throughout Puget Sound on April 20, according to state shellfish biologist Mark O’Toole in La Conner.
Turkey: Spring turkey season runs April 15-May 15, and continues to be one of the most successful and fastest-growing hunting activities in the state. Last year’s harvest of 2,500 birds is a five-fold increase in only six years.
The best place to hunt by far is the northeastern part of the state. The counties of Ferry, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Stevens and Spokane produced nearly 85 percent of the 2001 harvest, mostly the Merriam’s subspecies. Public land and top bird numbers make the breaks of the Columbia River, including the state’s Sherman Creek Wildlife Area, good hunting bets.
Kittitas County is probably the top opportunity in the central part of the state, while the southeast corner puts out good hunting along the breaks of the Grande Ronde, Tucannon and Touchet rivers, and on the Chief Joseph and Wooten wildlife areas.
Westside hunters are limited to one turkey per season, but can go to the eastside for their remaining two birds. Best spots west of the Cascades are mostly in southwest Washington and include Kennedy Creek, Skookumchuck Reservoir, and Lincoln Creek in Lewis County; Johnson Creek in Thurston County; the Willapa Valley near Raymond, Capitol Forest and the Wynoochee Valley.
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