CONWAY — Rick Fiorito cast his bait into the Skagit River on Thursday but didn’t seem to be too concerned about whether he caught a fish.
“I just got out here and I’m having fun,” said Fiorito, 54, of Stanwood, on the bank of the river near Conway.
It was a good thing for Fiorito and several others that they weren’t counting on catching the big one. Fishing appeared to be slow the first day of the first chinook salmon season on the lower Skagit in 16 years.
The state opened the season on the river because this year’s run of chinook, or king salmon, is expected to be the largest it’s been in many years, said Pat Pattillo, salmon policy coordinator for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Fishing for kings on the lower Skagit was closed after the 1993 season after several years of dwindling runs, Pattillo said.
“We’ve seen in the last few years a consistent return of very big runs,” Pattillo said.
Most chinook salmon fishing in rivers and saltwater from the Seattle area to the San Juan Islands was closed for about 10 years, from 1993 to 2003, because of low rates of return of fish to rivers, Pattillo said. In 1999, the Puget Sound chinook salmon was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The chinook is the largest of the Pacific salmon species, with fish ranging from 15 to 50 pounds or more.
In 2003, as chinook runs began to recover, some rivers and saltwater sectors began to be opened on an occasional, patchwork basis, Pattillo said.
“We started restoring some of the fish slowly, year to year,” he said.
The run on the Skagit has returned nearly to levels before the closure, Pattillo said.
“This is very unique,” he said. “It’s back.”
The season also has been closed to Indian tribes except for occasional ceremonial, subsistence and test fisheries, Pattillo said. The season for the tribes opened Monday, and tribal and nontribal anglers will alternate 3-1/2; days on, 3-1/2; days off until Aug. 9. Tribes may fish Monday through Thursday mornings, and others may fish Thursday afternoons through Sundays.
The state probably won’t have any estimates of fish caught until about the middle of next week, Pattillo said.
The nontribal season started at noon Thursday. Several anglers said it wasn’t the best timing, as salmon often bite early in the morning and again toward the end of the day.
“We’re normally done by noon,” said Don Ulin of Bothell, fishing on a bank south of Mount Vernon known as the “spud barn.”
Still, he usually fishes for other, smaller salmon species on the Skykomish River, he said.
“Here, you’re fishing for one big fish,” Ulin said.
The limit is one adult and one jack salmon, or juvenile chinook, per day.
One fisherman at the spud barn hauled in a fish as of about 3 p.m. Albert Lopez of Burlington, a “once in a while” fisherman, pulled one in about 24 pounds.
Others seemed content to hang out and wait.
“I felt I’d come out here and test it out,” said Justin Fisher, 21, of Marysville. “Beats sitting at home.”
Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.
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