Just in time for this weekend’s Everett Coho Derby, thousands of silver salmon are moving through Possession Sound on their way up the Snohomish and Stillaguamish rivers.
Not every fisherman, however, is waiting for the West Coast’s largest salmon derby to start.
Plenty of anglers have been catching their daily limit of two fish since the coho season opened on waters off Everett and Mukilteo on Aug. 1, said Sue Kraemer, a fish inspector for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Boats with 7-, 9-, 10-, 12- and even 16-pounders were pulling into Everett docks every few minutes on Tuesday, keeping Kraemer hopping from boat to boat.
“I get as many as I can,” Kraemer said.
She measures fish length, checks to see if there’s a tracking wire lodged in their snout and makes sure no one has caught a chinook, a threatened fish that’s off-limits right now.
Having some fish equipped with tracking wires allows biologists to determine where the fish hatched out.
Kraemer waves a metal detector over the fish to see if such a wire tag is inside.
For some, like Tom Wyles, fishing success has much to do with taking advantage of advances in technology. Wyles didn’t catch that first fish that nibbled on his line as he motored along near an old shipwreck south of Mukilteo.
He didn’t mind. He just marked the location with his boat’s Global Positioning System unit, and then started doing figure eights over the spot.
“We caught our limit in 15 minutes,” said Wyles, a Lake Stevens resident who estimates he will go out fishing for coho 28 times this year. He said the technology allows him to get his limit – two fish – every time he goes out. “We get enough fish to cover us for the whole year.”
“They’re as large and prime fish as they’ll ever be,” said Curt Kraemer, freshwater fish program manager for the Fish and Wildlife Department and Sue Kraemer’s husband. “Those fish are just prime right now.”
Calling this season’s coho run average, Kraemer said there should be fish enough for everyone at this weekend’s fishing derby.
Estimates are that about 200,000 coho will make their way up to spawn in the Snohomish River in the coming weeks, and as many as 30,000 will head up the Stillaguamish River.
The silver salmon, one of the West Coat’s best table fish, are now moving through the Sound, finishing up their last bit of eating before they move into fresh water in preparation for spawning.
Fishermen such as Dwayne Widgren of Everett appreciate that enthusiasm for one last meal, saying that appetite landed him a prize catch on Tuesday.
“This is the biggest of a lifetime,” said Widgren, holding up a 16-pound coho.
Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@heraldnet.com.
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