While it seems the window of opportunity for recreational salmon fishermen has dwindled to postage-stamp size, all is not gloom and doom. Spring and summer are on the way, and to help pass the time until popular seasons such as the delayed opening of Marine Area 9 come on line, anglers are smokin’ ‘em on the east end of the Strait, and even finding solid action in Marine Areas 8-1 and 8-2. Area 7, the San Juan Islands, also has been consistent, but it and areas 8-1 and 8-2 are on the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s watch list as they approach their chinook quotas for the winter season.
Creel checks by state personnel at the Port Angeles public ramp Saturday showed 18 anglers with 20 chinook, and at Port Townsend it was 12 with 12. That makes PA anglers high-liners, I guess, and those from Port Townsend a little short of the blue ribbon, but either way, it’s hot winter blackmouth action. Another popular fishery, Sekiu, opens on Feb. 16 and it should be well worth the drive.
Good numbers of fish in the eastern Strait also bodes well for the big Olympic Peninsula Salmon Derby, which offers 500 square miles of derby water. Scheduled for Feb. 17-19, derby participants can fish from Tongue Point in the west, through Freshwater Bay, Port Angeles, Sequim, Port Townsend, Marrowstone Island, Port Ludlow, to Whidbey Island in the west, and north past Smith Island to Hein Bank. Derby launch ramps include Freshwater Bay, Ediz Hook, John Wayne Marina, Gardiner ramp and Port Townsend Boat Haven.
First prize is $10,000, won last year by Danny Davis of Anacortes at 20.7 pounds. Tickets are $40 (or $42.50 online via PayPal) and available on this side of the pond at Ted’s Sport Center in Lynnwood, Outdoor Emporium in Seattle, and Sportco in Fife. To purchase online, visit http://gardinersalmonderby.org/tickets/online-ticket-purchase. Ticket sales end Feb. 15.
The event is one of the stops on the Northwest Marine Trade Association’s Salmon Derby Series, which awards a boat/trailer package by drawing at the end of the season.
Tony Floor, longtime fishing program chief for the association, said he likes the banks on the east end of the Strait for the last hurrah of this winter blackmouth season: Coyote, Eastern, Hein and McArthur. He reports that McArthur Bank fishes best for him on the flood, while Partridge, Eastern and Coyote fish best on the ebb.
Ed Keller e-mailed to apologize for not yet putting dates on the two small, local blackmouth derbies he organizes each winter, but he said he has to wait until the state decides the season setup for Marine Areas 8-1, 8-2 and 9. He said he’ll pass along the information on the Hot Plugs and the Stanwood Eagles derbies as soon as he has it.
“I hope it won’t be a last minute, shotgun start like last year,” Keller said, “but keep the gear in the boat just in case.”
See the elk
Winter feeding by the Department of Fish and Wildlife is in full swing at the Oak Creek Wildlife Area northwest of Yakima, where hundreds of elk and bighorn sheep have come down from the high country to dine on alfalfa hay and pellets. Winter feeding also is underway at the Joe Watt Canyon Unit, west of Ellensburg.
Truck tours at Oak Creek are run at 11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., Thursday through Sunday, and take about a half-hour. Elk are fed at 1:30 p.m., and sheep at mid-morning.
“We had 55 bull elk, including spikes, the first week we started feeding,” said one of the volunteer hosts at Oak Creek.
Visitors can get a good view of the elk at both areas right from the parking lots. Binoculars are recommended, although the animals are clearly visible without them.
Those planning to visit can call 509-653-2390 for feeding and elk-viewing tours. Reservations for the tours must be made at least 48 hours in advance by calling 509-698-5106. Driving directions and other information on the wildlife area are available on the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s website.
It’s important to remember that a state Discover Pass, or WDFW access pass, is required to park at all WDFW wildlife areas. Visitors can purchase a Discover Pass Day Pass for about $11 at the area headquarters or on WDFW website.
Sturgeon
Lower Columbia (below Bonneville) sturgeon fishing has been catch and release since Jan. 1, 2014, because of a drop in population numbers from 1997 through 2013, according to Joe Hymer, state biologist at the Vancouver office. That may or may not change after a population assessment is announced by Washington and Oregon wildlife agencies at a joint meeting Friday.
Hymer said from Jan. 1 through September 2016, anglers made 4,300 catch-and-release trips for sturgeon on the lower river and released 23,800 legal size fish. During the gravy years, some 200,000 angler trips were recorded annually, falling to 33,000 trips in 2013. Recreational catch-and-keep quotas, meanwhile, declined from 54,000 fish in 1997 to 8,100 in 2013.
Until changed, lower Columbia sturgeon retention remains prohibited, although catch and release is allowed.
Slow steelheading
Paul Hoffarth, a state biologist in Pasco, said January was another slow month for steelhead fishermen on the lower Hanford Reach of the Columbia, above the Tri Cities. Just 21 steelhead were caught and kept for the month, the lowest catch on record for the period — this for an estimated 215 angler trips.
For the season, Hoffarth said an estimated 389 steelhead (mostly Ringold Hatchery fish) were caught and 252 kept, from 3,126 angler trips. The good news, he said, is that fishing usually picks up in February and that March is generally the top month in the season.
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