Although it was pretty much cut to a one-day event by strong winds on Sunday, the much-anticipated inaugural running of the Anacortes Salmon Derby over the weekend was still a resounding success. The chinook were big, they were plentiful, and anglers turned out by the boatload, according to derby coordinator Jay Fields.
“Our goal was to sell 300 tickets (at $50),” Fields said, “and we ended up selling 752.”
The top chinook weighed 22.08 pounds and earned Ronald Hemming of Puyallup a check for $5,000 – a clipped hatchery fish taken at Spring Pass on plug-cut herring. Second place and $1,500 went to Bob Burriss of Burlington, at 21.3 pounds, and third to Matt Minnis of Eastsound ($500) at 19.2 pounds.
Fields said fishing was very good until Saturday morning about 11 a.m., when the wind came up, and anglers started scrambling to get back to the dock. Some of the better areas included Thatcher Pass, Point Lawrence, Obstruction Pass, Peavine Pass, Spring Pass and Parker Reef.
“Nobody much wanted to chance a run out to the banks,” said Tony Floor, a representative of the ongoing Salmon Derby Series and the Northwest Marine Trade Association. “But they didn’t have to – there were plenty of fish inside.”
Fields said a total of 155 salmon were weighed in, and that the top five were all over 17 pounds. Kevin Treadwell of Oak Harbor won the “secret weight” prize, $2,000, for his blackmouth of 11.35 pounds. There were 30 youngsters fishing in the Under 14 division, and Jordan Beemer of Anacortes took home the first-place prize of $500 for his 14.8-pound salmon. Some 61 anglers entered the women’s division, won by Connie Lootens of Ferndale ($500) at 14.86 pounds.
“A lot of folks are saying this is probably the best blackmouth season in 20 years,” Fields said. “And these are nice fish. The average blackmouth, usually going 8 or 9 pounds, is running 10 to 12 pounds instead.”
The derby was sponsored by the Fidalgo Island Chapter, Puget Sound Anglers, and proceeds went to the club’s scholarship fund for college-bound students in fisheries or allied natural science. The derby will almost certainly run again next year, Fields said.
Next derby: Bob Ferber at Holiday Market Sports in Burlington said a reliable source reported a 28-pound clipped springer taken on a flasher/spoon near the green can out of Oak Harbor over the weekend, along with several other nice fish there and at Widow Isle, between Oak Harbor and Greenbank. “That bodes well for the Hot Plug Derby this weekend in (Marine Areas) 8-1 and 8-2,” Ferber said.
Bill Hayes’ Hot Plug Derby runs Saturday and Sunday, offering cash prizes of a percentage of gross entry fees for the first four places – first place gets 45 percent – plus a lot of quality merchandise prizes. Tickets are $60, available at Stanwood Eagles, Camano Marine, Hook, Line &Sinker in Smokey Point, and Jerry’s Surplus and John’s Sporting Goods, both in Everett. For more information call Hayes at 360-387-5638, or 425-231-5640.
Local blackmouth: It appears that both ends of the area are currently offering hot salmon fishing – the San Juan Islands to the north, and the Possession Bar/Double Bluff/Point No Point triangle to the south, but that things have slowed considerably in the middle. Saratoga Passage and the Hat Island area are showing a few fish, but spots north and south are better.
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife personnel checked 236 anglers on derby day at Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes with 107 fish on Saturday, and out toward Port Angeles, 47 anglers had 20 fish at the Ediz Hook ramp, also on Saturday. At the Port of Everett ramp, on the same day, 64 anglers fishing more locally had just eight blackmouth.
Gary Krein, owner/skipper of All Star Charters in Everett said action continues first rate in the “triangle.”
“If you’re anywhere in that area, right on bottom, I don’t see how you can miss,” Krein said.
He’s been trolling a small Coyote spoon behind a flasher, in funky chicken, yellowtail, or frog racer pattern. And while blackmouth numbers are good there, the fish are running smaller, on the whole, than those farther north toward the San Juans. Krein, also, feels that the Hot Plug winner will come from the north end of Saratoga Passage. “As close as you can get to the islands,” he said.
Trout: Okay, trout fishermen, it’s time to cast off the shackles of winter, to flee from cabin fever, to purge the fishless days of February, and get out there and catch BIG rainbow. The two excellent groups which bring you head-banging triploid ‘bows every spring – the Snohomish Sportsmen’s Club and the Everett Steelhead and Salmon Club – are flush with Coho Derby proceeds and ready to deal.
As a matter of fact, plants have already started. The Snohomish club’s president, Mark Spada, said some 200 triploid rainbow have been trucked to both Flowing Lake and Blackmans Lake, consisting of mainly 11- to 14-inch fish but with a sprinkling of trout going 1 to 3 pounds.
The program is expanding this year, Spada said, and the next two lakes – Chain and Panther – are due to receive their first plants of the spring this week, assuming some minor permit problems are ironed out. Waiting in the wings for the following week are Silver Lake and North and South Gissberg Ponds.
“We would like to hit two lakes each week for about eight straight weeks, on a rotation, with perhaps a little extra emphasis on Flowing and Blackman’s because of the fishing pressure they receive,” Spada said.
Trout take a while to acclimate to a new home, and water temperatures are cold this time of year, but Spada said fishing shallower parts of the various lakes and/or closer to the surface, should still be successful. Small lures such as the Dick Nite spoon or the Roostertail spinner, trolled or cast and retrieved close to the surface would be a good bet. Bait fishermen should probably work within six feet of the surface, under a bobber, rather than on the bottom.
Blackmans Lake is on the north edge of Snohomish. Flowing, Chain and Panther are all in the group northeast of Snohomish; Silver is in south Everett; and Gissberg Ponds are north of Marysville, adjacent to the west side of I-5 at Smokey Point.
In the Columbia Basin, ice is off Potholes Reservoir and the seep lakes below it, according to Katie Lang at MarDon Resort on the reservoir, and trout fishing is getting underway. Anglers at and near the resort, using bait, are starting to take rainbow to 3 or 4 pounds, Lang said, and bass fishing in the shallower, warmer water of the dunes area is starting to perk.
The resort’s popular net-pen release day, when thousands of chunky rainbow are released in front of the fishing pier, and no fee is charged to fish, is scheduled for April 6 this year. For details call 1-800-416-2736.
Razor clams: The last evening-tide razor clam dig of the season got the green light from state health officials for Friday, Saturday and Sunday on coastal beaches, under the following schedule: March 16, Long Beach, Twin Harbors, and Mocrocks. March 17, all beaches; March 18, Long Beach, Twin Harbors and Kalaloch.
While more daytime hours are a bonus for clam diggers, state shellfish manager Dan Ayres in Montesano warned that tide books will probably not reflect the early onset of daylight saving time this year. Evening low tides (in daylight saving time) will be at 5:31 p.m. March 16, plus 0.1 feet; 6:16 p.m. March 17, minus 0.1 feet; and 6:58 p.m. March 18, minus 0.1 feet.
The Ocean Shores Chamber of Commerce is planning a razor clam festival on Saturday, to include a clam chowder cook-off, live music, and a lot more. Call 360-289-2451, or go online to www.oceanshores.org.
Ayres said the department would like to provide some morning-dig opportunities in April, but would first have to assess how many clams are left from winter digs.
Springers: Still slow in the lower Columbia, where state personnel checked 243 boats below I-5 with 31 chinook last week, about the same catch rate as last year at this time. Some 71 percent of the kept fish were fin clipped.
Peak of this season should be coming up in the next three weeks.
The springer fisheries at the mouth of the Wind River and on Drano Lake (mouth of the Little White Salmon) open Friday, but with changes. While the limits on Drano Lake and at the Klickitat will start out the same as last year, regulations may have to be adjusted later in the season. At the Wind River, the daily limit has been cut from two to one hatchery spring chinook per day, and the river will remain closed to all fishing upstream from Shipherd Falls until the C&R season begins in September.
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