The summer salmon seasons are set, and looking at a couple of the most popular north Puget Sound recreational fisheries, anglers won one and lost one. The Skagit River/Baker Lake sockeye fishery should be substantially better than last year, partly because of a major change in regulations. On the other hand, the summer selective hatchery chinook season in Marine Areas 9 and 10 almost certainly will be a short, crowded shadow of its former self.
The sockeye season starts June 16 on the Skagit River and runs through July 15, with a three-fish limit. On Baker Lake, fishing opens July 10 and runs through Sept. 7, with a four-fish limit. The regulation change is a quota on the river’s recreational fishermen — the preseason run forecast, minus the spawning escapement goal, divided by two — to allow more sockeye to reach the lake. That was the big problem cited by many sport fishermen last year.
The slow lake fishery in 2014 was most likely due to two factors, according to state Fish and Wildlife Department biologist Brett Barkdull in La Conner. One was simply a run much smaller than forecast, probably because of poor ocean survival. And, second, because sockeye tend to come in suddenly, in a bunch, it’s difficult to tweak published regulations to adjust the harvest.
As a result, river recreational and tribal commercial fishers got their sockeye off the top, leaving lake anglers with the dregs of an already poor run. Barkdull said the 2014 return topped out at 27,000-plus salmon, below the preseason forecast by at least 8,000 fish. The forecast this year is for a run of 46,268 sockeye.
“We’re shooting for 80 percent of the non-tribal half to make it to the lake,” Barkdull said.
He added that he expects catchable numbers of sockeye to be in the river when it opens June 16.
Out in Marine Areas 9 and 10, it’s a different story. All Star Charters owner/skipper and recreational fishing activist Gary Krein said there will be no summer selective chinook retention in Area 10, and that the recreational quota in Area 9 has been cut by more than a third, to 2,458 fish this year compared to 3,900 kings in 2014.
That quota won’t last long.
“All those boats that fished Area 10 last year will be pushed up into 9, and we’ll be lucky to get a week to 10 days of fishing,” Krein said. “If you’re interested in that fishery, you’d better plan on getting right on it.”
The general summer season opens July 1 in Areas 9 and 10, with no chinook retention until Area 9 adds hatchery chinook catch and keep on July 16, under the above quota.
Plenty of trout
Edward Eleazer, hatchery manager at the state’s Region 4 Mill Creek office, said that opening-day lakes in our area still have good populations of catchable and triploid rainbows for the taking, in addition to the following plants:
— Lake Ballinger, planted May 4 with 2,200 catchable-size trout.
— Blackmans Lake, planted May 1 with 2,000 catchable trout, and scheduled for a plant June 16-19 of 1,000 catchables and 250 triploid rainbows averaging 1.5 pounds each.
— Silver Lake in south Everett, planted Wednesday with 350 triploids going 1.5 pounds each, and scheduled for 1,500 catchables Friday in a netted area at the city park for Saturday kids’ fishing event. Plants also are scheduled for May 11-13 (2,000 catchable rainbows) and June 16-19 (2,000 catchable rainbows).
— Lake Shoecraft, planted April 29 with 2,000 catchable rainbows.
— Gissberg Ponds, planted April 22 with 2,500 catchable rainbows split between the South pond (1,900) and the kids-only North pond (600). More plants are scheduled at the two ponds between mid-May and mid-June.
Shrimp
Mark O’Toole, the state’s shrimp manager for our area, said per-pot averages for the first day of the two-day recreational spot shrimp season were not available at the time of this writing, but that the overall effort was up from last year — about the same or slightly higher in Marine Areas 8-1 and 8-2, and up significantly in the Edmonds area.
The second (and last scheduled) day of our local season is May 13, and O’Toole said the possibility of an additional day depends on analysis of the data. Area 8 had a third day added last year, he said.
Razor clams
State shellfish managers have scheduled a four-day razor clam dig on selected coastal beaches. Low tides are as follows: today, 9:30 a.m., minus 0.8 feet, at Long Beach and Twin Harbors beaches; Friday, 10:14 a.m., minus 0.7 feet, at Long Beach, Twin Harbors and Mocrocks; Saturday, 11:03 a.m., minus 0.4 feet at Long Beach, Twin Harbors, and Mocrocks; and Sunday, 11:58 a.m., minus 0.1 feet at Long Beach, Twin Harbors and Mocrocks.
Generally, there would be no afternoon digging on these tides, but clam manager Dan Ayres said the Sunday dig will be extended to 1 p.m.
Springers
A stronger than expected spring chinook run in the Columbia has prompted salmon managers to reopen recreational fishing in the lower river for one day on Saturday and again from May 16 through June 15 upriver to Beachon Rock. The additional fishing opportunity starting May 16 will coincide with the opening of the steelhead fishery.
The decision to extend the fishery was based on a new run forecast of 241,000 adult springers past Bonneville, 8,500 more fish than originally projected. Through Wednesday, the total catch by anglers from the mouth of the river to the Washington/Oregon line was expected to reach 13,170 adult upriver chinook.
At Drano Lake, above Bonneville Dam, checks last week showed better than one springer kept for every two boat anglers. At the Wind River, boaters averaged one chinook for every 3.6 rods last week. Fair to good fishing for spring chinook and steelhead continues on the Cowlitz.
Portions of the lower Yakima River opened for spring chinook May 2, but it’s early yet for decent fishing. Checks over the weekend showed 79 anglers with one hatchery springer kept and one wild fish released, plus 24 bass fishermen who had 15 smallmouth.
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