Baker Lake sockeye and marine areas 9 and 10 selective chinook are two of the most popular Puget Sound-area openings included in the state/tribal summer salmon seasons agreement reached May 26. But only if the agreement is approved by NOAA Fisheries officials in Portland and Seattle.
And when is that approval likely to come down? No one knows for sure, but state Departmen of Fish and Wildlife salmon policy lead John Long said, “We hope that will happen in the next couple of weeks.”
So all the following information is completely dependent upon federal approval of the negotiated seasons and limits.
There will be a recreational sockeye fishery in both the Skagit River and Baker Lake, if approved, according to WDFW biologist Brett Barkdull in La Conner. The river season would run from June 16 through July 15, and the lake from June 10 through Sept. 7, or until quotas are reached. The run size forecast is about 55,000, and up to 20 percent of the non-tribal harvestable fish could be taken in the river. Subtract the tribal and river harvest, and those fish required for spawning purposes, and Barkdull said that would leave roughly 19,000 sockeye for Baker Lake anglers. If this scenario plays out positively, that number should provide a solid fishery, he said.
The Skagit River will not open for spring chinook until federal approval, and then will close to protect a depressed coho run from Sept. 16 through the end of November. Other river systems to close to salmon fishing all or in part, in September and October, include the Cascade, Snohomish, Snoqualmie, main Stillaguamish and Lakes Washington and Sammamish. The Skykomish will open for hatchery chinook and steelhead after federal approval, through July 30.
The adult hatchery chinook fishery in marine areas 9 and 10 (Including Possession Bar and Midchannel Bank) will open July 16 and is scheduled to run through Aug. 15, although quotas will almost certainly be met long before that date. All Star Charters owner/skipper Gary Krein in Everett, a longtime sport fishing activist, gives the fishery one to two weeks, max.
There will be no coho fishing in Puget Sound this summer, except for Hood Canal, and marine areas 8-1 and 8-2 will not open to salmon fishing until November.
The Tulalip Bubble will open but Krein said, “It’s been very poor fishing the last four or five years.”
The San Juan Islands will open July 1 and run all summer, he said, but with one change — the month of July will be open to hatchery chinook only; a limit of two fin-clipped fish. In August, Krein said, the islands revert to the usual summer salmon schedule of one hatchery or wild chinook plus one other salmon except coho. That would likely be a sockeye.
“Area 7 came through all the trouble relatively unscathed,” Krein said.
Marine areas 5 and 6, Sekiu and the east end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, will be open July 1-Aug. 15 for two hatchery chinook and two sockeye.
Fishing piers will be closed to salmon fishing in September and October, but anglers can take one chinook (release coho) when the piers are open.
The salmon closures don’t apply to Columbia River or other eastside fisheries, and WDFW biologist Travis Maitland said he’s optimistic that there will be a Lake Wenatchee sockeye opening. The Wenatchee fish weren’t hit as badly by last year’s disaster which almost wiped out the upriver (primarily Okanogan River) portion of the run. Too-warm Columbia water temperatures fostered diseases which killed thousands of sockeye, but fish that were a year away from spawning will come in this summer, plus those which survived last year in the Wenatchee River’s cooler water.
The run forecast is for 57,000 Wenatchee sockeye to the mouth of the Columbia, and Maitland hopes at least 23,000 will make it over Tumwater Dam. If at least that many fish are counted, a recreational fishery in the lake would be a go.
“We should know how many fish we have by mid- to late July,” Maitland said.
State biologist Joe Hymer in Vancouver said salmon fishermen can look to the Columbia River for some good fishing this summer and fall, except for coho. The forecast for summer chinook, at 93,300 fish, could be the third largest in recent history, he says, and the run will end up in the Brewster area, which opens July 16. Fall Chinook are again looking very strong, with a forecast 960,000, even though that’s down a little from last year’s 1.3 million. A lot of those kings will be taken in the Buoy 10 fishery, which opens Aug. 1. The upriver bright portion of the run furnishes the fish for the popular Hanford Reach fishery above the Tri-Cities, which opens Aug. 16.
Halibut
The 2016 Port Angeles Halibut Derby was won by Kenneth Riggs of Port Angeles, with a fish of 78 pounds worth $5,000; second was Chris Bryant of Arlington, at 69.7 pounds worth $2,500; third was Robin Kirkman of Port Angeles, at 67.6 pounds worth $1,500; and fourth, Auggie Saucedo of Woodland, at 67.1 pounds worth $1,200. Smallest fish on the prize ladder, number 30, weighed 42.5 pounds, worth $135.
Last year’s top two halibut weighed 143 and 107 pounds respectively.
Derby spokesman Norm Metzler said the event drew 600 anglers this year, a solid increase over last year’s 535 participants. Saturday saw good weather and flat water, but Sunday blew up ugly, Metzler said. Even so, the first- and second-place fish came in Sunday.
More shrimp
The WDFW on Wednesday increased the daily limit of all shrimp species, including spot shrimp, to 160 shrimp in marine areas 6 and 7-West. Open daily.
Additionally, marine areas 8-1, 8-2, 9 and 11 are reopening for recreational coonstripe and pink shrimp fishing, with a 150-foot maximum fishing depth restriction. Also reopening for coonstripes and pinks is area 7-East.
Early crab
Five areas of Puget Sound will open for summer recreational crab fishing seasons this month, a month earlier than other Puget Sound crab fisheries. Sampling has shown a good, hard-shell crab condition in these areas, and biologists saw no reason to wait. WDFW shellfish lead Rich Childers said recreational crabbers have not met the quota in these areas, so the department can afford to give them more time this year.
The areas are Marine Area 13, June 2-Sept. 5, closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays; Areas 4, 5, and 12, June 16-Sept. 5, closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays; and the northern portion of Area 9, June 16-Sept.5 north of the Hood Canal Bridge, closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
