Although most local saltwater anglers are looking forward to the Marine Area 9 opener, it could be a mistake to write off areas 8-1 and 8-2. Blackmouth fishing in the latter spots has improved steadily over the past couple weeks, from Fox’s Spit north to Greenbank on the Whidbey Island side, and around Onomac and in Elger Bay on the Camano side. A stretch of flat water, for a change, pulled recreationists out of the woodwork last weekend, and they found at least fair fishing in Saratoga Passage.
State Department of Fish and Wildlife creel checks at the Camano State Park ramp on Saturday noted 27 boats with seven fish, and on Sunday, 36 boats with six fish. At the Port of Everett ramp it was 91 boats over the weekend with 42 chinook, including a couple fish in the teens. That’s not bad fishing, and a large improvement over success rates earlier in the season.
Bob Ferber at Holiday Market Sports in Burlington (360-757-4361) said larger blackmouth, and perhaps fewer shakers, were being found in the north portion of the area, as opposed to Hat Island and the “racetrack” (the ridge between Hat Island and Camano Head) in the south.
Marine Area 7 (most of the San Juan Islands) also opens today, and anglers north of us are looking back at the excellent season last winter and straining at the leash. Most any of the normally productive spots could and should produce blackmouth, Ferber said, including easy-to-reach “inside” waters such as Thatcher Pass (south end of Blakely Island to Black Rock), Lopez Flats, Kellet Ledge and Point Lawrence.
“At least some of the optimism up this way is being generated by the new Anacortes Salmon Derby scheduled for March 10 and 11,” Ferber said. “With a first prize of $5,000, it looks like a top event, particularly for its debut run.”
Go to www.anacortessalmonderby.com for more information.
Mike Chamberlain at Ted’s Sport Center in Lynnwood (425-743-9505) has always had a soft spot for the Discovery Bay Derby, coming up this year on Feb. 17, 18 and 19, and he offers tickets ($30) and advice (free) at his shop. The event benefits the Jefferson County District 5 volunteer fire department, and features a $3,000 first prize.
Chamberlain said the next two or three weeks in Area 9 should see good numbers of fish just over legal length, judging by the population that was just under legal back in November.
“For my money it will be Silver Horde plugs in 4- or 5-inch sizes, glow mother of pearl No. 560, or glow mother of pearl chartreuse stripe No. 561,” he said. “Or Tomic plugs such as the No. 602 glow mother of pearl (pink face), the No. 603 (red face), No. 600 glow with chartreuse scale, or No. 632 glow with fluorescent green top and black scale overlay.”
Another good setup for Area 9 over the next few weeks, he said, would be the Hot Spot flasher in 11-inch model, glow green or glow white, followed by a glow Golden Bait hoochie, No. 35 size, in OG55R, OG140R or OG142R color patterns. Coyote spoons in 50-50 glow/fluorescent green, yellowtail or frog racer would be a third possibility.
Smelt: The smelt have finally shown up along the Everett waterfront, Chamberlain said – best on the last couple of hours of the incoming tide – and a little smaller in size than those being taken at Cornet Bay. Mill Run chum is a popular attractant, he said.
Cornet Bay continues to produce fairly good smelt jigging, according to Ferber, and he said word is out that a few fish have been taken, off and on, at the Oak Harbor Marina, also on the incoming tide.
Steelhead: It’s transition time between a fading hatchery run and an increasing influx of wild-stock fish on most rivers, with the best fishing still to be found in, and at the mouth of, Blue Creek on the Cowlitz, where 56 bank anglers were checked with 31 steelhead kept and two released last week.
Elsewhere, serious fishermen are hitting a few steelhead in a lot of different spots, including the Skykomish, where guide and Arlington resident Sam Ingram (360-435-9311) said reliable reports indicated one party drifted from the Sultan down to Ben Howard on Tuesday, hitting one nice fish and losing another, while a second party worked High Bridge down to Sultan, finding three and releasing a nice 15-pound native.
The Sky had maybe 2 feet of visibility below the Sultan, Ingram said, and 4 or 5 feet above it.
The Skagit is producing steelhead nearly its entire length, from the plunking bars at Mount Vernon (mostly natives now) through the Lyman/Hamilton-Concrete-Rockport stretch (a mix of natives and hatchery fish) on up to the Cascade, where a shrimp tail under a float can still take a hatchery fish or two.
The Kalama remains a good bet, with late-run hatchery and wild fish starting to replace what has been an excellent early-stock hatchery run.
Trout: Fly fishermen at Lone Lake on Whidbey Island are landing some nice rainbows on blood worms with strike indicator, or mooched woolly buggers in black or a black/olive combo.
Good ice fishing on Roses and Rat lakes, over the Cascades, and on the lower end of Rufus Woods Reservoir for triploid rainbows to 6 or 8 pounds, and kokanee in the 16- to 21-inch range. Mackinaw fishing is hot on Lake Chelan, according to guide Anton Jones of Chelan (antonj@aol.com). Lots of yellow perch available on Banks Lake, at the causeway just out of Electric City, on a Swedish Pimple with piece of perch meat.
Couple of things to do: The Sno-King chapter of Puget Sound Anglers features Mike Jamboretz of Jambo’s Sportfishing at its Feb. 8 meeting. The gathering is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the South County Senior Center in Edmonds (220 Railroad Ave.). The charter skipper will discuss ocean halibut, bottomfish and salmon opportunities coming up this year. Admission is free. For more information, go to www.psasnoking.com.
The Olympic Peninsula Fly Fishing Expo runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds in Port Townsend. This is a nice little fly fishing show, with some very good talent, and a chance to make it a day in scenic Port Townsend.
Admission is $9 for adults, $2 for children 12 and under, and parking is free. Headliners this year include fly fishing celebrity Brian O’Keefe, author Les Johnson, and author Skip Morris. Various slide shows and seminars include summer steelhead and cutthroat on the Bogachiel; Yakima River flies; beach fishing for cutthroat and salmon; fly fishing for bass and panfish, and many others.
For more information, visit www.cataraft.com/ffexpo07.htm.
Halibut: There’s a big brouhaha up north over a proposal made at the recent International Pacific Halibut Commission meeting in Victoria, B.C., to reduce the Alaskan sport charter halibut catch this summer from two fish to one. The reduction could severely impact the number of out-of-state fishermen coming to such bottomfish hot spots as Sitka and Homer, according to the Alaska Charter Association.
Over the past few seasons, sport fishermen caught about 10 percent of all halibut taken in Alaska, according to the association. Some charter operators complained that the entire sport catch is less than the commercial by-catch – the halibut thrown away by commercial fishermen engaged in fisheries for other species.
The charter industry is hoping to persuade the federal authorities to not sign off on the proposal, which is due for consideration by the middle of this month.
Meanwhile the commission set catch quotas for Washington, Oregon and California, and the numbers for this summer, while slightly under those of last year, are still well above recent averages.
Neah Bay opens May 15, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays only, and closes when the quota of about 84,000 pounds is reached. It reopens June 19 under a late-season quota of 32,500 pounds.
Westport opens May 1, Sundays through Thursdays, with a quota of 51,000 pounds; and Ilwaco opens May 1, seven days, on a quota of 20,400 pounds.
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