The early, selective, winter blackmouth season in Marine Areas 8-1 and 8-2 has been pretty much a bust so far, with the exception of portions of Saratoga Passage, but that’s not an unexpected situation.
All Star Charters owner/skipper Gary Krein said it’s a repeat of last year, when the local chinook fishery didn’t pick up until December and January.
“October was pretty slow (last year), and then we all switched over to Area 9 when it opened in November,” Krein said. “When we came back to 8-1 and 8-2 in December, we found some very decent fishing.”
The most consistent fishing currently is along the Whidbey shoreline around Langley, Krein said, and across the passage in Elger Bay, just south of the Camano State Park ramp. Checks at the Port of Everett ramp have been dismal, showing just a 1- or 2-percent success rate, with most of those fish coming from Saratoga Passage.
Krein said there was a bright spot, however, in the fact that if you can avoid the shakers and tempt a decent fish, it’s likely to be larger than barely legal.
“We’re seeing most fish in the 8-pound range,” Krein said, “going 26 to 30 inches or so.”
Krein has been fishing consistently at about 90 feet, using larger lures in order to discourage the shakers. He likes 4-inch Tomic plugs in mother of pearl, green spatterback, or green stripe (numbers 603, 84FLG, or 128), or the 4-inch green spatterback Silver Horde. The plugs have been out-fishing both hoochies and spoons, he said.
When Marine Area 9 opens on Nov. 1, Krein said he expects more legal fish to be available, based on the numbers of chinook taken incidentally during the late coho fishery. Possession Bar should be the top spot, he said, followed by Double Bluff and Point No Point.
Krein will be the featured speaker at the Oct. 25 meeting of the Laebugten Salmon Club, starting at 7 p.m. at the Edmonds Senior Center. His topic is how to fish Area 9 for blackmouth. The public is welcome.
Farther north, the banks (Hein, Middle, and others) out toward the Strait of Juan de Fuca have produced fish.
Maximum numbers of coho are in the rivers now, and while biters are hard to find, it’s not impossible. Anglers on the Snohomish have been hitting the occasional bite upriver from Snohomish, and the Skagit continues as arguably the best freshwater silver opportunity in the area, according to Bob Ferber at Holiday Market Sports in Burlington. Recent rains should help, Ferber said, because the Skagit has been running too low and clear for optimum fishing.
Reports indicate early chums are taking plugs in the lower reaches of both the Snohomish and Skagit.
Anglers continue to have a ball with a potpourri on the Cowlitz, including adult and jack coho, fall chinook, summer steelhead and nice-sized sea-run cutthroat.
Oct. 22 is the last day of the Hanford Reach fall chinook fishery, or at least the most popular portion of it, from the old Hanford town site up to Priest Rapids Dam, and counts have shown a run about 30 percent below last year’s. State Department of Fish and Wildlife checks last week showed about a king per boat, or one for every 14 angler hours.
The major attraction of this “upriver bright” fall fishery is the average size of the kings involved. Fish in the 40- and 50-pound range are taken every year and, while they darken quickly, chinook that size can pull anglers out of the woodwork. Case in point: Dan Hodge, fishing with Seattle-based Eli Rico of Hot Shot Fishing Guide Service, boated a trophy of 54.8 pounds below Priest Rapids Dam on Sunday, drifting Pautzke Fire Cure eggs on Gamakatsu 3/0 hooks.
The Yakima River chinook fishery is down by 50 percent from last year, according to the state, with 73 kings landed last week and a total of 439 for the season.
Some 57 bank fishermen on the Columbia at the Ringold Hatchery, upstream from the Tri-Cities, reported catching 14 steelhead last week, or about one fish per 17 angler hours. Boat fishermen in the same area, concentrating on salmon, caught 36 chinook for the 125 persons contacted.
Derby: If you consider yourself a serious salmon fisherman, you probably know all about the Roche Harbor Invitational – perhaps the richest blackmouth derby around. This winter’s version is scheduled for Feb. 8-10, offering $10,000 for first place, $5,000 for second, $1,500 for third and $1,000 for fourth, plus a total boat weight prize of $1,500 and nightly drawings for top-flight merchandise. The event is also the first on next year’s Northwest Marine Trade Association’s derby series, qualifying entrants for boat/motor/trailer package drawings at the end of the year.
Register by Oct. 31 and save $50 off the $600-per-boat entry fee (four anglers per vessel). For more information and registration packets, contact Debbie Sandwith at 360-378-5562 or send an e-mail to market@rocheharbor.com.
Clams: Mark your calendars and sight in your clam guns, diggers – state shellfish managers have scheduled three more coastal razor clam digs this year, beginning with one on Nov. 3-5 at three beaches. Long Beach, Twin Harbors and Mocrocks open on afternoon tides, assuming marine toxin tests OK the dig. A fourth evening is scheduled for Nov. 6 at Twin Harbors only.
Copalis and Kalaloch beaches will remain closed in November – Copalis because of a low clam population, and Kalaloch because Olympic National Park staff will be occupied with elk season.
The second tentative dig, Dec. 2-3, will see Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Mocrocks and Kalaloch open to digging, and Twin Harbors scheduled for an additional day on Dec. 4.
A third opening occurs over the New Year’s holiday, Dec. 31 on all five ocean beaches, including Copalis, and continuing Jan. 1 on Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Mocrocks and Kalaloch, then Jan. 2 at Twin Harbors only.
Tides for the first opening are as follows: Nov. 3, minus 0.3 feet at 4:32 p.m.; Nov. 4, minus 1.1 feet at 5:23 p.m.; Nov. 5, minus 1.6 feet at 6:11 p.m.; and Nov. 6, minus 1.7 feet at 6:59 p.m.
Shellfish biologist Dan Ayres in Montesano said the extra openings at Twin Harbors reflect the fact that clam populations on beaches south of Grays Harbor are greater than those north.
Hunting results: The state no longer collates and publicizes hunting results as they once did, but sketchy reports from opening weekend of both the statewide waterfowl and rifle deer seasons give some indication of success rates.
The whitetail numbers from northeast Washington were, as expected, the best in the state. Checks at the Deer Park station north of Spokane showed 272 hunters with 41 deer. Mule deer hunters in the Methow fared well, also. Checks at the Chewuch station tallied 27 deer for 341 hunters.
Results from southwest Washington and Klickitat County weren’t all that encouraging, with the Yacolt station counting 12 bucks for 727 hunters, and the Klickitat Wildlife Area, three bucks and one doe for 143 guns. The southwest was popcorn dry, however, on Saturday, and drowned on Sunday, while the Klickitat Wildlife Area was operating under new and more restrictive regulations that will take a couple of seasons to work out.
No official waterfowl numbers were available, but avid local hunter and waterfowl advocate Rone Brewer of the Northwest Chapter of the Washington Waterfowl Association, said it was his opinion that there were very positive numbers of ducks and snow geese around on opening weekend – probably better than last year.
“Duck hunting should be good on Skagit Bay for the next couple of weeks, then you may want to transition to planted fields at the Skagit Headquarters and Samish units of the Skagit Wildlife Area,” Brewer said. “Wind and rain are crucial to good hunting on the bayfront.”
Smelt: Early smelt jiggers are already working off the docks at Cornet Bay, a portion of Deception Pass State Park to the east of the park entrance.
Local success: Ardasher Sobir, 8, caught one of those big triploid rainbows in Silver Lake on Oct. 10. REALLY big, at 28 inches and 9 pounds.
And, Zack Landreth, also 8, of Edmonds, boated a 4.75-pound Mackinaw on Lake Chelan with guide Anton Jones on Friday. It was Zack’s first fish ever.
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