While it’s not official, the word up and down the west coast is that chinook runs this year are poor, below expectations, or late, depending on how optimistic you tend to be. What the reason or reasons might be, or whether this lamentable situation will hold for coho, pinks, and chums, remains to be seen.
Some are breaking out the old “poor ocean survival” routine, some blame a minor El Nino situation, and longtime fish biologist Ernie Brannon, quoted in The Reel News, says he sees at least some correlation between high commercial chinook catches in Alaska and British Columbia, and low numbers returning here.
“Out at Sekiu, for instance, checks show they took something like 249 chinook during the first 10 days of that selective season,” said All Star Charters owner/skipper Gary Krein in Everett, “while last year for the same period it was around 1,300 fish. They’re doing fairly well on a few chinook and some coho out of Neah Bay and Ilwaco, but they’re having to run 30 miles out to do it. That’s a long way, even though the silvers are a fair size for this time of year.”
Fishing has been slow at Westport, according to Kelly Westrick at Westport Charters, with no real concentrations of salmon to target. Even albacore, which had moved in within 18 miles on warm water, have moved back out as surface temperatures dropped 10 degrees in the past few days. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife checks showed about a fish and a half per rod at Ilwaco, 85 percent coho going 5 to 6 pounds, while Westport charter checks showed mostly chinook in the teens, and about two-thirds of a fish per rod.
Sekiu anglers have the advantage currently of a potpourri of salmon, which makes the dearth of kings a little easier to take. Checks Saturday at Olson’s Resort showed 145 fishermen with 11 chinook, 6 coho, and 68 pinks. At Van Riper’s on Sunday, it was 88 anglers with 12 chinook, 5 coho, and 86 pinks.
The San Juan Islands have been decent the past couple of weeks, according to Bob Ferber at Holiday Market Sports in Burlington. The west side of San Juan Island has been reasonably consistent, with a 40-pounder taken a week or so ago. The south end of Blakely is another good bet, and Point Wilson darts, worked off Eagle Bluff, have taken fish. Sucia Island is another possibility, on the morning high tide, using green flasher and green squid, Ferber said.
More locally, the Tulalip bubble has been tough. Checks at the Port of Everett ramp over the weekend tallied 500 anglers with 7 chinook, 7 coho, and no pinks. Guide and Lake Stevens resident Tom Nelson said that while some of the returning kings are earlier summer chinook, the majority coming back will be the usual fall fish, and so the peak of the action will probably be in early August. Tulalip commercial netters have taken kings to 53 pounds, Nelson said.
Elliott Bay has been better than Tulalip so far for chinook, but that really isn’t saying much. Checks at the Armeni ramp in West Seattle on Sunday showed 170 anglers with 9 kings, and Nelson said the top spot is at daylight in front of the East Waterway.
South Puget Sound has been fair, but even there the results aren’t matching the excellent results on chinook last year and the year before. Saturday was a good day in the Point Defiance area, where the state checked 89 anglers with 18 chinook at the Point Defiance ramp, but other south Sound areas didn’t show the same spike.
Upper Columbia summer chinook: Guide and Brewster resident Rod Hammons said the July 16 opener on summer kings in the Wells Dam/Okanogan River area of the Columbia was hot for the first day or two, but somewhat disappointing after that. Dodger and herring are the best choice, Hammons said.
Baker River sockeye: The sockeye fishery in the lower end of the Baker and a portion of the adjacent Skagit has settled into a pattern, according to Bob Ferber (above). He says customers are reporting 5 or 6 fish taken each morning for 30 or so anglers in residence, mostly plunking a small Spin N Glo with shrimp.
Humpies: Pinks are showing in force on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and a large run is predicted this summer to most local river systems (except the Stillaguamish), but few have been taken locally. A scattering in the San Juans and Hood Canal, and Krein (above) said he had reports of the odd pink or two over the weekend in Area 10 and the Tulalip bubble, but nothing of real interest.
Krein said the historical peak of pink salmon action locally falls between Aug. 20 and 25 each summer. Meanwhile, he’s finding pretty good fishing for smallish coho (2 to 4 pounds), trolling flasher and green or white squid off Jefferson Head, only 20 to 40 feet deep.
Lake Washington sockeye: Some recreational fishermen are complaining about tribal commercial netting of a badly depressed sockeye run to Lake Washington – one on which no sport season will be allowed. The state replies that what they’re seeing is the process of taking a limited number of the small salmon at the locks for research, and/or a Suquamish tribal ceremonial fishery for no more than 400 sockeye, in the ship canal below the locks.
The crab wars: Recreational crabbing has been pretty fair around the Sound, but the state isn’t happy about compliance, or lack of it, with new, more stringent regulations. The season opened July 1 in eight areas of Puget Sound, but fishing is restricted to Wednesdays through Saturdays (except for Labor Day weekend, which will be open all three holiday days). Daily crabbing is allowed only at Neah Bay and Sekiu, and in south Puget Sound.
“Some crab fishers apparently didn’t get the message about the new rules,” said Capt. Mike Cenci, head of the state marine enforcement division. “We gave a lot of people the benefit of the doubt (early in the season), but we’re taking a harder line now.”
There seems to be some feeling among at least a percentage of recreational crabbers that the new regs are, for whatever reason, not “legitimate.”
“We encountered one guy fishing on a Sunday who said he didn’t care what the regulations were,” Cenci was quoted as saying. “That just makes giving someone a citation a lot easier.”
And you have to wonder if that kind of arrogance really helps in a situation where the user group already feels like it’s getting the short end of the crab allocation stick.
Trout: Good reports of rainbow trout fishing from lakes Armstrong, Goodwin, and Stevens, and kokanee in Stevens and Samish, according to Mike Chamberlain at Ted’s Sport Center in Lynnwood.
Chamberlain’s tackle shop, by the way, has garnered a rather prestigious honor. It has been included in a list of the top 10 tackle stores in the country by Field &Stream magazine, due out in next month’s issue.
The magazine points out that good tackle shops are much more than a place to purchase rods, reels and other gear, saying such entities introduce beginners to the sport, provide where-to and how-to information to the more experienced, provide a venue to hang out and talk fishing, and otherwise help insure that local fishing remains a viable activity.
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