The big Everett Coho Derby is this weekend and it’s open to silvers taken in certain marine areas and all or parts of the local river systems, but those fishermen who choose the freshwater venue in which to utilize their derby ticket might be up against a stiff challenge.
And the problem, amazingly enough, will be one of too many salmon. More precisely, too many humpies.
“I’ve never seen so many pinks in the (Snohomish) river this late in the year,” guide and Snohomish resident John Thomas said. “I respect humpies a great deal for the recreation they provide, but for the river fishermen who have entered the Everett Coho Derby this weekend, it will come down to some serious weeding through the pinks to tangle with a silver. Tying on a Dick Nite this weekend and catching a silver is going to be a crapshoot at best.”
Guide and Arlington resident Sam Ingram agreed.
“The pinks just keep coming,” he said of the Skykomish River, “and trying to find a silver in all those fish is going to be a problem. That’s too bad, because there have been more and more coho coming up the system, and with the rain expected this week, I feel the derby winner could well be waiting in one of the rivers.”
On the Snohomish, Thomas suggests trolling plugs on the tide-influenced part of the river, because there are likely to be fewer pinks in that portion below Crabb Bar and because plugs generally seem to catch fewer pinks. He likes Fatfish and Wiggle Warts in orange, blue, and silver patterns, while Ingram, on the Skykomish, suggests the firetiger Fatfish. Ingram said an alternate to a Dick Nite spoon for boat or bank anglers on the river might be Corky and eggs. Bait is often a better bet for coho than it is for pinks, he said.
Saltwater or fresh, there should be excellent numbers of feisty coho available for the derby. The Edmonds event last weekend was outstanding, according to coordinator Steve Sande of the SnoKing Chapter of Puget Sound Anglers. The event drew a record crowd of 1,000 entrants and weighed an impressive 483 fish.
“It was amazing,” Sande said. “At the 2 p.m. cutoff in Edmonds there were still over 100 people in line, waiting to weigh fish.”
The winning Edmonds coho weighed 13 pounds, 7 ounces (dressed weight) and was caught by Gerald Davis right in front of Edmonds on a flasher/squid combo. Second went to Roger Atherton at 13-2, and third to William MacNeil at 12-11, both dressed weights.
The youth winner was Keila Kimura, at 9-10; second, Brian Reed at 9-9; and third, Brent Lane at 9-5.
The $45,000 boat/motor/trailer package offered by the Northwest Marine Trade Association as the grand prize for its year-long Northwest Salmon Derby Series went to Ivan Lee of Sammamish. Lee’s ticket, drawn at random, was purchased for the Anacortes Derby early in the year.
Another indicator of top coho fishing in local saltwater right now was the success of the weekend’s Everett Central Lions’ derby for the blind. The derby, utilizing local boats and volunteer skippers, has been a summer feature here since 1944, and this one was as good as anyone could remember — for pinks, yes, but also for coho.
State Fish and Wildlife Department creel checks on Saturday and Sunday at the Port of Everett ramp showed a total of 637 anglers with 458 coho and 379 pinks. At Olson’s Resort in Sekiu it was 235 fishermen on Sunday with 158 coho and 98 pinks. The previously productive beaches at Deception Pass State Park slowed substantially, showing five pinks and no coho for 42 beach fishermen on Sunday.
Record largemouth
The decline and fall of the U.S. of A. will not come in the form of gross national product figures from China or news that Microsoft headquarters is relocating to Sweden, but via the fact that our most cherished freshwater world fishing record has been equaled by a Japanese angler.
The International Game Fish Association has received documentation and photos of a pending world record largemouth bass caught in Japan which, if verified, would match the current IGFA all-tackle record fish (22 pounds, 4 ounces) caught 77 years ago by George Perry. Because the record has stood for so long, and because largemouth are arguably the most popular sportfishing species in the country, Perry’s feat has long been considered iconic by millions of anglers. The American record was caught June 2, 1932, on Montgomery Lake, near Jacksonville, Ga.
Manabu Kurita, 32, of Aichi, Japan, caught the new entry July 2, according to IGFA spokesman Pete Johnson, on Lake Biwa, “an ancient reservoir north of Kyoto,” and Japan’s largest lake.
Johnson said largemouth have been introduced to many countries, but are considered an invasive species by Japanese fisheries officials. Because bass are stocked there anyway, many thought Kurita’s big female was probably a sterile triploid, but after examination, that proved to not be the case.
IGFA world records coordinator Becky Wright said Kurita’s fish measured 27.20 inches in length and an almost equal girth of 26.77 inches. She reported Kurita “was using a bluegill as live bait trolling through a canal.”
It’s not clear exactly how one trolls a live bluegill, through a canal or anywhere else.
Boat basin coho
The increasingly popular fall fishery for adult coho returning to their net-pen origins in the Westport boat basin is under way, according to Jim Jackson of Angler Charters (1-800-422-0425). The accompanying derby started Tuesday and runs through Oct. 31, he said.
Fishing can be very good at times, off the boat docks, from shore, or from the fishing pier in the basin. Anglers cast and retrieve spinners such as the Flying C, other Mepps or Blue Fox spinners, and either anchovies or herring. The bait can be jigged from the docks, and is either cast and retrieved, or hung under a float, Jackson said.
“We’re expecting a record coho return for this fishery,” he said, “and they’re already catching them off the docks.”
New Director
Many — but certainly not all — in the outdoor sporting community were pleased to hear of the appointment of Phil Anderson to the post of director of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. The state Fish and Wildlife commission made the move Saturday at a meeting in Olympia. Anderson has served as interim director for the nine months since the resignation of the previous director, Dr. Jeff Koenings, and will oversee a department of 1,386 employees with a biennial budget of more than $350 million. He will be paid an annual salary of $141,000, subject to approval by Gov. Christine Gregoire.
Anderson joined the department in 1994 after serving seven years on the Pacific Fisheries Management Council as a private citizen. He comes from a background as an owner and operator of a charter fishing business in Westport. He still lives in Westport and is an avid hunter, fisherman and birdwatcher. He attended Grays Harbor College.
A strictly subjective view from this corner is that the majority of outdoor activists here are probably inclined to favor Anderson, on the belief that as interim director he has shown at least some inclination to place recreational use of the state’s fish and wildlife resources a little higher in the pecking order than some previous directors. He has been lauded particularly for his participation in a “North of Falcon” and salmon season-setting process this spring that turned out favorably for the recreational portion of the user-group equation.
Gary Krein, Everett resident and owner/skipper of All Star Charters, is a longtime recreational fishing activist and tireless worker for the benefit of the state’s salmon anglers. He said he’s happy with the appointment.
“I think the reaction of the fishing community around here is probably mixed,” he said, “but I’ve worked with the guy, and I supported him with letters and other contacts. He’s always been readily available to talk about issues, he listens to people, and he seems to be a real person. Plus, he seems still to love to fish.”
Krein said the people he’s heard commenting on the appointment seem to feel that while recreational anglers didn’t get everything they wanted with Anderson, for the most part he’s a supporter.
Hanford Reach
The fall chinook fishery is picking up on the Hanford Reach, where results were better last week than for the same period last year. State personnel checked 69 adult and 16 jack chinook for 313 anglers in 120 boats at the Vernita, Ringold, and Wahluke ramps.
Buoy 10
Most days private boaters are averaging about a coho per boat.
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