Tuesday’s winter blackmouth opener in local saltwater should be a better bet than last year’s, if only because anglers won’t be wasting half their fishing time releasing shakers. According to state salmon manager Mark Baltzel, WDFW test fishing boats report about a one-to-one ratio of legal to sub-legal chinook recently, way below last year’s 20-to-1 ratio in some places.
The large number of sub-legal chinook in marine areas 8-1, 8-2 and 9 last year ate up a large percentage of the allowed “encounters” and forced early closure of seasons. The lower shaker count, plus a limit reduction this winter from two fish to one, will hopefully allow full-season fisheries, Baltzel said.
Marine areas 8-1 (Deception Pass, Skagit Bay) and 8-2 (Port Susan, Port Gardner) will be open Nov. 1 through April 30; Area 9 (Admiralty Inlet) Nov. 1 through 30, then close, to reopen Jan. 16 through Apr. 30; and Area 10 (Seattle) Nov. 1 through Feb. 28. The rules in all will allow one hatchery chinook in a daily limit of two salmon, release all coho and wild chinook.
Why the split season in Area 9? Baltzell said his group of Puget Sound sportfishing advisers indicated most local anglers wanted a definite winter and spring season, rather than a shorter one, winter only.
This fishery looks pretty good, and Baltzell said the test boats have seen at least one blackmouth which would have probably weighed in the low teens.
All Star Charters owner Gary Krein in Everett said he would start somewhere in the triangle formed by Possession Bar, Point No Point/Skunk Bay, and Double Bluff, if the weather cooperates.
“If you can get out there,” he said, “Point No Point is better protected from southerly wind, and Double Bluff from northerlies.”
Areas 8-1 and 8-2 had a pretty fair month of November last year, he said.
Krein would pull an 11-inch Gibbs green flasher and a Silver Horde spoon in green/white, close to bottom in 120 to 150 feet of water.
No clams
The on-again, off-again coastal razor clam season is off again this week, as the Friday opening at Twin Harbors has been scratched to join the already-closed Long Beach dig. Marine toxin levels in clams have been bouncing above and below the allowable level along the coast so far this fall, wreaking havoc with recreational digging schedules. The next tentative opening starts Nov. 12 and could provide digging opportunity on any or all of the beaches except Kalaloch, which remains closed.
Hunt results
The opening weekend of the state’s two most important hunting seasons, Oct. 15-16, was an unusual one in the severity of the weather conditions. Heavy wind and rain brought smiles to the faces of waterfowlers, while deer hunters grumbled, got wet, and went home early. Hunting reports are always sketchy until hard stats come in later in the seasons, but here’s a collection of what was available through Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife sources:
The Deer Park check station, in whitetail country north of Spokane, tallied 101 total hunters with 21 whitetails (19 bucks, 2 antlerless), 3 mule deer, all bucks, plus 1 turkey and several grouse.
Winthrop check station counted 83 hunters with 20 deer, and both those numbers are down from last year. State biologist Scott Fitkin said bad weather probably reduced participation rates. He also said that while success is down compared to last year’s above average harvest, it’s about average for the past several years.
The snow line on the east-slope Cascades remains fairly high but snow is deep where it occurs. Fitkin said it will have some impact on deer distribution, but is not likely to trigger wide-scale movement at this time.
Skagit Wildlife Area waterfowl checks said only “Stormy conditions and good duck numbers led to many happy hunters.”
River coho
The WDFW has introduced new regulations for the Snohomish, Skykomish and Wallace rivers which basically extend coho fishing through the end of November. The rivers had been scheduled to close for coho Oct. 31.
All other gamefish also became legal, on Oct. 22 rather than Nov. 1 as previously scheduled.
Steelhead hit the road
The state’s first steelhead “vanity” license plate has been introduced and could be available as soon as January of next year. Proceeds from the sale of the colorful plates will be used to improve WDFW’s steelhead management in the state, according to agency spokesman Jason Wettstein in Olympia.
See the model plate on Facebook at the WDFW’s page.
The artist is avid angler Derek DeYoung, and steelheading is his favorite piscatorial pastime. But he didn’t become addicted to the beautiful sea-run rainbow on the Skagit or the Cowlitz, or in British Columbia or on the Oregon coast. His early fish were Great Lakes steelhead from the Grand River in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He lives now in Traverse City, Michigan, but attended art school in Grand Rapids, and caught his first steelhead there.
“I remember one fish particularly,” he says. “I hooked a nice buck on a spey rod, right in the middle of the city, but I had one leg in a cast and couldn’t navigate the rock rip-rap to land it. So I asked a homeless guy to take my net and land the fish for me. It became a big deal, because several people were watching, and the guy fell in the river. He got out though, and landed the fish to a round of applause.”
He said the lake-run fish in his part of the country will average maybe 8 pounds, and that a 12-pounder is a big one.
“It’s really exciting to me to be able to do something for this particular resource,” he said.
Hanford chinook
The number of anglers fishing the Hanford Reach portion of the Columbia River continues to decline, but the fishing remains very good, according to state biologist Paul Hoffarth in Pasco. Boat anglers are averaging almost 2 kings per boat, a rate of about 8 angler hours per fish.
Even though the Columbia steelhead run is a weak one this year, bank fishing has picked up at Ringold, with 114 anglers checked last week with 22 steelhead, a rate of 14 hours per fish.
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