Last weekend’s storm pretty much washed out the first two days of the season’s initial razor clam dig, according to Dan Ayres, coastal shellfish manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. High winds and heavy surf kept diggers off the beach for at least Friday and Saturday, and Ayres said he even told his crew to stay home those two days.
“Not so much that the beach was dangerous for an experienced crew, but that getting there could have exposed them to falling trees and other storm-related hazards,” Ayres said.
For the remainder of the scheduled dig, Sunday through Tuesday, Ayres said maybe 500 diggers showed up on Twin Harbors beaches each day.
“The surf was still high, but there were a few limits taken and the clams were a nice size, he said.
Next up, if marine toxin levels in the clams are found to be safe for human consumption, is a dig starting Oct. 28 and running through Nov 4. The first three days are scheduled to include Long Beach and Twin Harbors, then Long Beach alone through the end of the dig. Long Beach may be iffy, however, since it has swung between acceptable and unacceptable domoic acid levels recently. Ayres said the final word from the state Health Department should be available by the end of this week or early next week and WDFW’s decision will appear first at www.wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfish/razorclams.
The best tides for the rest of 2016 are both a minus 1.8, falling on Nov. 15 and Dec. 14. The traditional New Year’s Eve clam dig and beach party will feature a minus 0.4-foot tide at 7:57 p.m., on all beaches except Kalaloch.
Crab
State biologist Don Velasquez says the winter recreational Dungeness Crab fishery opened in most of Puget Sound’s marine areas on Saturday, but since most folks of normal intelligence would not have been hauling traps in that kind of wind, results are too limited so far to get a handle on success rates.
All marine areas are now open seven days per week, except MAs 11 and 13. Area 11 will probably not open this winter, Velasquez says, and Area 13 is still waiting for word from the tribal side.
Generally, he says, winter crabbing effort is about 10 percent of summer effort, based on the number of successful trips.
Trout plant
Once again WDFW has made a big rainbow plant in its program to extend trout fishing into the autumn/winter season. Some 35 lakes in the state will share 915,000 trout between 13 and 15 inches and a few larger. The effort also includes stocking lakes across the state for the Nov. 25th “Black Friday” opener, which offers anglers the opportunity to skip the shopping malls, get outside and enjoy fishing on the day after Thanksgiving.
That’s great, except that the tank truck driver missed Snohomish County. Zero, zip, nada in SnoCo.
So the closest lakes with a big batch of fresh, nice-sized ‘bows are in Skagit County, Campbell and Grandy. Lake Campbell was hit early this month with 3,600 trout running 1.5 to 2 pounds, and Grandy Lake with 600 fish of the same size.
For current stocking information this fall, anglers should follow the department on Twitter or Facebook, accessible from http://wdfw.wa.gov, or see the department’s weekly catchable trout stocking report at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/plants/weekly/.
Waterfowl
The first few days of the waterfowl season have been about as good as could be asked for. Wind to push the birds off the big water, plenty of rain to form ponds. Kevin John at Holiday Sports in Burlington said hunting has been pretty good in the usual places — mouth of the Skagit River, Skagit Bay, Barney Lake and Lake Terrell among others. John said significant numbers of what has been forecast as a very large flight are already showing in the area.
Remember that the waterfowl season is closed Thursday and Friday before reopening on Saturday and running through Jan. 29.
Skagit River salmon
The Skagit is high and dirty right now, of course, but WDFW biologist Brett Barkdull said the coho fishery started great, with really good fishing for the first few days. Then there was a drop off, but some rain brought more fish in and success rates again went up. So will this current high water produce another spurt? Barkdull said it’s hard to guess, but it will probably at least be worth a try.
Before the deluge, Barkdull said fishing was best in the Lyman/Hamilton area.
San Juan chinook
The daily limit for chinook in Marine Area 7, the San Juan Islands, was cut Monday to one hatchery chinook in a two-salmon bag. All coho and wild chinook must be released. The regulation will apply through Oct. 31, then the season closes. It reopens Dec. 1 to run through April 30, with a one hatchery fish limit.
The pre-season number of allowed “encounters” with chinook was set at 10,248, and that number has been reached. According to WDFW’s Ryan Lothrop, the department is modifying the fishery to increase the likelihood of providing a season-long fishery while staying inside the agreed-to number of encounters.
Hunt access
Each year, the Royal Youth Booster Club of Royal City provides fee access to over 20,000 acres of farmland on the Royal Slope, west of Potholes Reservoir, for pheasant and waterfowl. Pen-raised pheasant are released to complement wild birds.
The program benefits football, music, and educational pursuits in the Royal school system. For more information call 509-346-2651.
Derby sold out
The 2017 Roche Harbor Salmon Derby sold out on Oct 17, well ahead of the previous record of Nov. 5 in 2009. Coordinator Debbie Sandwith encourages anglers to get on the waiting list, because there are usually 1 to 4 cancellations. Call 1-800-451-8910, or go to www.rocheharbor.com/.
No upper Columbia steelhead
A precipitous drop in the number of upper Columbia steelhead means there will be no fishing season for them this year. State fish managers say the run is only 33 percent of the 10-year average counts at Priest Rapids Dam. The last time upper Columbia steelhead runs were this low was in the 1990s, resulting in a federal “threatened” listing.
Tributaries such as the Methow and Okanogan will not open, either. The only Columbia steelhead fishery allowed above the Tri-Cities will be at Ringold, a “bubble” fishery targeting hatchery steelhead.
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