The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has resumed the sale of fishing/hunting licenses and tags, and the state Discover Pass, after all sales were stopped last week due to an internet vulnerability in an outside vendor’s system which was exploited to expose personal information about customers in several states, including Washington. A call Wednesday to WDFW’s License Division, however, revealed that licenses were still not available over the internet, nor by phone, leaving brick-and-mortar license dealers as the only source for the time being. No timeline was available Wednesday for resumption of full service, according to the Licensing Department spokesman.
Jim Unsworth, WDFW director, said in an earlier release that department personnel, in collaboration with the state Office of Cyber Security and law enforcement agencies, were able to restore dealer services after confirming they were secure. Hunters who have already bought their licenses but need copies of tags or other documents can obtain them through the retail vendors. A list of WDFW’s vendor locations is available online at http://wdfw.wa.gov/licensing/vendors/.
WDFW officials said more information about online sales and related services can be found on the department’s webpage, http://wdfw.wa.gov/licensing/wild_system/.
Most of Puget Sound closes to crabbing Sept. 5, and summer catch record cards must be submitted between Sept. 6 and the deadline of Oct. 1. Don Velasquez, crab manager at the Mill Creek WDFW office, said he expects a new catch reporting tool to be available online, via link from the recreational crab page, after Sept. 5, but he warns it may not look the same as the old one. Catch record cards may also be sent by mail to WDFW, CRC Unit, 600 Capitol Way N., Olympia, WA 98501.
Crabbers who fail to file their catch reports on time will face a $10 fine when they purchase a 2017 Puget Sound Crab endorsement.
The only two areas of the Sound that will remain open to crabbing after Labor Day are marine areas 7-North and 7-South in the San Juan Islands. Those two areas will remain open Thursdays through Mondays each week through Sept. 30. Sport fishers who crab in those two areas after Sept. 5 must record their catch on winter catch cards, available at license vendors across the state.
The department will announce winter crab seasons for Puget Sound in early October, after completing its assessment of the summer fishery.
Lake Wenatchee and Hanford Reach
Rick Graybill at Hooked On Toys in Wenatchee said the Lake Wenatchee sockeye fishery is still hot as a pistol, with many anglers taking six-fish limits in an hour. Some of the salmon have turned color, Graybill said, so a little picking and choosing is necessary.
“You can still see sockeye coming up through Tumwater, so there are still fresh fish entering the lake,” he said. “The word is that we’ll get a 70,000-fish surplus back this year.”
Graybill said anglers in the Basin are excited about the strong run of fall chinook just starting to show in the Hanford Reach, between the Tri-Cities and Priest Rapids Dam. WDFW creel checks on the Reach last week tallied 187 anglers with 12 adult chinook, three chinook jacks, and one sockeye. That’s not great, but it’s a start toward the peak of the run in late August, and since fall chinook tend to color quickly, hitting the run early is a good idea.
“This is a top fishery,” Graybill said. “Three chinook per day, wild or hatchery, and the bite can be incredible at times. The kings aren’t quite as big as they once were, but you still hear of fish in the 40-pound range.”
Graybill, a former guide, likes to backtroll eggs or plug-cut herring, and occasionally, bait-wrapped Flatfish or Mag Lips.
“Faster water is oxygenated,” Graybill said, “and I’ve caught chinook there as shallow as six feet. It’s crowded a lot of the time, but 90 percent of the guys are fishing Super Baits in the deep holes, and if you know how to work eggs, you’ve got a lot of water all to yourself. There’s 30 miles of river between Priest Rapids Dam and White Bluffs.”
Lower Columbia numbers
Buoy 10 anglers scored at a clip of about a fish per boat late last week, with the coho catch increasing. Some 15 Drano Lake boat anglers kept six adult chinook and one steelhead, and released one chinook. On the Cowlitz, 38 boat anglers kept one chinook and 13 steelhead, and released two chinook. Some 49 bank anglers had four chinook and six steelhead. Most of the fish are being caught between the hatcheries, but with some fall chinook and summer steelhead coming from the bottom end of the river.
Since June 15, Tacoma Power employees have tagged and recycled 3,300 summer steelhead to the I-5 bridge boat launch. A total of 1,288 recycled steelhead have either been harvested or returned to the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator.
Potholes Reservoir
The MarDon Resort Dock Tournament for 2016 is scheduled for Sept.16-18, and you can register by phone at 509-346-2651.
Resort owner Mike Meseberg said the fishing dock continues to provide a lot of action for fishers of all ages, and that the lake in general is putting out it’s whole range of species: Largemouth to 6 pounds in the sand dunes and crab creek channel; smallmouth along the face of the dam and around Goose Island; walleye on spinner/worm combos, Shad Raps and Flicker Shads, plus crappie, perch and rainbow.
Pigs removed
A month-long effort to remove feral pigs from a portion of the Columbia Basin Wildlife Area in Grant County wrapped up successfully Aug.31, clearing about 1,300 acres of the WA Desert Unit. Feral pigs had been spotted there over the past year and a U.S. Department of Agriculture team was sent to locate and remove the extremely destructive animals which the USDA considers an invasive species. The team used bait to attract the animals and shot them from a helicopter, said Matt Monda, WDFW wildlife manager for north-central Washington.
Feral pigs have long been a problem in other parts of the country, destroying fences, fields, wetlands, and other wildlife habitat. They also transmit diseases and parasites to livestock and people. The USDA is currently working in 39 states to control the animals, which cause an estimated $1.5 billion a year in environmental damage nationwide.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
