Your opportunity to slug it out this year with one of the toughest, ugliest, blue-collar bruisers available in the state is rapidly winding down. Lingcod season closes June 15 in most local marine areas, but the tag-end of the fishery is well worth doing if you can squeeze it into your schedule.
This has been an excellent year for lings so far, particularly fish in the 10- to 15-pound range. They’re a challenge to find, a challenge to hook, great fighters on medium tackle, and of course their table qualities are legend.
The artificial reef just south of Hat Island, the sunken ferry 500 yards due west of the green Possession Point buoy, Double Bluff, and the reef north of the Camano Island boat launch are all possible in this immediate area. Bob Ferber, at Holiday Market Sports in Burlington (360-757-4361) said the Deception Pass area is excellent, although it gets hit pretty hard. He listed the pass itself; Burroughs Island; Biz Point; and a lot of different areas in the San Juan Islands: Black Rock and Blakely Island, among a lot of others. Anywhere you can find rocky dropoffs, he says.
“Ling fishing has been fabulous up this way the past few years, and this season has been the best of the bunch,” Ferber said. “Halibut fishing has been good, too, on Hein Bank and the rest of the banks, from time to time.”
Neah Bay halibut: The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has decided enough of the Neah Bay-area recreational halibut quota remains to reopen the sport fishery in areas 3 and 4 (La Push and Neah Bay) for an additional day, this Saturday, May 29. The fishery closed May 20.
Biologists say there are still 17,600 pounds left in the quota, according to Big Salmon Resort co-owner John Lofquist, and there’s still room available for charter anglers. Call 360-645-2374 if you’re interested.
The Neah Bay area is also scheduled to reopen to a limited additional quota on June 15, perhaps for four or five days. Charter slots are still available for that fishery as well, but they’re filling rapidly, Lofquist said.
And remember that small-boaters will be able to fish those dates as well, and that halibut action has been relatively good so far this season off the Garbage Dump, and at other nearby spots east and west of Neah Bay.
Westport bottomfish: Halibut fishing remains good for charter anglers out of Westport, according to Merle Lundell at Westport Charters (1-800-562-0157), mostly limits on fish in the 20- to 25-pound range. A scattering of halibut of 35 to 50 pounds are also hitting the scales, Lundell said. He said the best estimate is that the halibut quota in the area will last perhaps through June 20th for the fishery, which is open Sundays through Thursdays.
Lingcod and black rockfish action has been excellent, with a 39-pound ling now leading the ongoing derby. “It’s been a really good spring for bottomfish,” Lundell said.
Halibut-lingcod-black rockfish trips cost $150 on weekdays; standard bottomfish trips, lings and black rockfish, go for $80 per person.
Lake Stevens kokanee: Bob Ferber (above) said he’s been enjoying some pretty good kokanee fishing on Lake Stevens recently, using downriggers, a small dodger, and a Wedding Ring lure. Most of the kokes have been running 12 to 15 inches, he said, and are prime, fat fish. He launches on the east side and fishes mostly the east side, from the launch around to the aerator. The fish tend to stratify, and he said they’ve been in 30 to 32 feet of water the past couple of weeks.
Leaded line can probably get that deep, he said, and small spoons, such as the Wicked Willy, will also take kokanee.
The trick isn’t so much hooking them, as landing the soft-mouthed species, he said.
Shad: It’s coming on time to drive to Bonneville Dam for the annual shad trip, with checks of boat anglers downstream, on Camas Slough, showing just under seven fish per rod last week. Daily ladder counts at Bonneville were running 10,400 to 12,600 shad at Bonneville late last week, according to the Corps of Engineers.
Yakima River: The catch and release section above Roza Dam offers good fishing now for resident rainbow, flies or other artificials only, while open areas downstream remain fair for chinook.
The Icicle has been slow for chinook, while Cowlitz anglers last week averaged a half-fish per rod – summer steelhead above the I-5 bridge, and spring chinook below.
Elk decline: A declining elk population in the Colockum area has led the WDFW to reduce hunting opportunity for this fall. Antlerless animals will not be legal in the Colockum during archery-only elk seasons; only spike bulls will be legal during general archery seasons in game management units 328-335.
Antlerless permits for rifle and muzzleloader hunters have also been eliminated in all but one Colockum GMU, and antlerless special permits were reduced in three West Bar hunts by 50 percent, to five permits each. A limited number of permits for branch-antlered bulls will still be available.
According to WDFW wildlife program manager Lee Stream in Olympia, the number of elk counted on Colockum winter range has dropped from about 4,500 animals in 2001, to 3,400 in February of 2004.
The cut in antlerless opportunity, Stream said, is because the harvest of most antlerless animals will have to be related to specific areas of damage control, around Wenatchee and Ellensburg.
Crabbing opens: Marine areas 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 open June 1 to recreational crabbing, while local areas 8-1 and 8-2 open to their Friday-through-Monday schedule on June 4. Area 6 and a portion of 7 are expected to open June 16, according to WDFW spokesman Rich Childers in Olympia.
Childers said seasons have been declining in length in direct proportion to the increase in the number of persons crabbing. The total recreational Dungeness crab harvest in Puget Sound for the 1996-97 season was 806,000 pounds, while crabbers took an estimated 1.6 million pounds in 2003-04.
I’ve had a couple of calls asking how crabbers can contact the family firm which makes the “Crabhawk,” that small, castable crab trap which can be used from beach, pier or boat, and which makes it possible to “fish” crab with a rod and reel as you do, say, bottomfish. The Web site is www.crabhawk.com.
Steelhead moratorium: The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission voted recently to take public testimony on its controversial two-year moratorium on wild steelhead retention, a victory of sorts for those who thought the commission should listen to its professional biologists and allow some retention on strong and self-sustaining Olympic Peninsula runs.
The 5-1 vote came after the City of Forks filed a petition with the commission, requesting that a formal rule-making process be initiated on the moratorium issue. Such proceedings require a public hearing, according to WDFW spokesman Tim Waters in Olympia. Following the public hearing, which is expected to be held in August or September, commissioners could let their earlier decision stand, or they could modify or rescind the decision.
Waters said the commissioners voted 5-3 in February to impose the moratorium, which took effect May 1. Wild steelhead retention already had been permanently banned in much of the state, but was still allowed on several Peninsula river systems where stocks are considered relatively strong.
Following the moratorium vote this winter, officials with the City of Forks, and others, voiced objections to the action, saying the ban would pose economic hardships for their community, a popular destination for steelhead anglers.
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