There appears to be a large number of heavy, hard-fighting chum salmon in the Snohomish River system, but there’s so much water we can’t get at ‘em.
There are tens of thousands of late-run coho stacked at the barrier dam on the Cowlitz River, but so much water we can’t get at ‘em.
There are a bunch of ducks and 30,000 snow geese on and around Skagit, Padilla and Samish bays, and up to this point the fields were so dry it was next to impossible to find a pond on which to set decoys. Now, of course, there’s so much water your deeks are lost and overwhelmed.
It seems, sometimes, that the fish and wildlife recreationist is forever swimming upstream.
But even during record flooding, there are interesting pursuits available.
Chums in saltwater, for instance. The popular beach fishery in Hood Canal at the Hoodsport Hatchery is in full swing for dogs in the 10-pound range, and has been for about two weeks. State Fish and Wildlife Department hatchery specialist Dan Adkins at Hoodsport said the action should last through the end of the month, but the sooner you get over there and have at the fish, the better shape they’ll be in.
Many anglers who wouldn’t normally want to get involved in an elbow-to-elbow circus such as this wade out into the crowd anyway to take a couple of nice chums to smoke and hand out as holiday gifts.
The bulk of the fish are taken by a line of anglers casting into the underwater channel at their feet, cut by the hatchery creek, and slowly retrieving gear such as corkies and yarn, in chartreuse, greens and purples. Others, including fly fishermen, cast off the edge of the small delta formed by the creek, into deeper Hood Canal water, and the occasional boat (there’s a launch ramp nearby) anchors outside the beach fishermen.
Private property and other off-limits areas are clearly marked, Adkins said, but he warned that parking is limited and cars will be towed if found on hatchery property, or blocking driveways or mailboxes in the town of Hoodsport.
Similar fisheries are under way at the mouths of several south Puget Sound streams. Some 600,000 chums are scheduled to return to south Sound tributaries, including Kennedy Creek and Johns Creek.
Another top opportunity while the rivers are up in the tall and uncut is blackmouth fishing in Marine Area 9. While the early-winter season in areas 8-1 and 8-2 has been only so-so, the Nov. 1 opener in 9 drew a lot of attention. The outlook was good and blackmouth had been caught incidentally during earlier coho fisheries.
Anglers on Possession Bar did well the first couple days, then the skies opened up and the wind blew and most fishermen put their boats away for a while. The fish should still be there as the weather moderates, according to All Star Charters owner/skipper Gary Krein of Everett, because they surely haven’t been caught.
“We landed and/or released eight legal blackmouth on the opener,” Krein said, “and did about that well the next day. But the weather’s been so lousy we haven’t been able to get back out there through (Tuesday).”
The Everett Bayside derby over the weekend, he said, weighed in just nine fish on Saturday, under nearly impossible conditions, and ended with 33 entries by Sunday afternoon. The winner, at 9.4 pounds, and almost all the other entries, came from Area 9, Krein said. That’s a little unusual, since parts of Area 8 are more protected from the weather, and the Saratoga Passage area is traditionally a good spot for larger (read “derby”) fish.
Entrants in the Grady White derby out of Edmonds on Sunday didn’t load their Grady Whites either, Krein said. The 9.9-pound winner was taken on Possession Bar, on a flasher/squid.
Krein said there were good fishermen who braved the weather and tried Double Bluff and Point No Point over the last few days but, oddly, didn’t find action approaching that on the first couple of days on Possession Bar.
“Neither do we know what all the flood water coming in from the rivers will do to the bait situation and thus the blackmouth fishing in the next few days,” Krein said.
He recommended Tomic plugs in 4, 5, or 6-inch sizes, and said the number 603 white/mother of pearl would be his first choice. Greens should also work well, he said, fished at 90 to 120 feet deep and not necessarily right on bottom. There’s a lot of bait on the west side of the bar, he said, and finding it is a critical part of the program.
Crabbing: The season reopened Nov. 1 in Marine Area 9. Krein recommended the shoreline from the shipwreck south to Picnic Point; Useless Bay; the entrance to Cultus Bay; and spots on Possession Bar itself.
Waterfowl: Hunting should be excellent when the floodwaters start to drop, with windy weather forecast off and on. A large flight of snow geese is due from the Aleutians – probably more than the 80,000 birds that arrived last year – and November is the month when they typically show in force.
The state has put together a very effective Internet site on the new, lottery-based Fir Island snow goose hunting program. The program involves landowner cooperation and a drawing for established hunting sites on 900-plus acres on the southwest corner of the Island, and looks something like a scenario that has been in place in parts of California for years.
The site explains the draw process, special rules, techniques that should be effective in the area, decoys, how to hunt in specific weather conditions, and much more. Go to wdfw.wa.gov, then to hunting, and look for the new snow goose page.
And while on the topic of waterfowl, the state’s popular Spencer Island hunting area on the lower Snohomish River will be accessible only by boat until Nov. 27, because of a habitat and trail improvement project. The Spencer Island trail, north of the Union Slough bridge, will be closed during the project. It’s the only trail providing foot access to state property on the island. Hunting is not allowed on Snohomish County property on the island.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
