By Wayne Kruse
For The Herald
Midchannel Bank, which runs northwesterly from Marrowstone Island toward Point Wilson, has become the go-to spot for salmon anglers during the very popular hatchery chinook fishery in Marine Areas 9 and 10.
The fishery opened Sunday, and the Port Townsend hot spot put out the best fishing by far among those areas that are within reasonable running distance of Snohomish County ports.
Tom Nelson, Tulalip resident and host of “The Outdoor Line” talk show Saturday mornings on 710 ESPN Radio, limited his boat Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, to 19 pounds. He was headed back to Everett opening morning by 9 a.m.
“I know for a fact there were kings in the 26- or 27-pound range caught,” Nelson said Tuesday.
He was trolling the 100-foot line with a Gibbs “No Bananas” flasher ahead of a Gibbs Skinny G spoon in a blue/chrome “tailspin” pattern.
Nelson said this weekend should be wild because the poor fishing tides anglers have put up with so far will start to change for the better by Saturday.
Gary Krein, owner/skipper of All Star Charters, bypassed Possession Bar and opted for Pilot Point on the opener, but found slow fishing. Monday, he went on to Midchannel Bank — an unusually long run for him — and had four limits in 90 minutes. The chinook averaged 10 to 12 pounds, he said.
“Possession put out a few fish, but was generally slower than last year,” he said.
Krein went with Kingfisher spoons in Irish cream and cookies ‘n cream at Pilot Point, but switched to Coho Killer spoons at Midchannel Bank to resemble the smaller candlefish there. Cookies ‘n cream was again a productive pattern.
Krein’s advice was to work the 100-foot line at Pilot Point, 120 to 150 on Possession Bar, and 85 to 110 feet on Midchannel Bank.
All Star Charters other boat, with skipper Nick Kester, limited Sunday and Monday to the high teens at Port Townsend, Krein said Tuesday.
This is shaping up to be a typical opener for the fishery, Krein said, with Port Townsend the star for at least the first week. After that, the fish will have scattered to a degree and other usually productive spots will come on. Area 9 is open for hatchery chinook, hatchery coho, and pinks, two fish daily, one of which can be a hatchery chinook. Area 10 is open for one hatchery chinook, plus the ongoing fishery, since July 1, for hatchery coho and pinks.
State Department of Fish and Wildlife creel checks Sunday showed very good fishing for chinook at a couple of places besides areas 9 and 10. At Ediz Hook, near Port Angeles, checkers tallied 82 anglers with 66 fish, and at the Washington Park ramp west of Anacortes, it was 84 with 39.
Bellingham Derby
The Bellingham Derby over the weekend weighed a lot of fish, but they were noticeably on the small side. First place and $7,500 went to Alex Davis for a chinook of 15.42 pounds. A nice fish, surely, but not as nice as last year’s 22.04-pound first-place winner.
Second place went to Lorenzo Pellecchia, at 13.24 pounds, and was worth $2,500. Third place, worth $1,000, went to Parker Hanson.
Baker Lake sockeye
The numbers are climbing as the Baker Lake sockeye run comes closer to its peak. The total trapped at Baker Dam as of July 15 was 9,141 and the number transferred to the lake was 5,008. That transfer figure is well above the rule-of-thumb 3,000 fish needed to provide decent sportfishing. The total trapped last year was 24,989.
State biologist Brett Barkdull said creel checks counted about a fish per rod Saturday, and about a half-fish per rod Sunday.
The majority of the sockeye, Barkdull said, are being caught downlake, by the dam, rather than uplake at the “elbow.” That’s a little surprising, but Barkdull said when the fish are transferred from the trap to the lake, they tend to hang around that area for a day or two, and they usually bite well.
“There seems to be a correlation between the catch rate at the dam and the transfer schedule,” he said. “Sometimes it seems the folks are catching nearly the entire transfer before the fish start moving uplake.”
Barkdull recommends “smaller stuff” in the way of lure setups. Small pink squids, Smile Blades with three or four beads, and pink flies, all tipped with a whole small sand shrimp or piece of red-cured prawn. The flies, he said, are merely pink thread and a very few pieces of sparkle.
Columbia River shad
The Columbia River shad run is on the downhill side now, but there’s still time for one more shot. Bonneville Dam counts are down to 15,000 or so fish per day, far below the best count of the season, 264,000 fish on a day in June.
The 2017 run had been anticipated to be significantly down from the average, but instead it’s offered a surprisingly robust fishing season at about 3 million fish. That’s well below the record run of 6 million shad in 2005, but not as far down as had been forecast.
Women’s workshop
Women can learn the basics of fishing, hunting, and other outdoor skills in a September weekend workshop that includes sessions led by state Department of Fish and Wildlife experts and other certified instructors.
Scheduled for Sept. 16-17 at Camp Waskowitz in North Bend, the annual workshop, coordinated by Washington Outdoor Women (WOW) and now in its 20th year, is a non-profit program dedicated to teaching women outdoor skills and natural resource stewardship. Experienced instructors teach 21 classes on skills such as archery, outdoor survival, fly fishing and fly tying, big game hunting and wilderness first aid. Sharing their skills will be state biologists Stacie Kelsey (basic freshwater fishing), Laura Till (map and compass) and Shelly Ament (wildlife awareness and tracking).
Participants must be at least 18 years old. Scholarships from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation are available for first-time participants.
Visit http://washingtonoutdoorwomen.org for more information or online registration.
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