It’s showtime in Puget Sound country, with the Washington Sportsmen’s Show continuing through Sunday at the Puyallup fairgrounds, and the Seattle Boat Show starting Friday and running through Feb. 1 at the Qwest Field Event Center.
The boat show, billed as the largest such event on the West Coast, includes free fishing seminars led by some of the big names in Western Washington:
n Women’s professional bass tour participant Bonnie Ward will run down bass for beginners.
n John Keizer and Tom Nelson will talk about Puget Sound salmon fishing.
n Ron Garner will provide tips on how to catch trophy halibut.
n TJ Nelson will tell you all about the big upcoming run of Columbia River spring chinook and how to get your share.
n Former state Fish and Wildlife commission member Clyde McBrayer will take you through Puget Sound crabbing.
n Former state Fish and Wildlife Department publicist Terry Rudnick will speak on halibut and lings.
Other seminar topics include kayak fishing and saltwater action on the B.C. coast. For a full seminar schedule, including days and times, go to www.seattleboatshow.com.
Some 200 boat brands will be represented at the show, including Cobalt, Correct Craft, Grady-White, MasterCraft and Regal. The Event Center display will be complemented by boats on the water, in south Lake Union, with a free shuttle between the two.
A one-stop center at the show will have literature and experts on hand to explain the now-required Boater Education Card.
Boat show hours are noon to 8 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; noon to 9 p.m. Fridays; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays; and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays.
Ticket prices are $10 for adults, $5 for youth 11-17. Children 10 and under are admitted free. A three-day pass is $18, and if you purchase your tickets on line, you can get free parking and other goodies.
LOCAL SALMON: Marine Area 9, including Possession Bar, opened for the winter chinook season Friday to spotty results, while the best fishing remained to the north, in Saratoga Passage.
“Possession was mediocre over the weekend,” All Star Charters owner-skipper Gary Krein said. “Areas farther west, like Double Bluff and the tip of Foulweather Bluff, were better for those who wanted to go that far. The fish were going 6 to 8 pounds, typical winter blackmouth.”
State creel checks at the Port Townsend Boat Haven ramp didn’t seem to indicate hot fishing on Midchannel Bank outside Port Townsend. Some 41 anglers on Saturday were checked with four blackmouth, and 24 on Sunday also had four fish.
Meanwhile, word had circulated about relatively good populations of blackmouth at Elger Bay, Baby Island, Greenbank, Onomac, off Camano State Park, and other areas on the north half of Saratoga Passage. Weekend crowds were unusually heavy there, particularly for the winter season. Checks at the Camano State Park ramp on Saturday tallied 40 boats and 81 anglers with 27 blackmouth, and on Sunday, 38 boats with 84 anglers and 24 fish.
“Not only was fishing better up that way,” Krein said, “but the fish were larger. We took one just under 15 pounds on Saturday in Elger Bay, and heard of a couple in the 12-pound range from around Baby Island. We had our best results on a green Hot Spot flasher, 38 to 40 inches of leader, and either a green UV squid, or the green-white glow squid. Most fish were coming from right on bottom in 100 to 150 feet of water.”
Checks at the Port of Everett ramp over the weekend showed blackmouth split roughly 50-50 between fish from Possession and other parts of Area 9, and those from Saratoga Passage. Some 70 anglers on Saturday had an impressive 26 fish, but action fell off Sunday, when 105 fishermen were checked with 16 fish.
Krein will be doing seminars at the Seattle Boat Show, on north Puget Sound chinook fishing, Friday, Jan. 23, at 5 p.m.; Saturday, Jan. 24, at 4 p.m.; Tuesday, Jan. 27, at 4 p.m.; and Thursday, Jan. 29, at 5 p.m. He probably will not be talking about the fact that while we were up here fighting snow, bitter cold, torrential rain and flooded rivers, he was on the sunny Gulf Coast, finishing a trip to the national charter owners’ convention with a fishing foray out of Biloxi, Miss., for sheepshead, drum, and other strange species. Some deal, eh?
STEELHEAD: The bright spot is that the popular March-April catch-and-release steelhead season on the upper Skagit is apparently a go. Guide and Arlington resident Sam Ingram said state biologist Brett Barkdull told him to expect 7,500 wild late winter fish in the system, up about 2,000 from last year and enough to suggest a full C&R fishery. Last year’s fishery closed at the end of March, Ingram said.
Elsewhere, the winter season is slowly coming back into focus after flood conditions on most rivers, but fishing is still on the downside. Checks last week from the Forks-area rivers showed the Sol Duc as the only one relatively fishable, and 26 anglers there had taken 10 wild and three hatchery fish, with anglers spending an average of 15 hours on the water per catch. On the Bogachiel, it was 13 fishermen with two wild and two hatchery fish, and a rate of about one for every 17 hours.
The upper Skagit is putting out the occasional fish above the Sauk, but more dollies than steelhead. The Cascade hatchery is reported by the folks at Holiday Sports in Burlington to be getting closer to its brood stock needs, but it’s not there yet. The Cascade and the North Fork Stillaguamish (Fortson down to French Creek) remain closed.
SMELT: It might not mean much, since the forecast is for another poor smelt run in the Cowlitz River, but a few of the tasty little critters showed up in recreational dip nets Saturday, the only day of the week open to Cowlitz smelting this year. State biologist Joe Hymer in Vancouver said sport dippers took a handful of large, bright males Saturday, at Carnival Market in Kelso, and that commercial smelt fishermen in the Columbia have landed around 1,000 pounds downriver from the Cowlitz. A number of seals have been seen near County Line Park in Longview, often an indication of smelt schools in the area.
The river has dropped into decent shape, about the median level for this time of year and clearing. Water temperature has been running 42 or 43 degrees, well over the 40 degrees smelt need to decide to enter from the Columbia, Hymer said.
Dip net rentals might be problematic, however. Neither Carnival Market nor Bob’s Sports are apparently renting nets any longer, and neither place knew of any other source.
MACKINAW: Anton Jones of Darrell &Dad’s Family Guide Service in Chelan (www.darrellanddads.com) said the time is now for those who like to prospect for large mackinaw (lake trout) in Lake Chelan. From now through the next two months, Jones said, is the top time of year for consistently catching lakers over 10 pounds.
SPRING CHINOOK SPLIT: Salmon managers in Washington and Oregon remain at odds over this year’s sport/commercial split of spring chinook on the Columbia River. Washington recently proposed a complicated formula that basically will allow 65 percent of the allowable harvest to sport fishermen and 35 percent to non-Indian commercials, following splits of 57 and 43 percent in 2006 and ‘07, and 61 and 39 percent last year.
Oregon’s wildlife commission wouldn’t agree, however, coming back with a proposed 55-45 percent split.
The two states must now meet to negotiate the difference — probably on Jan. 30, according to state spokesman Craig Bartlett in Olympia.
The split is always important, but even more so this year when the forecast is for a springer run of nearly 300,000 fish, the third-highest number on record. Under Washington’s system, sport fishermen would be expected to catch 22,300 springers below Bonneville and 7,400 above. Commercials would take a total of 14,100 fish.
BEAR PERMITS: Remember that applications for spring black bear hunting permits, applicable to specific areas of Eastern and Western Washington, are due to the state by midnight March 13. A drawing will be held in mid-March for 295 permits on the westside and 225 permits east of the Cascades.
Information is available on page 58 of the 2008 Big Game Hunting Rules pamphlet, or at wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/game/hunter/hunter.htm.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
