Now’s the time to schedule your tuna trip

Albacore have arrived off the Washington coast and, if you don’t mind a charterboat ride of 50 or 60 miles, now’s the time to be locking up your tuna trip. Kelly Westrick at Westport Charters (1-800-562-0157) said the fish are hanging right on the edge of day-trip range, but easily accessible by the overnight boats.

“Our last day trip, over the weekend, had nine guys aboard and they came in with five fish around,” Westrick said. “The average weight was in the 17- or 18-pound range, so that wasn’t half bad.”

She said the fare for a one-day tuna trip (a very long day) is about $360, while overnighters go for about $525.

The majority of albacore fishermen in years past traded their catch at the end of the trip for canned fish, at one of the canneries in Westport. That has declined in popularity, Westrick said, because the tradeoff has become, in her words, “a little pricey.” These days, most fishermen take their tuna home fresh, and either find a custom cannery in their own area, utilize the fish fresh, or smoke and freeze their own.

Never tried fresh tuna? Westrick said one of the charter skippers at Westport is well known for turning out mouth-watering tuna on the grill, using fillets marinated in olive oil, soy sauce and garlic overnight, then wrapped in foil and barbecued in a Traeger smoker/cooker. It’s critical to not overcook fresh tuna, she said.

LOCAL CHINOOK: The marine area 9-10 selective hatchery chinook fishery turned on suddenly, over the weekend, after a relatively mediocre run since the opener, and mature kings 12 to 25 pounds were the order of the day. Fishing slowed from its hot pace early this week, but the roughly 800 fish taken in Area 9 Saturday and Sunday were enough to prompt state Fish and Wildlife Department managers to anticipate an early closure of the recreational season.

While specifics were unofficial at time of writing, the word circulating in the sportfishing community was that pre-season guidelines could be met, and fishing closed, by Sunday evening. August 15 had been the scheduled closing date.

Port Townsend continues to be the top producer, even though it fell off considerably by Tuesday. Point No Point, Pilot Point and Jefferson Head have also put out fish, and remain good bets for the tail end of the season.

All Star Charters owner/skipper Gary Krein said flasher/squid or flasher/Coyote spoon combinations, fished on bottom in 120 to 150 feet of water, should work. Try the green UV hoochies, Coyote spoons in two-tone green/white, or Coho Killer spoons in green/chrome UV.

Checks at the Port of Everett Ramp showed 313 anglers with 42 chinook and seven coho on Saturday, and 230 anglers with 19 chinook and six coho on Sunday. At Port Townsend, closer to Midchannel Bank, 122 anglers on Sunday were checked with 79 chinook. That’s pretty good king salmon fishing, in Puget Sound these days.

COASTAL SALMON: The Westport salmon fishery could also be looking at an early closure, according to Westrick. “Maybe two more weeks or so,” she said on Tuesday. Charters were running out about 14 miles, taking a 50-50 mix of chinook averaging 15 or 16 pounds, and coho to 9 or 10 pounds. Per-rod success rates, Westrick said, have been just under one fish.

Results at Ilwaco have also been pretty fair, at about a fish per rod. Roughly 85 percent of the catch last week were coho, according to state Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Joe Hymer in Vancouver and, since only about 45 percent of the coho quota had been taken through the end of July, the season there is in no danger of imminent closure.

BUOY 10: The chinook opener on the lower end of the Columbia over the weekend was about as slow as fishing can get. How slow? Try 161 fishermen checked by state personnel over the first three days, with one chinook (that’s one chinook), and 186 checked by Oregon, also with one chinook.

“The single bright spot,” said biologist Hymer, above, “was that it took only 61 Washington boats to find a chinook, versus 73 boats for Oregon.”

END OF AN ERA: Fishing &Hunting News has gone belly-up. Tom Erikson, publisher of the twice-monthly, Seattle-based outdoor magazine announced on the Outdoor Empire Publishing Company’s Web site that the Aug. 7 issue would be its last. The publication, with editions around the country, was started in Spokane in 1954 by then-schoolteacher Bill Farden, and it stayed in the Farden family to the end. Bill Farden died in 2006, and the firm was inherited by his wife.

“It’s sad,” Erikson said, “but that’s the nature of the magazine business these days.”

He said a lack of readership, or a decline in the number of those interested in the traditional outdoor sports, was not the problem. Readership has stayed solid, he said, but declining ad revenue — due largely to consolidation in the outdoor equipment industry and competition from outdoor shows on television — forced the closure.

F&H, as it was fondly called by its many loyal readers, was a weekly tabloid-size newspaper when your ‘umble scribe started his journalism career there in the mid-1970s, writing the Northern California and Southern California editions, and contributing to the bread-and-butter Western Washington edition. Graduates of the F&H “writing school” once constituted a veritable who’s who of names in the Northwest’s outdoor community, and there are still a few of us around. Terry Rudnick of Olympia, writer and publicist with the state for years and currently with state parks, and a well-known outdoor author and seminar presenter, is an ex-F&H’er. So is Terry Sheely of Black Diamond, popular contributor to The Reel News based in Lake Stevens and ex-publicist for Ed Rice’s outdoor shows. Sheely left F&H to start Fishing Holes magazine with two other alumni.

Now a publicist for Wooldridge Boats (one of which is owned and skippered by Nick Kester, with All Star Charters in Everett), Vence Malernee was F&H editor when I was there.

The publication enjoyed a love-hate relationship with its readers, but few could deny its value as a sort of outdoor calendar, reminding hunters and fishermen of all there was to do out there for the coming weekend, and who was doing what, where. Its demise will leave a hole in the outdoor fraternity’s fabric, hereabouts.

REITER PONDS: The summer steelhead opener Friday at the state’s Reiter Rearing Pond section of the upper Skykomish River was termed “pretty fair” by biologist Chad Jackson at the agency’s Mill Creek office. “Our personnel had checked about 25 fish by 11 a.m.,” Jackson said, “for an estimated 100 to 130 anglers in the area.”

COWLITZ RIVER: Summer steelheading remains good in the Cowlitz, where boat anglers averaged three-quarters of a fish per rod last week.

STUFF UP NORTH: Courtesy of the guys at Sportsman’s Warehouse in Burlington comes the following: Samish River, not much salmon action yet, but pretty good cutthroat on small spinners; Big Lake, good bass fishing with spinner and jerk baits, and good trout fishing using small spoons; Lake Campbell, good bass fishing; Clear Lake, lots of perch, and good bass fishing; Lake Erie, good bass fishing; Heart Lake, still plenty of trout available, mostly on Power Bait; Lake Sixteen, good bass and perch action off the lilly pads; Pass Lake, slow; Lake Samish, good for smallmouth; Lake Whatcom, very good for smallmouth; Lake Fazon, channel cats at night, using crawlers; and Lake Terrell, bass and a few very big trout.

OUTDOOR FIELD DAY: Major happening coming up Saturday at the Twin City Sportsman’s Club and Range, east of Stanwood. Sponsored by Ducks Unlimited Skagit Chapter and assisted by the Washington Waterfowl Association, the field day will include trap for bucks, archery, outdoor seminars on taxidermy, hunting optics and others, raffles and auctions for good stuff; youth decoy painting contest; and waterfowl calling contests. The latter will include the Washington State Sanctioned Duck Calling competition.

Gates open at 8:30 a.m. For more information contact Rone Brewer, nwducks@snohomish.net; cell phone 206-595-7481.

BIG HALIBUT: Vance Curran, Arlington, fished just outside Neah Bay on July 26 to take a 163-pound halibut, on herring and a spreader bar, at 260 feet. The fish stretched 5 feet, 8 inches, and the party filled out the day with a 20-pound fish.