Last weekend’s opening of the short but popular hatchery chinook fishery in Marine Areas 9 and 10 was “outstanding,” according to All Star Charters owner/skipper Gary Krein. Even better was the fact that close-to-home Possession Bar was the honey hole, rather than the more distant Port Townsend area.
Saturday was windy enough that some boats didn’t leave the dock, Krein said, but Sunday more than made up for it as the entire fleet got out on the water.
“There were at least 300 to 400 boats on the (Possession) Bar Sunday,” Krein said, “and probably 500 in all of Area 9.”
The action matched the turnout.
“I think most if not all of our area high-liners limited both days,” Krein said. “Nick (Kester, skipper of the other All Star Charters boat) put a limit in the box Saturday morning in 45 minutes, and I was able to do the same thing on Sunday. It took less time to catch a limit of kings than it did to run from Everett to the south end of the bar.”
Krein said he saw probably 45 kings landed around him on Sunday, “…and I haven’t seen fishing like that around here in a long, long time.”
Marine Area 10 (Edmonds-Seattle) also was productive, Krein said, as was the stretch of the Kitsap Peninsula shoreline from Pilot Point to Point No Point. MidchannelBank, off Port Townsend, was not as good as it has been the past several openers.
Most of the fin-clipped chinook were going 8 to 10 pounds, but Kester had one estimated at 18 or 20 pounds, Krein said.
Krein fished the outer bar in varying water depths, but kept his gear at about 120 feet. He pulled green/white spoons with a silver back, and mother of pearl Tomic plugs. The fish had been feeding on large herring, he said.
Baker Lake sockeye
The Baker Lake sockeye fishery, which opened July 6, has provided some decent fishing for the more knowledgeable anglers but has been a little disappointing for many, according to reports. State Department of Fish and Wildlife creel checkers tallied an average of about 21⁄2 sockeye per rod on July 7, the second day of the season, but three days later, the average was down to about one per rod. This past Saturday was a slow day, according to state biologist Brett Barkdull, at about a half-fish per person.
Kevin John of Holiday Sports in Burlington said he and other staff members have been taking five-fish limits or near limits fairly regularly, but that many of his customers have not.
As of Tuesday, 18,800 sockeye had been trapped at Lower Baker Dam, and 14,200 of those had been transferred to the lake. Barkdull said Tuesday that no fish had been transferred for the previous five days. He said he was generally pleased with the season so far, although “…we could use a few more fish.”
He said trap numbers have dropped off the past few days and that it’s possible the run was early and not as strong as forecast. He said, however, “There are still fish to come; it’s not over yet.”
Most of the fishing has been uplake, from the “elbow” where the lake bends eastward up to Noisy Creek, on both sides of the lake. Most sockeye have probably been caught at 35 to 40 feet, but many at 25 feet and some much deeper. The message is to move around and try different depths.
Barkdull said a lot of different gear setups will work, including the reliable dodger/1-foot of heavy leader/pink mini-squid tipped with shrimp, but that the bare-hook thing still works well; two bare, red, 1/0 or 2/0 hooks in place of the mini squid.
Barkdull said the salmon are planted in the lake at the Kulshan campground and launch, which is maintained by Puget Sound Energy and is the closest to the dam of all the lake’s boat ramp/campground facilities. Often the fish will mill around and not go uplake immediately, he said, and will offer a fishing opportunity that might be worth a shot.
But fish or no fish, it would be difficult to find a more scenic setting for a boat trip anywhere in the country.
More sockeye
The Lake Wenatchee sockeye season opened Wednesday, too late to get results in this column, but state biologist Travis Maitland anticipated a good opener. At least 60,000 sockeye are forecast for the Lake Wenatchee portion of the Columbia River run, making 37,000 fish available for harvest above the 23,000 needed for spawning escapement.
And, because more than 40,000 of those fish already have been counted over Tumwater Dam on the Wenatchee River, Maitland said there are more than enough sockeye currently in the lake to make for a viable early fishery. This will, in fact, be the second-earliest opening on record, he said.
Last year’s season was cut off at 18 days because of problems with warm water conditions in the Columbia and Wenatchee rivers, but still produced a harvest of almost 8,000 salmon and a 2.01-fish-per-person average on a four-fish daily limit. The harvest in 2014 was 16,250 sockeye on a six-fish limit and a 45-day season. The 2014 count over Tumwater was a little under 100,000 fish, but Maitland said this year’s fishery should be comparable.
The only launch on the lake that will handle larger craft is the state facility at the south end, which makes for a 4- or 5-mile run uplake to the fishing area off the mouths of tributary streams. The small Glacier View Campground, on the lake’s northwest corner, has a gravel beach and can handle cartopper-size boats, but parking fills up quickly.
Maitland said a lot of veteran Lake Wenatchee anglers still use the two- or three-hook, bare, red or green tie on a short leader behind a small dodger. A Columbia River salmon endorsement is required for this opening and there are other special rules for both this and the Baker Lake fisheries. Also, both fisheries can close on short notice depending on catch rates, so check the state’s fishing hotline at 360-902-2500 or visit https://fortress.wa.gov/dfw/erules/efishrules/rules_all_freshwater.j.
Lots of otters
State biologist Steve Jefferies reported an aerial spotting of a “colossal raft” of sea otters on the coast, south of the mouth of the Hoh River. The number Jefferies came up with was 687 animals, which would be the highest count for Washington since 1978. Jefferies theorized that good populations of razor clams and crab in the area — favorite otter fare — might be the reason for the concentration. If the raft was composed of both females with pups and males, that would also be unusual since the genders normally stay separated.
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