The weighmaster at Saturday’s Sekiu Halibut Derby had a problem. What turned out at the end of the day to be the second-place fish had just broken the official scales. Which necessitated a scramble for another set and, of course, a re-weigh of all the halibut already on the ladder.
“It was a mess there for a while,” said Gary Ryan at Van Riper’s Resort in Sekiu. “But we got it all straightened out. It was important to be accurate, because the derby is unusual in that we pay by the pound for the first-place fish.”
At $10 a pound rounded up to the nearest pound, a slab of 1241/4 pounds was worth a first-place check of $1,250 to Jeremy Petersen of Port Angeles. And while it’s not too unusual for a 100-plus-pound fish to win one of the state’s halibut derbies, to boast two of the big flatfish over the century mark is not your everyday trout pond.
Fish No. 2, caught by Rodney Berge of Ellensburg, weighed 1233/4 pounds.
Dave Wood of Shelton took third place at a skimpy 68 pounds.
Skimpy? Only by comparison, of course, since most anglers will never see a 68-pound halibut.
So where did the jumbo duo come from?
“Who knows,” Ryan said. “Fishermen only tell the truth when they’re calling another fisherman a liar, but the rumor was that both fish came from somewhere off the Hoko River, between 250 and 500 feet deep.”
He said the fish were scattered throughout the area, but that a lot of anglers worked the humps between Pillar Point and the breakwater.
The derby sold 293 tickets and Ryan said fishing was pretty good overall. State Fish and Wildlife Department personnel checked 31 boats with 33 halibut at Van Riper’s on Saturday, and 46 boats with 45 halibut at Olson’s Resort, also in Sekiu.
The Strait halibut season runs Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week and next, with June 19 scheduled to be the last day.
Tides and wind haven’t been kind to lingcod anglers this spring, but the San Juans continue to put out fish for those who could find a sheltered spot. State checks Saturday at the Washington Park ramp in Anacortes tallied 15 boats with 14 lings.
COLUMBIA RIVER
Summer chinook fishing opens from Pasco downstream to the Astoria bridge on June 16, with a good run of 90,000 fish expected. That would be the largest return since 2002, said state biologist Joe Hymer in the agency’s Vancouver office, and it should provide good fishing for “June hogs” of up to 40 pounds.
The summer chinook fishery is not as popular as that for springers, but it can be productive and it draws a respectable level of participation
The major drawback, according to Hymer, is that river flows are now twice what boaters encountered during the spring chinook fishery, pushing salmon closer to either side of the river and making bank fishing a better prospect than boating. One good spot to give it a try would be off Hamilton Island below Bonneville Dam, Hymer said, plunking a big Spin N Glo, with or without bait.
Shad counts over Bonneville are up to the 70,000-fish-per-day level, and approaching the number required to boost the recreational catch to respectable levels. Washington won’t start shad creel checks until next week, but Oregon numbers from last week showed a catch of about 21/2 fish per rod.
Down on the lower river, sturgeon action is improving. Checks at the ports of Chinook and Ilwaco last week averaged a legal fish kept for every 5.1 rods, while private boaters averaged one for every 7.4 rods. About a third of the sturgeon caught were keepers.
There are very few chinook passing Wells Dam above Wenatchee, according to guide and Brewster resident Rod Hammons. The upriver opening date is July 1. He said the timing of the run is about right at Bonneville, however, for the usual fishery at Wells, off the mouth of the Okanogan, and below Chief Joseph Dam. For information, Google his name, he said, and he reminds anglers planning for the fishery that they need the new Columbia salmon stamp.
LOCAL RIVERS
Fishing on the Skykomish since the June 1 opener has been fair for steelhead, but early yet for chinook. Snohomish resident John Thomas of Rotten Chum Guide Service (lamiglas@hotmail.com) hit nine steelhead and landed eight of them over the weekend, side-drifting prawns, sand shrimp and/or eggs, almost all of the fish found within a mile of the Sultan ramp. River visibility was 11/2 to 3 feet, Thomas said, and he was concentrating on water 1 to 5 feet deep.
He said he expects steelheading to stay reasonably consistent for the next several weeks, and a fairly decent run of summer fish past Douglas Bar on the Snohomish early this week would seem to bear that out.
The first couple of days on the lower Cascade were pretty good for chinook, according to Stuart Forst at Holiday Sports in Burlington, but the fishery has slowed considerably.
“You need to time it right,” Forst said. “When the Cascade has a little color to it, the kings will move up out of the Skagit. But when it’s low and clear, things are tough.”
Cascade anglers drift eggs or shrimp, while boaters fishing the Skagit just below the Cascade mouth, or on down to Rockport, pull Kwikfish in sizes 14 and 15, and a range of colors. Anything with hot pink seems to work well, Forst said.
FREE FISHING WEEKEND
Don’t forget Free Fishing Weekend this Saturday and Sunday, when a license is not needed to wet a line for any species otherwise legal in the state. No Columbia River endorsement is necessary this weekend on the big river or its tributaries, and anglers may fish with two rods without purchasing the two-rod endorsement. No vehicle-use permit is necessary over the weekend to park in state Fish and Wildlife Department access areas, but all other rules remain in effect, including reporting requirements on some species.
Check the free-fishing regulation pamphlet, available at any license dealer statewide.
For an expanded version of Outdoor Outlook, visit www.heraldnet.com.
END PRINT COLUMN
BC KINGS
The summer season started Tuesday for the Oak Bay Marine Group’s package fishery aboard the floating resort MV Salmon Seeker, anchored in the western Queen Charlotte Islands off the British Columbia coast. The first-day catch included two halibut over 100 pounds, and a 38-pound chinook, among a number of kings in the 20- to 30-pound range. An Oak Bay spokesman said a nice assortment of smaller halibut and lingcod rounded out the mix, and called it one of the best openers over the past several years.
Oak Bay, the largest saltwater fishing resort operator on the West Coast, claims 97 percent of its clients have caught a limit of salmon and halibut over the past 10 years.
Four-day all inclusive trips, including flights from Vancouver, start at $2,685 per person. For more information call 1-800-663-7090.
KOKANEE
Anton Steen at Holiday Sports in Burlington said Lake Samish has come on for kokanee recently, putting out limits for those who know how to fish the lake. The usual setup, he said, is a small dodger followed by a Wedding Ring spinner tipped with either corn or maggots. Right now the fish are scattered and running 10 to 14 inches.
COASTAL CHINOOK
The first-ever selective fishery for chinook off the coast opens Saturday, with a two-fish limit on fin-clipped kings, and bookings have been good at offices of the Westport charter fleet. The daily fishery, prompted by forecasts of a healthy coastal run of chinook this year, will last through the end of the month and then revert to the usual two-salmon, one-chinook pattern.
Mark Cedergreen, executive director of the Westport Charterboat Association, said weekend bookings might be limited by now, but that there are still weekday openings.
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