Back in the golden days of youth, I wrote the Northern California and Southern California editions of Fishing &Hunting News, at that time a weekly tabloid newspaper published in Seattle but now defunct. One of my contacts was the owner of a tackle store and bait shop on the lower Colorado River, between California and Arizona, perhaps in Lake Havasu City.
The Colorado produced some pretty fair fishing at times, for nice-sized striped bass and other stuff, and the shop owner was on my regular call list. He apparently got a little exasperated with me, however, one August day, when I phoned and asked him, blithely, “Anybody catching anything this week?”
“You’ve gotta be outta your mind,” he snapped. “Do you know how hot it is here today? I’ll tell you how hot it is here today. It’s 115 degrees here today, and if there’s anybody out there on the river in this, they should be committed.”
Turn that all the way around, and you have the current situation here in Western Washington. Anyone on the water with the temperature in the teens or lower, ice coming down the rivers, and enough white Christmas on the ground to satisfy the most ardent traditionalist, probably needs someone to whack him upside the head.
Still, this too will pass, and in spite of Old Man Winter there are opportunities for the recreational fisherman out there.
Coming up Jan. 1 is a major event, the opening of winter blackmouth season in our local saltwater. Marine Areas 8-1 and 8-2 come on line and, according to All Star Charters owner/skipper Gary Krein, they could offer good Chinook action right from the start.
“Those two areas haven’t had a winter season yet this year,” Krein said, “and, because they haven’t been touched for quite a while, there could be pretty fair populations of blackmouth around.”
Early in the season, Krein said, Saratoga Passage between Whidbey and Camano islands will probably prove to be the top producer. The Langley-area shoreline and northward should put out fish on the Whidbey side, while Elger Bay is a popular spot on the Camano side. “The racetrack,” an underwater bar between Hat Island and Camano Head, has been historically good early in the winter season, but Krein said it’s been a disappointment the past couple of years.
The Whidbey shoreline has a definite advantage this time of year in that it offers much better protection from the prevailing southerly winds than does the Camano side.
“You can almost always find reasonably protected water to fish, somewhere along that shore, except in an easterly,” Krein said.
Up in Marine Area 8-1, Krein said, the Baby Island, North Bluff and Onomac areas should all put out blackmouth.
The trolling slot from Fox’s Spit north to Baby Island is a good place to start, being in the lee of Whidbey and directly across from the Camano State Park ramp. Krein said he would begin by working close to bottom in 80 or 90 feet of water and move outward, looking for fish, to maybe 120 feet of water. Winter blackmouth there will not always be right down on bottom, he said, so don’t be afraid to set your riggers for 100 feet over 120 feet of water.
Herring still spawn in Holmes Harbor, attracting salmon, so Krein often extends the Fox’s Spit/Baby Island run on across the harbor mouth. He said the word is out that a few anchovies are also finding their way back to the harbor, where they were once known to spawn in numbers.
If Krein is marking a lot of bait, he’ll go with plugs — Ace High or Silver Horde (UV models if the day is bright) in 4-inch or 5-inch sizes and mother of pearl color patterns.
With less bait in the water, he prefers a flasher followed by a hoochie tipped with a piece of Gulp, or a flasher/spoon combo. Use 36 to 40 inches of leader and a Sonic Edge, Kingfisher, or Coyote spoon in any of the green/white color patterns. Again, he’ll go with UV colors on bright days; glow finishes on dark days.
The limit in Marine Areas 8-1 and 8-2 will be two Chinook, but they must be clipped, hatchery fish. Marine Area 9 reopens Jan. 16, but Krein said winter winds often make Possession Bar and other exposed spots in the area unfishable.
January is usually a top month in our local winter blackmouth fishery, before Chinook start to migrate out of the Strait of Juan de Fuca in February and March, so dress warmly, fill a Thermos with your favorite beverage, and give it a shot.
ICE FISHING: Early this week, Mike Meseberg at MarDon Resort on Grant County’s Potholes Reservoir said sub-zero temperatures had caused ice to form on probably 85 to 90 percent of the big lake, and that if the weather held cold, there could be safe ice by this weekend. “There are probably already a few guys fishing on Lind Coulee,” he said. “I wouldn’t be out there yet, but there are always a few crazies ready to get on it.”
The Lind Coulee arm of the reservoir, and Long Lake, below the reservoir, are more protected from the wind and usually form safe ice first, Meseberg said.
“It looks like we might actually get some ice fishing this winter,” he said. “It’s been maybe eight or nine years since we had enough ice here to make it worthwhile.”
The majority of ice anglers pursue yellow perch, looking for water 30 to 50 feet deep, then jigging with a lure called the Swedish Pimple, tipped with a perch eye, a piece of perch meat, a worm or a maggot. Walleye fishermen usually go a little deeper, Meseberg said, jigging with blade baits, or various lead-head jigs tipped with a nightcrawler.
There are several access points to Lind Coulee along highway 262 between O’Sullivan Dam and “M” Road, the cutoff to Moses Lake about 2.5 miles east of the dam.
The resort tackle shop rents ice augurs, but Meseberg warns they’re the hand-driven variety and not exactly state of the art. He also asks those intending to use a chain saw to not cut a hole so large that a child could fall through it when it becomes camouflaged with a skim of ice and a little snow. That has happened, he said, and he would rather not have it happen again.
DUCK COUNT: The latest aerial survey of north-Sound waterfowl populations took place Dec. 8, and Samish Bay was the duck-holding champion, hands down. Some 186,500 birds were counted on Samish, followed by north Skagit Bay at 58,500; Lummi Bay at 51,500; south Padilla Bay, 49,000; north Padilla Bay, 33,900; south Skagit Bay, 10,100; the Nooksack delta, 5,100; Port Susan, 1,800; Birch Bay, 1,110; Livingstone Bay, 460; Fidalgo Bay, 380; Blaine Harbor, 175; and Lake Terrell, 153.
BIG KINGS: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Brett Barkdull was a speaker recently at a meeting of the Fidalgo Chapter, Puget Sound Anglers, and club president Anthon Steen said Barkdull presented some interesting information on Skagit River salmon.
While Skagit River spring and fall Chinook remain depressed, Barkdull said the river’s run of summer Chinook is in good shape and that in his opinion it could support a recreational fishery. Steen said Barkdull told the club he had seen summer fish exceeding 70 pounds and he compared the general size of Skagit summer Chinook to those of the Kenai in Alaska, a noted trophy Chinook fishery.
“Barkdull said that if anglers are interested in a recreational fishery for these Chinook, then they need to send more river fishermen to the North of Falcon season-setting meetings to negotiate for some fish,” Steen said.
Barkdull also predicted excellent pink runs next summer of Skagit, Stillaguamish and Snohomish system stocks.
SMALL KINGS: The state experiment to establish triploid Chinook salmon in Lake Chelan has shown enough promise that the recreational limit was raised this summer to two fish. Guide and Chelan resident Joe Heinlen (509-393-9665) said that while the fishery hasn’t generated huge interest, a few of the Chinook in the 3 to 7-pound range are being taken, both incidentally by Mackinaw anglers and by those targeting the species.
The salmon are generally caught on the lower six to eight miles of the lake, Heinlen said, at scattered depths from 50 feet to bottom. A green dodger, 3 to 4 feet of leader, and a small whole herring is the usual setup for those targeting Chinook. Downriggers and a fish finder are critical elements in the fishery.
“These salmon follow the schools of mysis shrimp,” Heinlen said. “You can usually pick up the shrimp schools on a good sounder, and that’s where you want to concentrate your effort.”
BASIN WATERFOWL: State waterfowl specialist Mikal Moore in Moses Lake reports strong numbers of ducks in the Basin, especially mallards, concentrated on reserves such as the Winchester Wasteway, north Potholes Reservoir, and portions of Moses Lake, particularly on the north end near the mouth of Rocky Ford Creek.
Moore said goose hunting has been excellent this winter, with birds using corn stubble, winter wheat and even alfalfa throughout the Basin’s agricultural lands.
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