The reopening date for Possession Bar and the rest of Marine Area 9 remains in limbo, at least until after a Feb. 7 state Fish and Wildlife Department conference call to user-group representatives. Sportfishing activist and charter owner Gary Krein said the agency is scheduled to announce a decision shortly after the call.
Possession Bar is arguably the best, and most popular, salmon fishing destination from the Everett area available to small boats. It had been scheduled to reopen Jan. 16 for winter chinook, but concerns about too many “encounters” with kept or released legal blackmouth and released sublegal “shakers” over the course of the scheduled season persuaded the state to delay the opener.
Krein said there are at least two viable dates on the table: Feb. 16 and March 1, and that the choice will probably be one of those two.
“Most of the salmon fishermen I’ve talked to say they would rather have any leftover quota added to the end of the scheduled season rather than earlier,” he said. “Better weather later in the season is probably the major driver there.”
The department is test fishing now, Krein said, and the percentage of shakers in the area is the crucial number. “It’s going to take some creative thinking to make it to the end of the season,” he said.
One possibility would be to close Marine Areas 8-1 and 8-2 when Area 9 reopens, and tack any uncaught quota from those two units onto the end of the Area 9 fishery. Areas 8-1 and 8-2 (Possession Sound, Port Susan, Saratoga Passage) are scheduled to close April 30.
Meanwhile, there is some surprisingly solid blackmouth fishing available in Area 8-2, Krein said. He’s been averaging between one and three legal chinook per trip recently, and that’s not too shabby for winter blackmouth. The feeder chinook are running from 3 or 4 pounds to several over 10 pounds, including a 13-pounder two weeks ago. Perhaps more importantly, he said the number of shakers in the area seems to be well below the critical level set by the state.
Spots around Hat (Gedney) Island — the “racetrack” between Hat and Camano Head, and the island’s southeast corner — are popular, and Columbia Beach is producing.
Krein is using Gold Star Kingfisher Lite spoons in the 3 1/2-inch size in “cop car” or herring aid patterns. The latter is relatively new on the local scene, but Krein says it’s picking up believers rapidly.
“It’s a very good lure,” he said. “A lot of the better fishermen have started using it.”
Krein has been giving seminars at the ongoing Seattle Boat Show, and he said attendance at his presentations has been excellent. And so has the makeup of the crowd.
“Bookings are going very well,” he says, “and I’m particularly pleased with the high percentage of people new to the sport. Someone will come up to me and say, ‘I’m with Microsoft and haven’t been here long. I fished in Arizona (or wherever) and want to learn how to do it here.’ I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that from newcomers at the show, and these are the folks who will keep the sport viable.”
Rivers open
Portions of the Skykomish River (the Reiter Ponds section) and the Wallace River reopened to steelhead over the weekend, as state hatchery personnel determined winter steelhead egg-take goals for the Snohomish hatcheries have been met. The season on both rivers closes as scheduled Feb. 15.
Women and waterfowl
The Washington Outdoor Women organization begins its 2017 outdoor education season with an Introduction to Waterfowling workshop to be held March 18 at a private hunting club near Monroe. The registration fee of $125 includes all instruction, equipment, shotguns, ammunition, clays, breakfast and lunch, a WOW T-shirt, and a gift. You must be 18 to participate. No prior experience required.
Women will learn about the tradition, techniques and ethics of hunting waterfowl from certified instructors and experienced hunters. The women will learn about shotgun safety and patterning, shoot moving clays, set decoys, try duck calling, and come to understand why a four-legged retriever is such an important partner in this hunting experience. The day is hands-on and requires a lot of walking in actual duck hunting terrain.
No hunting license is required, but preregistration is. E-mail Cindy Brown at kitsapwow@gmail.com, or contact WOW director Ronni McGlenn at 425-455-1986 or wowomen@gmail.com.
Cowlitz smelt iffy
Columbia smelt (eulachon) populations increased steadily from 2011 to 2014, but have declined the past two years, resulting in only brief dipnetting opportunities for recreational fishers. Dipnetters got two days of harvest opportunity on the Cowlitz in 2014 and 2015, and one day last year, also on the Cowlitz.
Prospects for any fisheries, recreational or commercial, in 2017 are being discussed by Washington and Oregon with NOAA Fisheries. If openings occur, they likely would be similar to those in 2016.
First springer
The season’s first spring chinook reportedly was taken Saturday on the Cowlitz by a guide with Waters West Guide Service.
The report said the springer fishery near Portland is usually best the last week of March and first week of April, until it closes around April 7 or 8; steelhead and early springers mid-March through May on the Kalama by driftboat; and the Cowlitz for steelhead and early springers aand steelhead in March and April, then upriver kings starting around April 10.
For more information, call or text 253-389-0359 or send an e-mail to jessica@fishwaterswest.com.
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