If over the next few days the rain deities smile on us with substantial precipitation – not flood-level stuff, mind you, but enough to color the rivers just a little and give those coho waiting in the bay a sniff of fresh, cool water – then by the middle of next week we should be up to our arm pits in silvers, which would bring a huge sigh of relief from the folks running the big Everett Coho Derby on Sept. 23-24.
Actually, despite the warm and low conditions, there are already coho in the rivers, and at least fair numbers are being taken by persistent anglers. Darrel Kron at Hook, Line &Sinker in Smokey Point (360-435-5052) said he’s starting to see a few silvers out of the Stillaguamish, most from the lower end, in tidewater, below Silvana.
“Most of the guys are using Mepps or Vibrax spinners (artificial lures only) in the smaller number 2 or number 3 size,” Kron said. “Another good seller is the locally made Crogy’s spinner, a very effective, well-balanced product.”
Lure colors are all over the board, Kron said, including greens, chartreuse and reds. One of his personal favorites for coho is blue, a color he considers underrated.
Jim Strege at Triangle Beverage in Snohomish (360-568-4276) said coho showed up fairly well in the Snohomish River over the weekend, scattered from the lower end to the plunking bars. But seeing fresh coho rolling and splashing, and getting them to chow down, are – as usual – two entirely different propositions.
“Pretty good numbers of fish showing, but the bite has been slow,” Strege said, which is an annual lament on the Snohomish.
Anglers are taking a few nice fish, however, on the usual mix of gear. Dick Nite spoons are always popular, particularly in 50/50 or chartreuse-head patterns. Diving plugs such as Fatfish and Brad’s Wigglers are good, in a wide range of colors, as are Buzz Bomb or Crippled Herring jigs in greens or nickel.
Strege warns that even-year pinks – in the river and susceptible to the same gear – are not legal.
Bob Ferber at Holiday Market Sports in Burlington (360-757-4361) said Skagit River anglers are finding spotty action on small bunches of coho moving through the lower end of the river. The predicted rain should help spice things up, he said.
He also said it’s hard to get fishermen excited about incoming silvers when the chinook fishing in the Samish River remains so good. Lots of anglers, kids, dogs, noise and no place to park, especially on the weekends, but lots of fish, too. Aim for the morning low tide and fish egg clusters, marabou jigs or just hook and yarn. On the high tide, change to Mepps or Blue Fox Vibrax spinners, chartreuse or red, Nos. 4 or 5. Some coho are starting to enter the Samish catch as well, Ferber said.
State checks at the Port of Everett ramp over the weekend showed an upswing in coho boatings, as 161 anglers had 32 fish on Saturday, and 124 had 23 on Sunday. Not hot, and not peak, but an improvement.
All Star Charters owner/skipper Gary Krein of Everett (425-252-4188) said the better silver fishing in local saltwater has been to the south of the shipwreck, from Brown’s Bay, past Edmonds and Shilshole, into Elliott Bay. He’s been doing well in Brown’s Bay recently, trolling the larger green glow flasher, with 28 to 30 inches of leader, and a white glow squid with red eyes, starting at 40 or 50 feet in the morning and going down from there.
“We’re definitely seeing some nice ocean coho to the low teens mixed in now with resident silvers in the 5- to 7-pound range,” Krein said.
And coho reportedly are starting to move down the Strait of Juan de Fuca in peak numbers, and it’s about time.
“I was starting to get worried,” said Gary Ryan at Van Riper’s Resort in Sekiu, “but they finally started coming through about last Thursday, and everybody did pretty well on Friday and over the weekend.”
State checks at Van Riper’s showed 90 anglers with 71 coho, but that was for the entire week.
Ryan weighed a 19-pounder on Sunday. The largest silver he’s seen personally over the past several years was a 25-pound, 5-ounce fish in 2001, but he said anglers in the area take several fish in the 20s each year.
Most coho are being landed out in the shipping lanes, over 300 to 500 feet of water, he said, on cut plug or whole herring, flasher/hoochie, or flasher/Coyote or Coho Killer spoon combinations. Flat water and good weather conditions have enabled some anglers to go to a coho fly, fished right on the surface behind the boat – a system a certain number of aficionados look forward to each autumn.
Beach casters at Bush and Lagoon points on the west side of Whidbey Island are taking a few coho each day, usually on Buzz Bombs in white with blue or green trim.
Chinook: The Yakima River chinook fishery is just getting under way, and checkers said about 16 fish were taken last week, most around the Chandler powerhouse.
The buoy 10 fishery on the lower end of the Columbia remained slow, and is probably winding down from what has been a poor season.
Bandtails: For those with a permit, bandtail pigeon season opens Friday, and Sam Ingram of Arlington said there seems to be a good population of birds in the areas above 4,000 feet or so.
“Logging practices have changed,” Ingram, a fishing guide, hunter and avid outdoorsman, said, “and the lower-elevation berry patches have been overgrown to a large degree, so you have to go higher.”
Ingram recommended the Darrington, Green Mountain, Granite Falls, Whitechuck Mountain and North Mountain areas as possibilities.
Pheasant: The glory days of pheasant hunting in the upper Midwest are back, according to Pheasants Forever’s look at the 2005 results and predictions for the 2006 autumn seasons. Last year was a banner year in South Dakota (1.9 million roosters harvested), and in Iowa, North Dakota and Kansas (each at about 800,000 roosters). Nebraska recorded its best harvest in five years, the report said, and Minnesota its best in 40 years.
This fall could have entertained record ambitions, according to the report, but will “only” be about as good as last year because of a wet, cool spring in much of the Midwest.
The reason for the resurgence of pheasant populations in that area is improved habitat as a result of the federal, 39-million-acre Conservation Reserve Program, according to the report.
The group’s forecast for Washington is for a slight drop from last year’s 110,000-bird harvest, due to late spring rains and their negative impact on nesting success. The best counties, in order, likely will be Whitman, Grant, Walla Walla and Yakima.
Bass tourney: Western Bass Association anglers fished Lake Chelan on Aug. 19-20 in an annual derby. Mike Albertson weighed the first-place two-day bag at 26.87 pounds. Albertson also took big fish honors on Saturday with a 4.17-pound smallmouth, and Tony LoFranco hit the big fish on Sunday, also a smallmouth, at 3.84 pounds.
Sockeye stats: The numbers have been crunched and the state says this summer’s estimated recreational catch of 59,000 sockeye on Lake Washington was the highest since 1996. Sport anglers made about 63,800 trips on the lake and averaged just under one fish per person.
With the purchase of gear, fuel and other angler essentials, coupled with the ripple effect of those out-of-pocket expenses, the agency estimates this year’s fishery provided about $8.6 million in economic benefits to the greater Seattle area.
Fish story: Bob Ferber at Holiday Market Sports in Burlington tells the following tale about a longtime tackle representative in this area named George Hoelthe, who visits Ferber’s shop on a regular basis:
Hoelthe visited the Kenai River in Alaska in late July, Ferber said, in an ongoing attempt to catch Moby Chinook, the jumbo king that had eluded him for over 20 years of fishing the storied stream. In the early afternoon of July 20, a big fish hit and proceeded to tear Hoelthe limb from limb for over 45 minutes. When finally brought to net, the chrome bright chinook weighed in at 85 pounds.
“George claimed to have been exhausted and shaking from excitement,” Ferber said. “We can believe the excited part, but not the exhaustion. At 6 feet 8 inches and 345 pounds the former basketball standout can hold his own with any salmon.”
The big one took a Glo-Mac cured egg and Cheater combination, and the party followed it up with fish of 64, 55 and 43 pounds, Ferber said.
Hoelthe, a Sumner resident, played his high school basketball at Highline High School, and college ball at Olympic College. He was recruited by several “big-time” schools, Ferber said, but decided fishing and the outdoor business called louder.
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