If a bucket of fresh smelt is in your fishing future, you might want to concentrate on saltwater jigging rather than waiting for the Cowlitz eulachon dipnet fishery. The forecast for this winter’s Columbia River smelt run is out, and it’s not particularly encouraging.
Last year’s Columbia run produced a commercial harvest of slightly over 13,000 pounds, the fourth lowest since records started being kept in 1938. The recreational dipnet fishery in the Cowlitz was probably even worse, with high, dirty water conditions on top of low smelt populations, and fish managers for the Washington and Oregon fish and wildlife departments are predicting another poor year. Eulachon normally show in the lower Columbia by mid-January, peak in February, and taper off into March and early April.
Last season’s regulations for dippers on the Cowlitz provided for one day per week – Saturdays – with a limit of 10 pounds per person, per day, and there weren’t many limits taken. Regulations this winter are expected to be similar.
Meanwhile, jigging for surf smelt at Cornet Bay has apparently rebounded from a down period during river flooding in the area two weeks ago. Jigging has been good at times recently, according to Bob Ferber at Holiday Market Sports in Burlington. There are apparently enough fish around that recreationists on the Deception Pass State Park piers are scoring even on an outgoing tide, in addition to the usually more productive incoming and high slack.
Many people, your humble servant included, believe that surf smelt are far superior to Columbia eulachon on the table. You can’t argue with the fact, however, that when the little fish are truly in the Cowlitz, it’s a lot easier to fill a bucket, and a lot of fun besides.
Blackmouth: So far, this hasn’t been a memorable winter blackmouth season in marine areas 8-1 and 8-2. Checks from the north end of the area have been dismal, and those from the south – Elger Bay, Langley shoreline – have been only slightly better. One spot that has put out a few decent fish – between a lot of shakers – recently is the green can off Oak Harbor, using flasher and either cop car or green/silver Coyote spoons.
Checks at the Port of Everett ramp over the weekend tallied 6 blackmouth for 27 fishermen.
Derbies: What is hyped as “the largest blackmouth tournament in the world,” the annual Roche Harbor Salmon Classic Invitational, runs Feb. 8-10 this winter, drawing highliners from around the Northwest and British Columbia for a pot including $25,000 in cash and prizes. Entries are limited to 100 boats, four anglers per boat, and the fee is $600 per boat, which includes moorage and meals. Call Debbie Sandwith at Roche Harbor Market, 360-378-5562, or e-mail market@rocheharbor.com.
The Roche Harbor event is number one on 2007’s list of derbies making up the Northwest Salmon Derby Series. The series, sponsored by the Northwest Marine Trade Association, will award two boat/motor/trailer packages at the end of the salmon season, by random drawing of tickets sold to participants in all the series’ tournaments. The more of these derbies you enter, the more tickets you have in the pot and the better your chance of winning a boat at the Everett Coho Derby in September. The 2007 series: Roche Harbor, Feb. 8-10; Discovery Bay Salmon Derby, Feb. 17-19; Geoduck Restaurant (Brinnon) Salmon Derby, March 4-5; Anacortes Salmon Derby, March 10-11; Salmon Quest, Portland, Ore., May 12; Port Angeles Halibut Derby, May 26-27; Bellingham Salmon Derby, July 13-15; Gig Harbor Salmon Derby, Aug. 11; Hood Canal Salmon Derby, Aug. 18-19; Willapa Bay Salmon Derby, Tokeland, Sept. 1; Edmonds Coho Derby, Sept. 8; and Everett Coho Derby, Sept. 22-23.
Steelhead: Except for the Cowlitz and the Forks-area rivers, steelheading has been hit-or-miss at best. Only a very few fish are being seen on the Snohomish River plunking bars, according to Jim Strege at Triangle Beverage in Snohomish. Except for the Reiter Ponds area, the Skykomish has been very slow as well.
Ferber (above) said the Cascade is producing a few steelhead, almost on a daily basis, for those using float and jig. The lower Skagit, he said, is still high and murky, but it’s eminently fishable in the Rockport area and anglers are taking a few. Ferber said Paul Randall of Skagit River Classics Guide Service has been working the Rockport stretch successfully, scoring on a rig consisting of float, Dedfish drift weight, and a shrimp tail.
Boat fishermen on the upper Skagit not float fishing or free drifting, are backtrolling, Ferber said, often using a Hottentot with the hooks removed as a diver to get shrimp or eggs to the bottom.
“You don’t have to re-rig your own plugs any more,” he said. “We sell ‘em now, mag Hottentots, black, with no hooks.”
The Bogachiel and the lower end of the Calawah continue to put out winter steelheading better than it’s been this early in the season the past several years, according to Bob Gooding at Olympic Sporting Goods in Forks.
The Elochoman continues to be at least a fair bet in the southwest, but early winter returns to both the Lewis and Kalama are running substantially below the numbers at the same point last year.
The Whidbey beaches haven’t been exactly hot, but the occasional steelhead is showing there, particularly at Fort Casey, for “surf casters” tossing the old standby Spin N Glo/hoochie combination.
Waterfowl: Hunting is probably one of the brightest spots in the outdoor pantheon right now, with words like “excellent” and “loads of ducks and geese around,” being heard, and weather bad enough to brighten the shotgunner’s heart. Anthon Steen at Holiday Market Sports (above) quoted WDFW biologist Mike Davidson as saying he thought there were probably 800,000 to 900,000 ducks on Skagit, Samish and Padilla Bays, with most holding in the northern areas.
Flyovers have indicated about 150,000 ducks, with a high percentage of mallards, on the north part of Skagit Bay, Steen said. One party came through the shop over the weekend with 14 birds, including 11 mallards and 3 widgeon.
As predicted, a very large flight of snow geese has come down from far-eastern Russia this winter, and Steen said a lot of limits are being taken at various places on Fir Island, including the new “draw to hunt” acreage on the southwest portion of the island.
Fields, puddles, bayfront – all are putting out birds now, Steen said, for those who do their scouting and secure permission to hunt.
Trout: Jim Brauch, past president of the Everett Steelhead and Salmon Club and a local trout guru, said winter isn’t just for steelheaders and blackmouth anglers. Brauch said all the planted triploids in Blackman’s Lake, Snohomish, aren’t even close to being all fished out. Lake Goodwin and Lake Stevens are also a fine opportunity on a sunny winter morning.
Ferber said Pass Lake is producing some big browns currently, for fly fishermen working matukas and woolly buggers near bottom on a full-sink line.
And it’s peak time right now for the lunker triploid and “Spokane Strain” rainbow of 2 or 3 pounds up to the high teens and larger in Rufus Woods Lake, on the upper Columbia above Chief Joseph Dam. Long casts from shore, above the dam, with slip sinker, long leader and Power Bait is the standard procedure, said guide and Brewster resident Rod Hammons.
Hammons is an avid hunter, by the way, and he and friends have foot-hunted for two cougar so far this winter, a 6-footer and a 71/2 -footer, with two tags to go.
St. Helens elk plan: WDFW has released a new management plan for the troubled Mount St. Helens elk herd, calling for expanding hunting options to reduce the size of the 12,500-animal herd. More than 60 elk died of malnutrition and related causes last winter in the mudflow area at the foot of the mountain, due to what the department said was a declining availability of forage in the area, due to changes in timber practices and other factors.
“The new management plan recognizes that the area’s habitat cannot adequately support that many elk,” said WDFW game manager Dave Ware.
Ware said new hunting opportunities will focus on cow elk, to reduce the herd’s rate of reproduction. He would like to get the herd down to about 10,000 animals, he said.
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