When was the last time you looked at the results of a salmon derby in this state and saw a nearly 40-pound chinook at the top of the leaderboard? Or, rarer still, the top four fish weighing in at 30 pounds or better?
It’s been a while, but it happened over the weekend up in Bellingham, where a king of 39.2 pounds won the three-day derby sponsored by the Bellingham Chapter, Puget Sound Anglers. Ron Abbott was the top rod, winning $5,000, and his jumbo fish was followed by Troy Linderman at 37.7 pounds, and Charlie Knauft at 33.7 pounds. The fourth-place king weighed 30.3 pounds, according to chapter president Brett Engholm, and even the kids’ division winner was a big ‘un at 21-plus pounds.
These were the largest kings by far in the derby’s six-year history, Engholm said. A 26-pounder won it all last year, and a 27-pounder the year before.
Many of the top derby fish looked like Fraser River “footballs,” Engholm said, but not all. There were probably Nooksack and Skagit chinook in the catch, he said, particularly since one of the hottest spots was in the south San Juan Islands, in the Tide Point/Strawberry Island/Thatcher Pass area, for fish in the 20s.
And that leads (cleverly, I thought) right into prospects for today’s highly-anticipated opening of the marine area 9 and 10 selective chinook season. Because of the size of the Bellingham Derby fish, and the reports for the past couple of weeks of kings in the 30s being taken off Neah Bay and Sekiu, plus the word from Anthon Steen at Holiday Sports in Burlington about a 42-pounder and a couple of 30s out of the lower Skagit, it seems at least possible this could be a chinook year. If it is, local salmon fishermen will have to decide whether to head for Possession Bar, where the selective king fishing was hot two summers ago, or to Midchannel Bank off Port Townsend, where the better action took place last year.
Gary Krein, owner-skipper of All Star Charters in Everett said earlier this week he would be either on Possession, or at Point No Point for today’s opener. If he’s on the bar, he’ll be along the east edge for the morning low tide change at about 6:30 a.m., probably in only 50 to 90 feet of water, and moving over to the west side on the flood, in 120 to 150 feet of water.
He’ll be looking for bait and feeding fish, and pulling a flasher/spoon combo — either Kingfisher or Coyote, 31/2-inch or 4-inch size, on about 40 inches of leader. He likes glow white, or green, spoon colors, he said, adding that Ace Hi or Tomic plugs in white or mother of pearl also work well on Possession.
Across Admiralty Inlet at Point No Point, Krein said candlefish are the predominant bait, so he switches to smaller Coho Killer spoons or needlefish-size squids, again in white or green. He’ll be right on bottom in 70 to 120 feet of water, starting at the point and following the ebb toward Skunk Bay.
“You pretty much have to troll with the tide at Point No Point,” he said. “It gets rolling too hard through there to buck it, except for maybe an hour before or after the change.”
That same rule applies to Midchannel Bank off Port Townsend, where Nick Kester and the other All Star Charters boat will be today and for at least the first week of the fishery. Kester said to work the tide changes hard, then go with the tide on a line between the Marrowstone Island light and the Point Wilson light, in 90 to 100 feet of water. Match the candlefish hatch with smaller Coho Killer or Coyote spoons, 38 to 45 inches behind a flasher, Kester said, right on bottom. He prefers the yellowtail pattern or glow white/green in both spoons, or the white lightning UV or metallic green UV Coho Killers. He uses UV lures, however, only for brighter days or after about 9 a.m. in the morning. He tries to keep a 35-degreen angle on his ‘rigger cables, and a speed of about 2.5 mph.
Lower Skagit kings
The summer chinook season on the lower Skagit River has been slow since it opened on the 16th, but then it was never envisioned as a bite-a-minute fishery. A scattering of kings to the low 40s has been caught, and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Brett Barkdull said the season is progressing about as expected. Numbers should improve slowly, and offer better opportunity toward the end of the month, he said.
And yes, for those of you still fighting the Indian wars, tribal driftnetters are fishing the other 31/2 days each week and taking fair numbers of chinook. Do the arithmetic, check your calendar, and see that likely there will be more fish available to recreationists the farther away you are from the end of the net fishery each week.
Recreational fishing is open from noon Thursdays through the end of the day on Sundays, through Aug. 9, from the mouth to Gilligan Creek, with a limit of one adult king, wild or hatchery. Standard gear includes large spinners, Kwikfish or Flatfish with an anchovy or sardine wrap, or a large Spin N Glo with eggs or sand shrimp, on a “plunking” setup from the bank or from a boat hog line.
Baker sockeye?
State biologist Barkdull said there have been more Baker River sockeye returning to the Skagit this year than anticipated, but that the numbers don’t yet indicate an escapement high enough to warrant a season.
“We’re right on the edge, but we don’t have enough yet to be able to say one way or another at this point,” he said. “We’ll just have to wait and see how many we get through the (Baker River) trap. If there are enough, we might have a season; if not, we won’t.”
Since it’s too late to open the usual season at the mouth of the Baker River, any fishery would have to be mounted – for the first time ever – on Baker Lake.
Lake Wenatchee sockeye
Although the WDFW is not ready to say yea or nay on a Lake Wenatchee sockeye opening this year, Don Talbot at Hooked On Toys in Wenatchee (509-663-0740) said that from his long experience in the area, he would be willing to bet on a recreational season, probably to be announced within a week. There has been a substantial sockeye run coming up the Columbia, and its predicted size was just increased by Washington and Oregon salmon managers from 183,000 to 185,000 fish.
Meanwhile, Talbot said, you can currently fish ‘em in the Wells Pool at Brewster, off the mouth of the Okanogan River.
“Use the same gear and the same technique you would in Lake Washington,” he said. “A dodger and a single red or black hook works fine, starting at 15 to 25 feet deep in the morning, going down to 30 feet or so later. One boat that reported back to us last week had caught 19 sockeye in two days there, and we look for it to be good for at least a couple of weeks yet.”
The limit is four adult salmon, only two of which can be chinook, and remember that there’s a good summer chinook fishery going on in the same area, at the same time.
The hot lure for chinook, Talbot said, is the Super Bait, either the standard, or the new, just coming out, cut plug model, made by Mack’s Lures or Longview. It’s a hollow, baitfish lookalike, either full body or cut plug, which you open and fill with something like oil-pack tuna, Talbot said.
Coastal salmon
Hot action currently off Ilwaco for coho, with both charters and private boaters coming in with full limits. WDFW creel check coordinator Wendy Beeghley said the silvers started small a couple of weeks ago, but are now pushing 5 or 6 pounds on the average, and getting bigger. Coho fishing is expected to remain strong all summer off the Columbia, on a large predicted run.
Action also picked up this week at Westport, held down earlier by poor weather and difficulty locating schools of salmon off the coast. More chinook entered the catch at Westport than at Ilwaco, Beeghley said, but not a lot of chinook showed up anywhere along the coast. At Ilwaco, the take was 96 percent coho; at Westport, about 75 percent coho; at LaPush, about 90 percent coho; and at Neah Bay, about 80 percent coho. Limits were pretty much the rule at LaPush, while Neah Bay anglers scored at a rate of just under one fish per rod.
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