Recreational fishing representatives, better organized and carrying more clout than ever before, are accepting well-deserved pats on the back for their part in establishing this summer’s salmon seasons. The seasons — hammered out in negotiations between user groups and state and federal managers during the month-long “North of Falcon” process — show a major shift in emphasis toward the sportfishing end of the scale that probably would not have been possible even 10 years ago.
The complete package of salmon fishing regulations for the next year should be available on the state Department of Fish and Wildlife web site, www.wdfw.wa.gov.
Many sportfishing activists are saying the department’s interim director, Phil Anderson, and his staff deserve the thanks of the recreational community for coming up with a good recreational package, for defending it through the entire process, and for keeping sport fishing reps fully in the picture. Anderson comes from a recreational fishing background (a Westport charter salmon operation), but this was the first chance for sportfishermen to see him in action during the North of Falcon process. He apparently passed the test.
Activist Gary Krein of Everett said the most significant change in local salmon seasons this summer is undoubtedly the substantial increase in the Marine Area 9-10 selective chinook fishery. The extremely popular season for fin-clipped hatchery kings in the central Sound has been limited by quota the past two seasons to a couple of weeks of frantic, crowded action. This year, anglers can pretty much count on 47 days of chinook fishing in the two areas, with no quota, from July 16 to August 31.
“If it gets out of hand,” Krein said, “the state reserves the right to slow it down or close it, but the odds of it being closed early are slim, in my opinion.”
The daily limit will be two fin-clipped chinook.
Another major improvement, Krein said, was making either clipped or unclipped coho legal during the summer and fall fisheries — as opposed to last year’s clipped fish only — in Marine Areas 8, 9 and 10. The limit will be four salmon, two of which must be humpies. The other two, depending on area, can be pinks, or clipped chinook, or any coho, or a combination.
Krein said anglers in this area also gained two months (November and December) during next winter’s blackmouth season in areas 8-1 and 8-2. The season opens Nov. 1 instead of January, although it remains a selective fishery for clipped chinook only.
The San Juan Islands (Marine Area 7) got more winter blackmouth time as well, opening Dec. 1 and running through April 30, an increase of more than two months.
The state expects a return this summer of 5 million pinks to Puget Sound, about 2 million more than last year, and another strong chum run. Regulations will allow two pink salmon and two “bonus” pinks, for a total of four fish daily, and Krein said the “humpy Hollow” area south of Mukilteo will be designated a recreational-only fishery during daylight hours, eliminating some of the frustrating confrontation between hook-and-liners and commercials.
A healthy run of big summer chinook will be targeted by sport fishermen on the Skagit River for the first time since the early 1990s. The four-week season opens July 9 — on Thursdays (starting at noon), Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays — with a limit of one chinook, clipped or not. The tribes will fish Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
“It’s a thrill to have this fishery back,” said radio outdoor host and Lake Stevens resident Tom Nelson, whose father, a Marysville dentist, was a Skagit River regular and is credited with developing the famous golf tee spinner. “I don’t think fishermen are yet fully aware of what a huge impact this fishery will have in our area. You’re going to see people dusting off the old plywood sleds and digging out the Winner Spinners and Skagit Specials from their father’s tackle box, and I can guarantee you that the largest king salmon caught in north Sound this summer WILL come from the Skagit.”
Nelson plans to host a clinic on the Skagit summer kings sometime in late May at Bayside Marine in Everett.
He said that while Kwikfish and other modern lures give chinook fishermen more options, and better equipment makes more of the river accessible, he still expects boat plunking in hog lines downriver from Mount Vernon to be the norm, at least for a while.
“It being a traditional fishery, you’re likely to see a lot of the old spinner setups,” he said, “but you’ll also see the Kenai standard, a big Spin N Glo, with or without a gob of eggs, or plug cut herring, all behind the boat with a 25- or 30-inch dropper weight.”
He said a big Fatfish or Kwikfish will prove versatile, boat-plunked or back-trolled, depending on the tide conditions, on the lower river.
“There’s a lot for newcomers to learn about this fishery,” Nelson said. “There’s a whole body of hog line etiquette, for instance, which if you don’t learn and follow, could put you in some disrepute among your peers.”
Anchoring is a whole science in itself, Nelson said. While an adequate Danforth, with a length of chain, should work fine on the sandy bottom, you must become familiar with various anchor float and release mechanisms to participate safely and effectively in the fishery.
For an expanded version of Outdoor Outlook, visit www.heraldnet.com.
SPRINGERS
The Columbia River below Hayden Island (at Portland) closes to spring chinook at the end of the day Saturday, but remains open from the island up to Bonneville for an additional four days. Checks by Washington and Oregon salmon managers last week showed a catch rate of about one king for every two to three boats, while bank anglers were scoring at a clip of one for 14 or so.
Through Monday, just 1,200 fish had cleared Bonneville Dam, well below the 5,600 recorded at this point last year. And with so few moving upriver, popular fisheries at Drano Lake and the mouth of the Wind River have been slow.
STEELHEAD
The Skagit catch-and-release season runs through April, and fishing has apparently picked up after a slow month of March. Arlington resident and guide Sam Ingram said a couple of days of warm weather put some silt into the Sauk and the small amount of color was just enough to put fish on the bite. He hit two late last week a mile below the Sauk, one about 16 pounds and the other a massive buck estimated to be at least 28 pounds.
“The last two weeks of the month could be good,” Ingram said.
CHEERS
Congratulations are in order to The Reel News for 25 years of successful publication. The tabloid-format monthly newspaper is produced locally by the Goerg family of Lake Stevens and has grown from a Renton fishing club newsletter to the place to look for recreational fishing-oriented issues and politics in Western Washington.
LAKE CHELAN CHINOOK
The season for landlocked summer chinook on Lake Chelan opened yesterday, earlier than has been the case the past couple of years, and state biologists say the population of both planted triploid kings and naturally spawning diploid fish is high enough to support a meaningful fishery. The department’s policy is to maintain the chinook population at a level that will support a sport fishery but still minimize predation on kokanee and cutthroat.
Guide Joe Heinlen of Lake Chelan Adventures (509-393-9665) said chinook have been caught for years incidentally to Mackinaw fishing, but that more and more anglers are now targeting the salmon. They can be taken any time during the established season, he said, but coastal anglers will find them a lot deeper than the chinook they’re used to chasing — averaging 150 to 350 feet.
The largest fish Heinlen has caught recently went 13 pounds, 9 ounces, but he has seen a 16.5-pound fish, and said he’s heard of triploids approaching 20. Deep downrigger trolling with Critter Getter spoons, or Silver Horde Ace Hi flies, almost any glow color, is standard procedure, he said. Herring also can be effective, pulled behind a green Hot Spot flasher.
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