The break in the long cold snap seems to have sparked steelhead movement in local rivers. The fishing picked up significantly this week as water temperatures started to moderate.
Guide and Arlington resident Sam Ingram had one of his best days of the season Tuesday on the Skykomish, hooking six fish and landing four, plus a reasonably bright coho.
“We saw steelhead rolling, which to me means moving fish,” Ingram said, “and we haven’t seen that for several weeks.”
Ingram drifted the stretch from Sultan to Monroe, concentrating on the deeper pockets. His first fish of the day nailed a chrome/red backtrolled Tadpolly; the second a Spin N Glo while side drifting; the third a bait diver/sand shrimp setup; and the fourth, at the very end of the day, another plug.
“All the takes were soft and the fish were not extremely active,” Ingram said. “I think the water was still so cold that they weren’t hitting aggressively. We had to present our lures slowly and thoroughly and really pound.”
Ingram said the forecast for continued warmer temperatures and some rain makes this weekend perhaps the best bet so far this season for local steelheaders. If you can hit the river between Christmas events, he said, it should be worthwhile.
The lower end of the Cascade River continues to kick out a few fish a day, and results from the Skagit have been encouraging so far. Bob Ferber at Holiday Market Sports in Burlington said fish are scattered from the plunking bars at Mount Vernon clear up to Marblemount. Guides have reported some limit action, particularly in the Rockport area.
Warming temperatures started fish moving in the Forks area as well, said Bob Gooding at Olympic Sporting Goods there, with the Bogachiel/Calawah confluence the top spot, along with the lower Hoh.
In southwest Washington, results have been mixed. The Cowlitz, while producing steelhead for those who know the river, has not been up to its usual standards. State Department of Fish and Wildlife checks there last week tallied 21 winter and four summer steelhead for 46 bank anglers checked at Blue Creek, the barrier dam, Mission Bar and Olequa. Some 13 boat fishermen had four winter-runs.
Adult steelhead returns to the Elochoman have been well below last year at this point; the Cowlitz about equal; the Kalama substantially higher than last year; the Lewis also up, and the Washougal way down.
Waterfowl: There are lots of ducks and snow geese around, but the weather has been difficult. Pass and jump shooters working the fog have done well, particularly in the absence of much wind. The largest concentrations of ducks are rafting on Padilla and Samish bays.
Blackmouth: Both sides of Saratoga Passage in areas 8-1 and 8-2 continue to put out fair blackmouth fishing, but anglers are bemoaning the last clipped, keepable fish. Action is also spotty – pretty good one day, slow the next.
Area 9 crabbing: Like Marine Area 7 (see Pick of the Week), Area 9 went to daily recreational crabbing rules on Wednesday. Daily crabbing stays in effect through the end of the season on Jan. 2. While there aren’t huge numbers of crab left to harvest, the usually productive spots should still be worth a last shot.
Gary Krein, skipper/owner of All Star Charters, recommends the area in front of the old Meadowdale Boathouse in Brown’s Bay; the area just south of the shipwreck; Useless Bay (but forget it in a south wind); President’s Point to the Kingston ferry terminal in Area 10, and just northwest of Apple Cove Point in Area 9.
This time of year, try 40 to 60 feet, Krein said, but if you’re seeing mainly females, go deeper. Krein said chicken and turkey parts out-fish even fish carcasses, and that seals and sea lions don’t bother them as much.
Columbia River triploid rainbows: Winter is prime time for the big (to 20-plus pounds) net-pen, broodstock rainbows in Rufus Woods Lake, the long reservoir above Chief Joseph Dam on the Columbia at Bridgeport. Guide and Brewster resident Rod Hammons said a 16-pounder was landed last week, along with two in the 10-pound range.
The fish can be caught by trolling or by fishing bait from shore, but perhaps the easiest way to go about it is to plunk bait along the six miles or so of road upriver from Bridgeport on the south bank of the Columbia. The Corps of Engineers has built fire pits at intervals, particularly toward the end of the road at Brandts Landing. Take your own wood, a steelhead-weight spinning rig and be prepared to throw an ounce or more of slip sinker way out on the flats.
“The fish come onto the flats in the winter to feed on snails in the weeds making them available to shore fishermen,” Hammons said. “Bait with floating stuff, to stay above the weeds – Power Bait, or a marsh-mallow/worm/corn combo.”
This is standard trout fishing, he said, except that the trout are steelhead size, averaging 5 or 6 pounds.
Clams/oysters: The Rendsland Creek tidelands in Mason County, on the east side of Hood Canal off North Shore Road, open Jan. 1 to clam digging. The dig should be pretty good, since the area has been closed to recreational harvest for a period of time. It remains open through May 31, and year-around for oyster picking. For more information, call the state’s Point Whitney Shellfish Lab (360-586-1498).
More clams: The next tentative razor clam season on the coastal beaches is scheduled for Dec. 30-31 and Jan. 1 at Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, Mocrocks and Kalaloch beaches. A fourth evening of digging is set for Jan. 2, at Twin Harbors and Mocrocks only. This will be the third dig of the winter season, and the state’s shellfish manager, Dan Ayres, said diggers are averaging 13 clams (out of a limit of 15) per person per trip so far. The last New Years Day dig was in 2001, and it drew 35,000 participants, Ayres said.
Sockeye politics: A permanent sockeye hatchery on the Cedar River cleared another hurdle last week, when a hearing examiner found in favor of the City of Seattle’s proposal for the facility. Opponents still have the opportunity to appeal.
The hatchery would be located at Landsburg, a couple of miles southeast of Maple Valley, and would produce up to 700,000 young sockeye annually, possibly allowing a recreational/commercial fishery in Lake Washington every year.
Ducks Unlimited special: The featured piece of artwork at Ducks Unlimited banquets this season won’t be (primarily) a print of a duck, or a goose, or a retriever. DU artist of the year Ralph McDonald has created a painting of an ivory-billed woodpecker, in honor of the fact that the magnificent once-thought-extinct bird was rediscovered in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas, a facility paid for primarily by federal duck stamps purchased by waterfowl hunters.
The painting is titled “Lost Treasure,” and features a male ivory bill on a tree, with a pair of wood ducks flying in the background through a flooded bottomland forest. Prints can be purchased at DU’s Online Store, www.ducks.org/newstore.
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