Thousands of recreational salmon anglers will swarm to the south half of Lake Washington this weekend, as a much larger than anticipated return of Lake Washington system sockeye allows salmon managers with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to open a season for the first time in two years.
Tim Flint, statewide salmon manager for the state in Olympia said the season is scheduled to run Saturday, Sunday and Monday, from an hour before sunrise to an hour after sunset each day. The daily limit will be two salmon per person.
The 2004 opening on Lake Washington was for 2 days in late July, generating a catch of 27,500 of the small salmon for about 28,000 anglers.
Pre-season predictions had been for a run this year not approaching the 350,000 adult fish needed for spawning escapement, but the sockeye surprised everyone. The latest update by state and Muckleshoot tribal personnel, after counts of migrating salmon at the Ballard locks, is for a 411,000-fish return.
“We expect recreationists to catch 34,000 sockeye in the three-day fishery,” Flint said. “That would be a little over half the harvestable fish, but the Muckleshoots have agreed to forego that part of their share in order to allow sport fishermen a full three days on the water.”
Lake Washington will be open for sockeye in its entirety, except for 100 yards on either side of the floating bridges, and a 1,000-foot semi-circle around the mouth of the Cedar River in Renton.
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