Regulation changes by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife seldom invoke much passion. So what if we’re allowed an additional adult salmon here or are cut one walleye there.
But an announcement from the state dated Aug. 26 caught my eye.
“Fishers may retain a single squid exceeding 10 pounds (in the round) as their daily bag limit in Marine Areas 1 through 13,” the release stated.
That must be a typo, I thought to myself. They must mean it’s OK to keep your published limit of 10 pounds of (small) squid, plus one squid over, or something like that. The release probably was meant to be a clarification of an existing rule for the folks who jig squid off a number of Puget Sound piers during the fall and winter months. But the next line brought me up short.
“Some ocean squid encountered by tuna anglers exceed 10 pounds in weight. The new rule allows anglers to possess a single squid that exceeds 10 pounds or, as before, 10 pounds (or five quarts) of smaller squid in the round.”
Over a long career in the outdoor biz, I had never heard of a single instance of a Washington state recreational angler coming into contact with one of the larger species of Pacific squid. Rod-and-reel fishermen catching 10-pound squid? Here?
“I agree that it’s very unusual,” said the state’s groundfish manager in Olympia, Greg Bargmann. “I went back over the literature and I couldn’t find a single reference to anything like this for at least 15 years.”
It seems that on Aug. 25 the albacore charter Lucky Pierre, an overnighter out of Ocean Charters in Westport, noticed a lot of “logs” gathering under the deck lights, late in the evening, as the skipper and deck hand did some work toward the next day’s tuna fishing. A closer look showed the creatures were big squid and, soon, the dudes aboard had landed eight or 10, both on anchovies and on tuna jigs. The squid were three to five feet in length and one weighed over 10 pounds.
The charter was 30 miles off the coast in 67-degree water, Bargmann said, and not knowing whether the squid were legal or not, the anglers put them all back in the water.
“I guess the guys all said it was a ball,” Bargmann said. “The squid apparently took bait and lures readily, and fought hard. They went back out to the same area last week and couldn’t find any, but that’s why we changed the regulation.”
Bargmann said the warm water probably explained the presence of the squid, and also the good fishing for albacore.
“I haven’t been able to positively identify these things,” he said, “but from the description, they appear to be Humboldt squid, a species native to Southern California and fished commercially off the coast of Mexico. If that’s what they are, they’re a very good table species.”
At least one other boat was able to find a school, Bargmann said. Over the weekend, the Ms Magoo hit squid 56 miles off the coast and brought several aboard. Back in Westport, the largest scaled out at 231/2 pounds.
And that, my friend, is a lot of calamary.
Local coho: “We’re staring right down the barrel of a great coho forecast, and the arrival of the silver horde has already started,” said fishing guide and Lake Stevens resident Tom Nelson (tom@fishskagit.com). “You can find them toward the shipwreck end of Humpy Hollow, now, and around Hat Island, and off Camano Head in a few days.”
Gary Krein, owner/skipper of All Star Charters in Everett (425-252-4188), located a nice bunch of coho Monday between Mukilteo and the shipwreck.
“We landed seven nice fish between 6 and 12 pounds,” Krein said, “scattered through that area and about midway between the shore and the center of the shipping channel.”
Krein said the appearance of catchable numbers of ocean coho is right on the mark, with Sept. 1 the traditional start of the autumn fishery.
It was an early morning bite, Krein said, best in the first two hours of daylight. The low slack later in the day brought on another flurry of action at the shipwreck, he said.
Krein likes a Coyote flasher followed by a light green spatterback squid, or a white squid. Most of his strikes Monday came in water between 35 and 45 feet deep, although he nailed one fish, later, at 90 feet.
If the run is indeed following the traditional schedule, he said, then Sept. 15-18 should see a peak, but fishing should hold up through early October.
Bob Ferber at Holiday Market Sports (360-757-4361) in Burlington said a substantial number of coho are being taken along the westside Whidbey Island beaches. Anglers fishing Bush Point last week did well casting 21/4 -inch pink Buzz Bombs for silvers going 6 to 14 pounds. Similar reports, Ferber said, are coming in from Lagoon Point and the Fort Casey area. North Beach in the Deception Pass area is also a good bet.
Local rivers that are legal for coho this year open Friday and, while it will be a little early for top fishing, reports indicate at least fair numbers of silvers already in the Snohomish system.
Samish kings: The morning tide after the first good rain last week produced at least 30 chinook on the lower end of the Samish River, Ferber said. The fish ranged from 14 to 24 pounds. Drifting eggs were the top method, but some fish were taken on marabou jigs in a variety of colors.
Columbia kings: We’re getting close to the peak of the season for upper Columbia summer chinook. Fish mornings between Brewster and the mouth of the Okanogan River, and afternoons and evenings below Wells Dam. Trollers using a dodger/herring rig are scoring best, followed by those backtrolling Wiggle Warts and other deep-diving plugs.
Coastal chinook: Westport has improved not only in the number of chinook and coho being taken by charter boat anglers, but some of the kings are a lot bigger than usual. An Ocean Shores woman aboard the Fury, out of Deep Sea Charters, landed a 58-pounder on Aug. 19 – the largest king weighed at Westport in years.
And while 50-pounders have certainly not been the rule, there have been others taken. Ron Garner, vice president of the SnoKing Chapter of Puget Sound Anglers, put his boat in front of a 50-pound chinook for his neighbor, Bill Populin, tempting the hog with a green/white hoochie behind a green/silver flasher, 37 feet deep. Garner said they landed two 30-pound chinook on the same trip, along with lots of low- to mid-teen hatchery silvers.
The good fishing off the coast mirrors that at buoy 10 on the lower end of the Columbia River. Anglers there have taken several kings in the 40-pound range, along with a mix of nice silvers. Success rates have been running one to two fish per boat.
Neah Bay closes: Marine Area 4 closes to all recreational salmon fishing at midnight Saturday. Anglers will have reached the coho quota for the Neah Bay area by then. A decision on whether or not to reopen the area for a short additional fishery will be made by salmon managers prior to Sept. 10.
Cowlitz hot: The Cowlitz River continues to smoke for summer steelhead, and you can now add great fishing for sea-run cutthroat to the mix. State checks over the weekend showed an average of one steelhead per rod and one cutthroat for each two rods, for boaters, and one steelhead for every 2.7 bank anglers. Most steelhead were taken above Massey Bar, and most cutthroat below I-5.
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