A couple of popular salmon openers — the Tulalip bubble for chinook, and the Baker River for sockeye — took place over the weekend, but neither put a whole bunch of fish on the table. That was expected in the bubble, which is a reasonably predictable fishery that usually starts slowly, and probably not a total surprise up on the Baker, either, which opened two weeks earlier than normal.
“From what I heard the bubble produced a half-dozen fish or so on Sunday,” said All Star Charters owner Gary Krein in Everett, “which would probably translate into one for 20 rods or so. That would make it a pretty typical opening day for that fishery, year in and year out.”
Krein fished Monday and said the crowd had dropped to about 20 boats, but he didn’t touch a king and heard of only one fish taken. Most chinook so far in the bubble have been running 10 to 15 pounds, he said, noting that there seems to be a fair amount of bait in the area.
“One point you might remember is that the evening bite there can be one of the best of the day,” he said. “Two or three of those Sunday fish came late in the day, and that’s a pretty high percentage of the total catch.”
Krein recommends a flasher followed by a Coyote spoon in frog racer or red racer patterns, or a green squid, and said most fish so far have been taken with downrigger balls set at 50 to 70 feet or so. The area from the red can northward has been the most popular.
Clay Kitchen at Holiday Sports in Burlington said the Baker River sockeye opener was very slow. “We heard of only a couple of fish caught,” he said.
So is it going to be a bummer this year? Not necessarily, according to Kitchen.
“That fishery usually opens July 1,” he said. “Give it a week and then look for it to pick up.”
Plunking right where the Baker empties into the Skagit, and for a short distance downstream, is the usual technique, Kitchen said, and you have to get there pretty early to get a good spot. Most fishermen rig with a small Spin N Glo in pink, blue or purple, and either eggs or sand shrimp.
More sockeye: It will be a while before biologists know whether or not enough sockeye are on their way up the Columbia to even consider opening a season on Lake Wenatchee, but the very preliminary numbers don’t look too bad. State Fish and Wildlife Department biologist Joe Hymer in Vancouver said that through June 16, some 30,223 sockeye had been counted at the Bonneville Dam fish ladders.
“That could be the highest total for that date in possibly a half-century or more,” Hymer said. “I couldn’t find daily dam counts any earlier than 1960.”
Last year at this point, he said, 4,130 sockeye had been counted. Some 9,400 fish ran the ladders on Tuesday alone, which was a higher number than the total for the entire run — 9,200 fish — in 1995.
All that doesn’t necessarily mean a sport season on Lake Wenatchee, however. The majority of those fish are headed for the Okanogan, with a handful due to turn up the Snake, and no one knows how many will split off toward the Wenatchee system until dam counts below and above Wenatchee are in. The pre-season prediction for the total Columbia run is 75,600 fish, but only 13,700 for the Wenatchee. If that proves true, the run would not reach the roughly 20,000 to 25,000 fish needed to consider a season.
And even more sockeye: The state Supreme Court last month ruled efforts can go forward to establish a permanent sockeye hatchery and egg-taking trap on the Cedar River, raising hopes by fishing advocates that recreational seasons on Lake Washington will become the rule rather than the exception each year. The decision ended six years of legal wrangling between pro- and anti-hatchery factions and allows the City of Seattle to go ahead with construction.
Biologists feel they need production of 30 to 40 million young fish on the Cedar in order to have a yearly fishery in Lake Washington. The capacity of the temporary hatchery, in place since 1991, has been only 17 million.
The pre-season prediction for this summer’s run is about 106,000 sockeye, well below the 350,000 fish needed to consider a season.
Halibut derby: Rand Pierce of Port Angeles landed an 85-pound halibut over the weekend to win the Sekiu derby and take home the $850 first-place check. In second was Fred Drake of Roy, at 72 pounds, winning $200, and in third, Tony Day of Spokane at 52 pounds, winning $100.
The derby pulled 220 entrants said Dan Spomer of Olson’s Resort, almost identical to last year’s event.
“Some of the better spots seemed to be off the Sekiu River and Pillar Point,” Spomer said, “and the area right out in front of us.”
State personnel checked 62 anglers on Saturday at Sekiu with 21 halibut and 3 lings and, on Sunday, 111 fishermen with 33 halibut and 7 lings.
Although most halibut fishing in Western Washington is now closed, anglers have enough quota left for one more day — June 21 — out of Neah Bay and LaPush. Marine Area 5, Sekiu, is the only other opportunity, open five days a week through July 21.
Rivers: The Skykomish remains high and with limited visibility, but fishermen have been nailing enough summer-run steelhead to at least keep things interesting. Tough fishing conditions are bad enough for steelhead, but even worse for chinook and, while there are certainly kings in the river, lower water levels will be needed to find them.
John Thomas of Rotten Chum Guide Service took out a party of four on Saturday, touched two fish and landed one — a 14-pound hatchery chinook.
“Fishing was tough this weekend,” Thomas said, “but it should improve as the conditions get better. The one we boated came on a Brad’s magnum bait diver with a pink No. 4 Spin N Glow and sand shrimp, at the tailout of the Thunderbird Hole.”
He said he has seen enough chinook rolling to make the assumption that there are good numbers of fish in the river. But with a foot and a half of visibity, you have to fish slowly and put your bait right in their faces to trigger a take.
Better chinook fishing has been available in the upper Skagit and Cascade rivers, where roughly one angler in five has been checked with a king. Anthon Steen at Holiday Sports in Burlington said the Big Eddy, at the mouth of the Cascade, remains a favorite spot, and that fishing pressure has been surprisingly light so far.
Crab: Recreational crab seasons have been set and they look a lot like last year’s, including the much-maligned catch reporting procedures.
Marine areas 4 (Neah Bay east of the Bonilla-Tatoosh line), 5 (Sekiu) and 13 (south Puget Sound) opened yesterday to run through Jan. 2, seven days per week. Areas 6 (eastern Strait); 7 South (San Juan Islands); 8-1 (Deception Pass and north Saratoga Passage); 8-2 (south Saratoga Passage and Possession Sound); 9 (Admiralty Inlet); 10 (Seattle); 11 (Tacoma); and 12 (Hood Canal) will open Wednesdays through Saturdays only, plus the entire Labor Day weekend and will close the evening of Sept. 1 for a catch assessment. They will reopen in the fall if there is recreational quota left.
Marine Area 7 East (Bellingham and Samish bays) will open Wednesdays through Saturdays only, plus the entire Labor Day weekend and will close the evening of Sept. 27.
Marine Area 7 North (Lummi Island/Blaine) will open Wednesdays through Saturdays only, plus the entire Labor Day weekend and will close the evening of Sept. 27.
For the second year, sport crabbers must record Dungeness crab catches on two separate record cards — one summer; one fall/winter, either by mail or the Internet. As an incentive, those submitting reports by the Sept. 15 deadline will be entered in a raffle to win one of 10 fre 2009 combination licenses.
Coastal salmon: The Ilwaco area has been the most productive so far for coastal chinook anglers, putting out a fish for every two rods on the average. At Westport, the average has been closer to one for every three rods, according to state creel check data.
Trout: In the Columbia Basin, Grimes is good for Lahontan cutthroat to 5 or 6 pounds now; Park, Blue, Perch and Dry Falls fair to good bets for rainbow; and Roses good for trout to 15 inches. More locally, try Big Lake for bass; Clear Lake for triploid rainbow on trolled spoons or plugs; Heart and Erie for rainbow on trolled black or green woolly buggers; Macmurray, sixteen, and goodwin for ‘bows. Lake Stevens is a pretty good bet for kokanee, but you have to cover water to find them. Lake Campbell produces multi-pound ‘bows for those taking the time to learn it.
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