A bunch of outdoor opportunities either opened or were already underway over the holiday weekend for Western Washington sport fishers, and here’s a short list of how the multitudes fared:
Crabbing in Marine Areas 8-1 and 8-2 ? Excellent. If you weren’t there you were most definitely square.
Ocean salmon fishing? Mixed. If you were at Westport or LaPush, you were in the wrong place.
Baker River sockeye in the Skagit? Poor, poor, poor, and nobody knows why.
New catch and keep sturgeon fishery on the Eastside? Lookin’ good, but will take a while to learn where and how.
Tulalip Bubble salmon? Not hot, but the best in a long time.
Marine areas 9 and 10 catch and release chinook? Very good, particularly in Area 10, with some nice fish showing.
And digging a little deeper into all the above, you have to start with crab. Recreational crabbing in north Sound has been gathering a huge following, and the opening of our local waters on a long weekend brought out the fleet in force. All Star Charters owner/skipper Gary Krein in Everett said the Port of Everett ramp was jammed all three days, including overflow parking, and often with the waiting line clear out onto Marine View Drive.
Mike Chamberlain at Ted’s Sport Center in Lynnwood said he estimates 600 boats or more on the water from the greater Everett area, during peak periods. Don Velasquez, shellfish manager at the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Mill Creek office, said the weekend data wasn’t yet available Tuesday, but that generally he was “hearing good things” about the crab harvest in areas 8-1 and 8-2, with a lot of limits coming in.
Crowded? You bet. But if you close down most of the fishing opportunities, the folks will take what’s available, and crabbing is an attractive alternative.
On the coast, Ilwaco put out the best weekend fishing by far, according to WDFW coastal salmon coordinator Wendy Beeghley. Saturday was slow, but Sunday was “lights out” at Ilwaco, where anglers hit mostly coho, Beeghley said. Ilwaco is the one coastal marine area where coho harvest is allowed this summer.
“They were generally nice fish,” Beeghley said, “to 4 or 5 pounds, which is big for this point in the season.”
North of Ilwaco, anglers and charters were scrambling to find fish. Beeghley said the average catch at Westport will have been under a fish per rod, but that at all coastal areas a few boats found a batch of fish and did well. Chinook were averaging 12 or 13 pounds, and a 27-pounder was weighed in at Neah Bay.
Beeghley said the best coastal fishing has traditionally been about the first week of August.
On inland waters, the Port Angeles area produced superior chinook fishing over the weekend. On Saturday, creel checks showed 152 anglers with 117 fish, and on Sunday, 110 with 48.
Charter skipper Krein said Marine Area 10 (Edmonds, Seattle) is producing excellent catch and release chinook fishing at both Kingston and Jefferson Head. “Our boats have been hitting 12 to 25 chinook per day,” he said, “running from 5 to 10 pounds up to a high of 17 or 18 pounds. About one of ten fish has been in the teens, and almost all have been hatchery fish. That bodes well for the July 16 opener for catch and keep hatchery chinook in areas 9 and 10.”
Krein has been fishing spoons in 90 to 130 feet of water, 15 to 20 feet off the deck to keep flounder from bothering.
Baker sockeye
The Skagit River fishery for Baker Lake sockeye, due to expire July 15, has been very slow. State biologist Brett Barkdull said he had no idea why that was the case, since sockeye numbers showing at the Baker Dam trap are tracking well ahead of last year and water conditions have been better than during last year’s fishery as well.
Whatever the reason, prospects of extending the river season are dimming.
Sunday’s Baker Lake opener, on the other hand, should be a good one if the weather cooperates, Barkdull said. There were already catchable numbers of sockeye in the lake early this week, transferred from the trap, with more on the way. As of July 5, total number of fish trapped was 7,597 and a total of 5,767 had been transferred to the lake. Barkdull said fishing conditions on the lake are better than during the 2015 season.
“Surface temperatures are cooler, which should allow sockeye to hold at shallower levels, increasing their availability for those without downriggers and hopefully the catch rate too,” he said.
Chamberlain (above) said a standard setup for Baker Lake sockeye without using downriggers would be: 4 to 8 ounces of lead on the main line; a swivel to keep it there; 30 to 36 inches of heavy leader, maybe 20-pound test, between lead and dodger; chrome, hammered chrome, 50-50, or any of several other color combinations of size “0” dodgers; about a foot of leader; a pink mini- or micro- squid, and a double 1/0 or 2/0 hook, baited with a piece of sand shrimp or coonstripe shrimp, usually dyed pink, often treated with anise or krill scent.
Start at 25 to 35 feet, trolling slowly enough that the dodger swings easily side to side.
Swift Creek USFS ramp/campground is closest to the fishery, but also the most crowded. Plan to get there very early and to wait in line; obey the no parking signs or get cited; be ready to pay the $5 day use/launch fee or get cited.
For more information visit U.S. Forest Service Baker Lake Salmon fishing, or Baker Lake boater rules and access site information.
Lake Wenatchee sockeye
The Lake Wenatchee sockeye run has reached Tumwater Dam on the Wenatchee River, according to WDFW biologist Travis Maitland, but it’s way too early to consider a recreational fishery.
“We’re just getting started here,” Maitland said, “but our latest run forecast is for about 400,000 fish in the Columbia, most headed for the Okanogan, but 50,000 or 60,000 to the Wenatchee. If that pans out, it will be a good run to the lake, and on a par with last year’s numbers.”
The 2015 sockeye fishery on Lake Wenatchee would have been a very good one except for the fact it had to be shut down early because of unusually warm water temperatures. That shouldn’t be a problem this year, Maitland said, and he looks for a good fishery.
For more outdoor news, read Wayne Kruse’s blog at www.heraldnet.com/huntingandfishing.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
