Excellent numbers of prime chinook, good weather, flat water and the scenic San Juan Islands added up to a first-class winter opener for Marine Area 7 on Sunday, as salmon anglers hit the water under new selective fishing regulations.
State Department of Fish and Wildlife creel checks at the Washington Park ramp near Anacortes tallied 110 anglers in 48 boats with 44 hatchery (no unclipped chinook this winter) blackmouth and, at Bellingham, 89 anglers in 39 boats with 36 fish. About a fish per boat isn’t gunnysack, surely, but an indication at least that the islands have become one of the more consistent producers of quality blackmouth fishing in Western Washington.
Gary Krein, All Star Charters owner/skipper in Everett, took a 15-plus-pound hatchery blackmouth off the north end of Orcas Island on Monday morning, and when he talked to state personnel at the ramp, the checker said there were at least two fish over 20 pounds taken the first two days of the fishery, a couple more in the 17- or 18-pound range, and perhaps a half dozen over 15 pounds.
“It was a pretty good opener,” said Stuart Forst at Holiday Sports in Burlington. “There seemed to be a lot of fish around, scattered over most of the normally productive spots. Tide Point was good, with plenty of bait showing; Peavine Pass put out fish and so did Lopez Pass. Other good spots included the north side of Thatcher Pass, and along the east side of Blakely Island, tight to shore, with the fish suspended over deep water.”
Anthon Steen, also at Holiday Sports, said a customer and his party took four legal fish over 10 pounds from Lopez Flats on Monday, and saw other fish taken. Spring Pass put out a 12-pound legal, he said.
State biologist Joe Hymer, who works out of the agency’s Vancouver office, took a busman’s holiday and fished the islands for the first three days of the season with friends. They spent much of their time around the north side of Orcas, in President’s Channel, at Parker Reef, and around to Point Lawrence, and Hymer said they took more wild than hatchery fish. He said they didn’t mark a whole lot of bait in the area, and that the stomachs of the fish they kept were pretty much empty.
All this poses questions for the Roche Harbor Derby, which runs this weekend and has been won the past few years by wild chinook in the 20-plus-pound range. It will be interesting to see how the switch to selective regulations affects the prize ladder, and where participants choose to fish.
Closer to home, fishing remains fairly good in the north half of Saratoga Passage, on both the Camano and Whidbey island sides, but probably not as productive as it has been the past couple of weeks. Onomac, the area off Camano State Park, and Elger Bay on the Camano side are probably the best bets right now. The area off the south end of Hat Island put out a few fish over the weekend, Krein said, but local waters, including Marine Area 9 and Possession Bar, remain slow. State checks at the Port of Everett ramp showed 101 anglers in 48 boats on Saturday with seven blackmouth and, on Sunday, 102 anglers in 52 boats with nine fish.
“The water farther west was probably a little better,” Krein said, “but even Port Townsend checks weren’t all that good.”
PLUG TIP: Anthon Steen said some customers have found switching to plugs and increasing trolling speed help keep shakers to a minimum in spots like Saratoga Passage.
“Go to www.tomiclures.com, under rigging and tips, to see a variety of alternative rigging methods,” Steen said. “Some allow Tomic plugs to be trolled slower so that you can fish the plug on one rod and bait on the second.”
RAZOR CLAMS: Sounds like decent weather for the coastal razor clam dig coming up this weekend. Because of lousy conditions the earlier digs weren’t well attended, so there should be plenty of big clams available. Three evening sessions are scheduled at Twin Harbors, Copalis and Mocrocks (Feb. 6, 7 and 8) with Long Beach kicking in Feb. 7-8. Kalaloch remains closed, but may open for a spring dig if the clam population grows to harvestable size.
State clam manager Dan Ayres in Montesano said the daylight tides should encourage more diggers, as should the expected size and quantity of the clams.
“The north beaches — those north of Grays Harbor — should be particularly good,” Ayres said. “Lots of clams and good size. We did a test dig at Mocrocks and very few of the clams there were under 5 inches. Those are big clams for this time of year.”
Ayres has tentatively scheduled additional digs on good tide series near the end of March and the end of April.
Tides for the current dig are as follows: Feb. 6, minus 0.1 feet at 3:55 p.m.; Feb. 7, minus 0.4 feet at 4:50 p.m.; and Feb. 8, minus 0.6 feet at 5:39 p.m.
SMELT: Very little chance this weekend for smelt dipping on the Cowlitz, as state monitors have seen little or no bird or seal activity on the river’s lower end or in the Columbia. The action has been fair on the Everett waterfront and at Cornet Bay.
STEELHEAD: The Skykomish below the Sultan remains colored, although visibility early this week was 2-3 feet, according to guide and Arlington resident Sam Ingram. That hasn’t improved generally slow fishing, he said, although he hit a bright hatchery hen of about 8 pounds Tuesday at Taylor Flats, about two miles below the Sultan. No one else he encountered — boater or banker — had a fish, although there were just two other boats on the drift, he said.
On the other hand, Bryan Nelson at Three Rivers Marine in Woodinville said customers were starting to find some nice wild steelhead in the Sultan area over the weekend, and that plunkers had at least a couple of fair days recently on the Snohomish.
Reports from the Snoqualmie were mixed.
Over on the Olympic Peninsula, both the Sol Duc and the Hoh are worth a shot, even though the hatchery run on the Bogachiel is beginning to fade. Checks on the Sol Duc over the weekend showed 32 anglers with three wild fish kept, 12 wild fish released, one hatchery fish kept, and one hatchery fish released. On the Lower Hoh it was 127 anglers with one wild fish kept, six wild fish released, six hatchery fish kept, and six hatchery fish released. On the upper Hoh, 61 anglers released 17 wild and nine hatchery fish, and kept five hatchery fish.
SPRINGERS: The first spring chinook from what is predicted to be a major run on the Columbia has been caught on the Willamette River, according to state biologist Joe Hymer in Vancouver. The Oregonian newspaper reported at least three fish caught in the Oregon City area, Hymer said, and there are rumors that a bunch of springers are hanging in the Columbia’s lower end, around Ilwaco.
There is still no agreement on the harvest split for the non-Indian portion of this run, between Washington and Oregon fish and wildlife commissions, and so no seasons or regulations have yet been set. Fishing is open, however, under regs set earlier, until March 1.
RECORD WALLEYE: An ice fisherman set a new New York state walleye record Jan. 20 on a lake tributary to the Allegheny River. The fish weighed 16 pounds, 9 ounces. It broke the reign of a walleye 2 ounces lighter caught in 1994 from the same general part of the state.
The catch is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, you seldom hear of records being taken during ice fishing season, even in northern-tier states known to harbor big walleye, northern pike, yellow perch, and other ice-fishing targets.
Second, the New York fish doesn’t come close to the Washington record of 19.3 pounds, caught by Mike Hepper in the Columbia below the Tri Cities on Feb. 5, 2007. This despite the fact there is probably triple or quadruple the walleye fishing effort in New York.
How’s that grab ya, Big Apple?
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