 |
 |
 |
| |
Fishing Salmon fishing options abound
By Mark Yuasa
Seattle Times staff reporter
The coho fishing options widen Sunday when the north part of Lake
Washington opens and Sekiu anglers can keep wild or hatchery coho.
"We are seeing a good number of wild [or unmarked] silvers, and many
[anglers] are complaining about having to throw more and more fish
back," said Gary Ryan, manger of Van Riper's Resort in Sekiu.
Anglers at Sekiu (Area 5) may keep wild and hatchery coho Sunday
through Sept. 30. Those going should be aware that virtually all the
motels are booked, but some campground sites are available.
Fisheries managers say a lot of ocean-migrating coho are staging in the
ocean off the coast.
"I know of a couple of guys who have been going out by Blue Dot, Table
Top and Swiftsure [off Neah Bay], and you can't keep your line in the
water before hooking up with a coho," said Scott Barbour, a state Fish
and Wildlife biologist. "So the overall catch at Neah Bay is not
representative of what is happening out in the ocean, where there are
still quite a few fish way out."
At Neah Bay last week, 479 anglers had 19 kings and 466 coho, and 80 at
La Push landed 11 kings and 62 coho.
At Ilwaco, anglers averaged about 1.2 fish per rod (1,737 anglers with
18 chinook and 1,976 coho), and most of the success is happening on the
charters that are going about 11 miles southwest of port. At Westport,
1,063 anglers caught 100 chinook and 640 coho.
The ocean salmon fishery off Neah Bay and La Push closes after
Saturday, but a late season at La Push opens Sept. 22. Westport is open
through Sunday, and Ilwaco is open through Sept. 30. Ilwaco reopens for
halibut on Saturday only.
Closer to home, Lake Washington north of the Highway 520 Bridge and
east of the Montlake Bridge opens Sunday for coho.
Best fishing is the Hunts Point area, Edwards Point and below Sand
Point toward the entrance of the Montlake Cut.
The single-day fish count on Sunday at the Ballard Locks showed 1,173
coho moved into the lake with a projected run-size of 14,283 coho.
A strong chinook run is moving up the locks as well, and 28,614 fish
had moved into the lake, which bodes well for the chinook fishery in
Lake Sammamish. A large fleet of sport boats are being seen daily off
the mouth off Issaquah Creek.
Other fishing reports
Salmon and steelhead in west-side rivers: "The [Snohomish] river is
full of humpies, and more and more silvers are showing up," said Bryan
Nelson at Three Rivers Marine and Tackle in Woodinville.
The Skykomish, Puyallup, Duwamish and Lower Green are good for pinks,
and the Nisqually, Skokomish and Carbon are giving up some kings.
"There are steelhead in the Wynoochee, and I know people who've been
catching a couple fish before work every morning," Barbour said.
Salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River and tributaries: "The coho
are around the mouth of Toutle and Lower Cowlitz, and the Lewis was
good last week near the hatchery," said Joe Hymer, a state Fish and
Wildlife biologist. "I've heard the Kalama has got chinook, and we're
seeing chinook in the Lower Washougal and Klickitat. Buoy 10 is
tracking downward for coho the past few days."
State Fish and Wildlife is meeting today to discuss possible closures
on the Columbia mainstem sport fishery as the upriver chinook run isn't
performing as well as expected.
Drano Lake is generating some decent fishing for large steelhead and
chinook. More steelhead are also moving out of Bonneville Pool, with
thousands of fish counted daily at The Dalles Dam.
Salmon in Willapa Bay: "It has started to fall off, and the water
temperature was 68 degrees, which tends to make the fish clam up and go
off the bite," Barbour said. "There is so much weeds between markers 2
and 7 that we ended up fishing way up by markers 19 and 24."
The commercial gill-netters start their fishery on the eve of Sunday,
which will put an end to the sport fishery in the bay.
Coho, hatchery chinook and pinks in Puget Sound: "It has slowed for
pinks from Mukilteo to the Shipwreck, and we're hearing the occasional
success story for coho, but overall the fish have been few and far
between," said Gary Krein, owner of All-Star Charters in Everett.
"Prior to [Wednesday] we had gotten into some fairly good humpie
fishing, and it seems like the fish have moved out."
Coho diehards can try Possession Point, Edmonds area, Kingston, west
side of Possession Bar, Point No Point and Bush Point and Double Bluff
off Whidbey Island.
Hatchery chinook fishing in south-central Puget Sound slowed down off
Southworth, the Tacoma area, Dolphin Point and the Redondo and Des
Moines areas.
The Edmonds Coho Derby results: 1, Scott Clemens, Mercer Island, 12
pounds, 13 ounces, $2,500; 2, Tom Carroll, Seattle, 12-7, $1,000; 3,
Jakob Renneke, Edmonds, 12-7, $500 and also $200 gift certificate for
largest fish in youth division.
The No Fin You Win Coho Derby results: 1, Gene Merritt, Seattle, 14.88,
$2,905; 2, Ron Novak, Port Orchard, 14.03, $1,162l; 3, Vince
Umbanhower, Forks, 13.32, $581. |
|
 |
|
 |
|
