ANGLERS WHO PACKED patience and a supply of motion sickness medication likely did well during last Saturday’s halibut opener.
Extreme low tides hampered efforts to get on the water at many boat launches. And if boats were able to get on the water, high winds and rough seas confronted anglers attempting to navigate toward prime halibut hunting grounds in the Pacific Ocean.
“The weather was the determining factor on Saturday,” said Tom Burlingame of Excel Fishing Charters (360-374-2225).
“Ocean conditions were extremely rough and it looked like most of the boats didn’t get out [to the ocean].”
Burlingame said he and five customers left Neah Bay at 5 a.m., but were unable to fish in their desired area due to rough water.
Instead, they ventured south into the rockfish closure area and quickly limited out on five flatties weighing between 25 and 30 pounds.
“We really didn’t spend much time out there,” Burlingame said.
“The drift was just rough.”
Mike Lawrence of Big Salmon Resort (360-645-2374) in Neah Bay said that action was good for the boats that could venture out to halibut holes like 72-Square and Swiftsure Bank.
But most boats stayed close to port.
“They even had a hard time out front,” Lawrence said. “The current was going out, but the wind was blowing in and it was just tough.
“The guys who could get out to 72 and Swiftsure were able to limit out pretty easily, though. The charters, like the Windsong did good.”
Lawrence said most anglers were picking up octopus or herring for use as bait.
“That’s my favorite because it sticks on the hook and isn’t pulled off as easily,” Lawrence said of octopus.
Catch totals in Marine Area 3 (La Push) and 4 (Neah Bay) were down due to the tough conditions.
“The total catch at Neah Bay and La Push was 5,449 pounds,” said Heather Reed, coastal policy coordinator for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“We don’t break it up between the ports, but hardly any of that catch came from La Push. The majority of the totals came from Neah Bay, so some anglers were able to get into the Strait and get into some halibut.”
Burlingame, a member of Fish and Wildlife’s Puget Sound Recreational Coastal Bottomfish and Halibut Advisory Group, said the total catch in La Push and Neah Bay amounted to 292 halibut, and the average size was 18.66 pounds.
“That’s a very low catch for the area,” Burlingame said. “Normally, we can catch three to four times that on a typical opener.”
Neah Bay and La Push are open for halibut today and again Saturday before shuttering for an in-season catch assessment.
Big Salmon is running a halibut derby today and Saturday.
Tickets are $20, and all ticket buyers will be entered into a drawing for a free 2017 morage slip, a $400 value.
The winner of the derby will take home half the pot. There’s also a $250 prize for the biggest lingcod and $50 for the biggest black rockfish.
Tickets must be purchased before boats depart the Neah Bay Marina.
Weigh-in times are dawn to 7 p.m. today and dawn to 2 p.m. Saturday.
Best spot was Sekiu
Creel reports show Sekiu had the best fish-per-angler average during the halibut opener.
“We did good out here. I think I can boast a little bit and say Sekiu did the best out of all the marine areas,” said Brandon Mason of Mason’s Olson Resort (360-963-2311) in Sekiu.
“They did really good off Pillar Point and off Sekiu River.
“Black and Purple label horse herring were kind of the ticket, that and Butt Juice [a scented gel formula].”
A total of 89 halibut were caught in Marine Area 5 by 191 anglers in 64 boats checked at Mason’s Olson Resort.
Another seven halibut were brought in by 48 anglers in seven boats fishing Marine Area 4B east of Tatoosh Island.
But tides also were an issue.
“We had big minuses, so the current was flat screaming and it was tough to keep the weight down,” Mason said.
“But once we didn’t have that big slack tide in the afternoon and as long as they could get their gear down on the bottom they had good results.”
Mason said the biggest halibut weighed in at the resort was 60 pounds. He also mentioned anglers brought in a 44-pound flattie, another was 35 pounds and many others were in the teens and twenties.
He was excited about the three-day halibut fishery running today through Saturday in Marine Area 5 (Sekiu).
“It’s going to be phenomenal fishing, a whole lot better than what we had last Saturday,” Mason said.
“The tides are looking great, the wind should be lighter, so I am going to be very optimistic and go out on a limb and say we will bring in a lot of halibut this weekend.”
Madhouse at marina
In a rant at tinyurl.com/PDN-HalibutOpener, expert halibut angler, author and guide John Beath detailed his issues with last Saturday’s halibut opener.
He felt the state’s idea to hold a concurrent one-day opener at the Pacific Ocean ports and inside the Strait of Juan de Fuca in a bid to spread out the pressure was a mistake.
Beath said a one-day opener wasn’t worth it for many out-of-area anglers who typically head to the ocean for the first day.
Instead, they stayed closer to home, leading to what he described as record-breaking crowds at John Wayne Marina.
Mason agreed with that assessment, and said his resort in Sekiu was about half-full last Saturday.
Beath also decried the second tribal halibut fishery of the spring held earlier in the week, for stripping prime fishing locations such as Hein Bank, Partridge Bank, Dallas Bank and Eastern Bank of flatties.
The poor fishing, coupled with extreme tides and gusty winds also drove many anglers in early, only to sit and wait to trailer their boats, as Beath pegged the take-out time as two hours.
Beath advocates ending the derby-style mentality of the current halibut model and moving to a punch-card style halibut fishery such as the one in British Columbia.
Salmon talks back on
Salmon season negotiations between the state and tribal co-managers resumed this week.
Mason, who represents Marine Area 5 in an advisory capacity with the state, said he was more hopeful the two sides will reach a deal than he had been in weeks.
“I think we might have something for chinook by the end of the week,” he said.
He confirmed that the main sticking point on a deal is the share of hatchery chinook returning to the Puyallup River.
Mason also said that any deal would not include coho fishing.
“Coho is 70 percent of our business out here,” he said.
“There are some tough times in store for these communities out here, either way.”
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Outdoors columnist Michael Carman appears here Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 57050 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.