Editors Note: The state Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Friday that anglers fishing for salmon in Marine Area 9 (Admiralty Inlet) will be allowed to keep chum only beginning Sunday.
“We’re seeing more young chinook out there than we’ve seen in over a decade,” said Ron Warren, Fish and Wildlife fisheries policy lead.
“They’re too small to retain under state rules, so we’re postponing the chinook fishery.”
REPORTS OF SHAKERS, chinook under the legal 22-inch size minimum, have been tucked away in many of the fishing reports received in recent weeks.
The majority of these reports come from members of the North Olympic Peninsula chapter of the Puget Sound Anglers who are fishing in Marine Area 6 (Port Angeles).
A recent report came from Mike Schmidt who fished off Port Angeles on Wednesday.
“My buddy and I fished near the Rock Pile,” Schmidt said.
“We brought home three adults and released dozens of shakers.”
These large amounts of chinook shakers aren’t being found solely in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and that fact will likely impact Sunday’s planned opening for hatchery chinook in Marine Area 9 (Admiralty Inlet).
The mark-selective winter blackmouth fishery in Area 10 (Seattle/Bremerton) closed within 18 days of opening after monitoring data collected by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife indicated that the allowable limit of total chinook encounters had been reached.
That’s for a fishery that was scheduled to at least run through January 31.
“We were seeing a lot of juvenile, or sub-legal, encounters out there,” said Aaron Dufault, a pink/chum and sockeye specialist with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“We had about 70 percent of our encounters in that time frame.”
Fishery managers with state Fish and Wildlife met Wednesday with the sport fishing advisory board to discuss how to handle Sunday’s planned opening of hatchery chinook in Marine Area 9.
“We were concerned that there may be a potentially similar situation in Area 9 as in Area 10, and we wanted to strategize what we can do with that fishery, while getting a handle on the priorities of sports anglers,” Dufault said.
Fish and Wildlife has been conducting test fisheries in Area 9 for about two weeks and the results are as imagined: a tremendous amount of undersized chinook.
“We are seeing a similar proportion of those sub-legal juvenile fish compared to adult chinook,” Dufault said.
Area 9 covers a large swath of territory, and Dufault said the test boat has been gathering data from as wide an area as possible.
“Fishing in Area 9 can be very different in one location to the next,” Dufault said.
“The test boat has been covering water in the south section near Edmonds and to the north near the southern tip of Whidbey Island, and the results show large populations of these sub-legal chinook.”
That would be good news for the species and could indicate an excellent winter blackmouth season is upcoming.
Or anglers could take the glass-half-empty approach and see a quick end to the winter season if anglers are too successful.
A shortened season could eliminate the opportunity to hold the Olympic Peninsula Salmon Derby, which sold 803 tickets last February, the largest number in 10 years.
Seasons change
The clock falls back and the fishing seasons change.
Winter is coming.
Today and Saturday are the last shot at fishing for salmon until Feb. 16 in Marine Area 4 (Sekiu).
Saturday is the final day before a one-month hiatus in Area 6, with winter blackmouth planned to open Dec. 1 and run through April 10, provided the chinook guideline is not attained earlier.
With ample rain forecast for the weekend, saltwater fishing is likely to be the best bet for anglers.
Schmidt has been having good success fishing the Rock Pile and near the Yellow Can Buoy off Port Angeles.
Over a period of about 10 days, Schmidt said 23 fish were put in the boat, 20 of them coho. He estimated 75 percent were wild.
Three hatchery chinook of at least 25 inches rounded out the total.
“Most of the fish came on the white UV hoochie with a shot of Mike’s Herring/Anise Smelly Jelly.
“One of the chinook was taken on a watermelon Coho Killer, which also accounted for a nice coho and some shakers.”
Schmidt and his fishing buddies also used a strawberry and cream Coho Killer that attracted shakers and a bycatch of a few red-striped rockfish about 80 feet off the bottom.
If anglers end up accidentally hooking rockfish, send them back down slowly, hopefully with the use of a descending device, as they are a closed species in Area 6.
“The black and white with silver fleck hootchie also caught some fish,” Schmidt said.
“We encountered shakers every day, but the numbers started to tail off the last few days.
“When cleaned, most of the fish had one or more herring up to 6-inches [long] in their bellies.”
The fish were caught while trolling with a 15-pound cannonball attached to the downrigger in depths of 50 to 80 feet.
Bob Aunspach of Swain’s General Store (360-452-2357) in Port Angeles said white UV hoochies have been popular and successful this fall.
“The white UV; the 105, a green, black and pink hoochie; and then spoonwise, the Herring-Aide by Silver Horde, have all been doing well,” Aunspach said.
“A lot of guys that run the hoochies put a little smell on them, but the guys that run singles don’t.”
Today and Saturday are the final two days for the Swain’s General Store’s monthly fish ladder contest.
“The top fish is a 14.4-pound coho caught by Lonnie Torey of Port Angeles,” Aunspach said.
“Then it’s a 12.11[-pounder], a 10.11 and a 10.09.”
For the months of March, May, July, August and October, Swain’s will tally up submitted fish for a shot at gift cards ranging from $25 to $100 for fourth through first places.
All anglers need to do to pick up a fish ladder ticket is drop by Swain’s with four cans of food for donation to the Port Angeles Food Bank.
Rivers going to rise
Brian Menkal of Brian’s Sporting Goods and More (360-683-1950) in Sequim is hopeful that some of the rain forecast this weekend for the West End heads east.
“They are calling for a big dousing of rain, something like 5 inches in Forks, so if we get a couple of inches in Sequim that should bring the Dungeness up,” Menkal said.
“If it starts popping up, it will get salmon coming in like crazy, and next week could be real good deal.”
West End rivers already have made steep climbs on the gage height meters, but more is needed to help conditions.
Menkal thinks later next week, when much of that expected rain has been absorbed, will have some excellent fishing opportunities out west.
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Outdoors columnist Michael Carman appears here Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5152 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
