Bellingham Herald
By Mark Yuasa
May 30, 2012

This summer’s ocean salmon-fishing season could be a memorable one.

Early signs indicate schools of chinook are now cruising off the coast in fairly good numbers as the nontribal commercial troll fishery – which opened May 1 – has been catching fish when the weather allows them to get out of port.

“They started out great, hit a batch of fish right away and had some big catch days,” said Wendy Beeghly, a state Fish and Wildlife coastal salmon biologist. “But since this last storm, the fish seemed to have dispersed and they weren’t doing quite as well.”

The trollers have caught 8,200 chinook with a catch quota of 31,800.

A breakdown showed a catch of 185 chinook from May 1-6 (824 in 2011 and 197 in 2010); then it shot up to 5,606 from May 7-13 (2,346 and 2,275); and dropped to 2,409 from May 14-21 (3,595 and 3,316).

“If you look at the numbers of fish caught in the troll fishery, it is more than what we’ve seen at this time compared to the last two years,” said Pat Pattillo, assistant to the director of state Fish and Wildlife.

The majority of boats were out of Neah Bay at a fishing ground about 35 miles offshore called “The Prairie,” and some were also heading out of Westport and finding fairly good catches.

“It is still too early to tell how things will shape up, and the troll catches did get stronger as time went on last year in late May and early June,” Pattillo said. “Hopefully, this is good news for our early June sport chinook fisheries.”

Those sport fisheries begin with a hatchery-marked chinook season that opens daily June 9-23 in Ilwaco and Westport, followed by La Push and Neah Bay opening June 16-30. Daily limit is two hatchery chinook over 24 inches long. Release coho and wild chinook.

The ocean isn’t the only early fishery show with the Cascade River and Skagit River from the Highway 530 Bridge at Rockport to Cascade River Road opening for spring chinook Friday.

“There are chinook already at the (Marblemount) hatchery, and the Swinomish tribal fisheries have been doing reasonably well,” said Brett Barkdull, a northwestern regional state Fish and Wildlife biologist.

Some of the kings caught in the tribal fisheries were pushing the upper-teens and lower-20-pound range. The Skagit spring chinook forecast is 3,590.

The snowmelt has made the water level rather high on the Skagit, according to Barkdull, which could hinder chances of catching fish.

“We’re having to cope with a snowpack that is 140 percent above normal levels, so I expect the Skagit is going to be really high,” he said.

Making it even tougher for anglers, the Cascade River hasn’t developed any new holding water for chinook to congregate since last year, which means many fish will likely swim straight to the hatchery.

“I expect a similar catch success to last year, which wasn’t spectacular,” Barkdull said. “This opener provides an opportunity. I expect guys will catch a fair number of naive chinook out of the Skagit and some in Cascade when it opens. It’s all a matter of the stars aligning up correctly.”

Many other Western Washington rivers also open for summer steelhead either this Friday or Saturday, including the Skykomish (as well as Reiter Ponds) and Snoqualmie. Anglers should check the regulation pamphlet for specific rules and opening dates.

The Cedar River also opens Saturday for trout fishing. The fishery has selective gear rules, and is catch and release only.

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