We have finally reached the dog days of summer. Temperatures continue to stay high during the day, even though sunsets arrive earlier and bring a distinctly crisp autumn-esque air along with them. Everything looks green through the prism of morning dew. Steelhead and salmon fishing are converging on local waterways while bear hunters share the woods with preemptive deer and elk scouts. Hunters without guns are starting to stake out vaunted and secret mushroom patches with rare zeal.
The prized three day and four night Labor Day weekend beckons from just beyond our sight line, all the while the return to school fights for the attention of students and parents alike. In fact, Wednesday marked the first day of high school football practice across the state while soccer, volleyball, and cross country are poised to ready-set-go at the beginning of next week.
In these hair of the dog days, nerves can frazzle from the heat or the implied pressures of new and ending seasons. Whether you are trying to cram in one last summer vacation, snag one last summer-run steelhead, or hook your very first summer-run Chinook, it is most important to pick your desire and stick to it.
Trying to accomplish too many tasks in these quickly dissipating days will leave even the heartiest of souls feeling scattered and battered. The important thing is to be the best at whatever you do. Perfect your sun tea blend. Fortify your hunting tree stand. Work on evening out that farmer boy tan. Whatever your pleasure, seize the remnants of the season and ring them of all their juice. Add ice. Enjoy.
FISHIN’
Steelhead are still refusing to relinquish their steely clutches on their summer catch crown, even as the real king salmonid, Chinook salmon, are congregating en masse and threatening to float the moat and crash the gate at Buoy 10 before taking the lower Columbia River gauntlet by storm.
Last week the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife sampled 1,862 salmonid targeting anglers in between the Bonneville Dam to the mouth of the Columbia River, including 340 boats and counted a harvest of just 62 adult Chinook and six jacks, along with two early bird coho. By contrast, 542 steelhead were hauled in as a result of those trips. The WDFW reports that 54 percent of those steelhead were kept by the anglers.
In the Bonneville Pool, most of the angling action is happening at the mouth of the White Salmon River, while the WDFW estimates that 87 boats tried their luck in the Hanaford Reach last week.
There have been no reports of angler success on the Kalama River as sun loving river floaters have been stirring up the prime fishing waters. Just south on the North Fork Lewis River, the WDFW reports that boat anglers are having some success with steelhead.
No successful angling reports have been issued from the Washougal or Klickitat rivers.
On the Wind River, the WDFW reports that boat and bank anglers have both been getting into the steelhead catch, but that the harvest numbers have been hampered by large numbers of wild fish. Approximately 75 percent of last week’s catch had to be returned due to their wild status.
At Drano Lake anglers were also battling the abundance of wild fish on their hooks. The WDFW found that boat anglers averaged about 1.4 summer steelhead caught per rod last week, but only 31 percent of those fish were hatchery stock. The Chinook catch, though still relatively low, is reported to be on the rise. Last Sunday, the WDFW counted 72 boats on the lake.
Back up north on the Cowlitz River, summer steelhead are still running the show. Most of the hookups are occurring upstream from Mission Bar. Tacoma Power’s summary of recovered fish from their Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator indicated that last week they recovered 1,284 summer-run steelhead, 115 spring Chinook adults, 17 jacks, and 87 mini-jacks, two fall Chinook adults and one jack, one adult sockeye, and 10 cutthroat trout.
As a part to their recycling program, Tacoma Power released 100 spring Chinook adults and 15 jacks into the Cispus River, 100 spring Chinook mini-jacks into Riffe Lake, two fall Chinook adults, one jack, and two cutthroat trout into the Tilton River, and 200 summer-run steelhead back downstream on the Cowlitz River. On Monday, river flow at the Mayfield Dam was roughly 4,240 cubic feet per second with 14 feet of water visibility.
Seasonal anti-snagging, selective gear and strict no-fishing regulations are set to go into effect on a number of local waterways at the beginning of next month.
Portions of Abernathy, Cedar, Cougar, Coal, Germany, Lacamas, and Mill creeks, as well as the Coweeman River are set to close to all fishing on Sept. 1.
On the North Fork Toutle River, anti-snagging rules will take effect on Sept. 1, in addition to the closing of night fishing, and the water 400 feet on either side of the hatchery. On the Kalama River, the beginning of September marks the start of fly-fishing-only regulations from the natural gas pipeline to the deadline at the water in, take for the lower salmon hatchery.
On the Washougal River, Sept. 1 will mark the end of night fishing and the beginning of anti-snagging regulation from the Mt. Norway Bridge upstream. These restrictions are already in place from the Mt. Norway Bridge downstream.
Mayfield Lake will open to salmon fishing on Sept. 1, with a daily limit of six that includes no more than two adults. All wild Chinook and coho must be released.
The mouth of the Tilton River up to West Fork will close to night fishing on Sept. 1 as well, in addition to the Cowlitz River between the PUD sign on Peters Road to the mouth of Ohanepecosh and Muddy Fork.
Already promising ocean fishing continues to improve at Buoy 10 with the seasons best catch numbers being recorded last week. Personal watercrafts are averaging more than one salmon per boat, with coho catch rates on the rise. Last week’s effort was so heavy that anglers had to wait more than 1.5 hours at times to launch their boats.
Since Aug. 18, anglers in the ocean water off of Westport (Marine Area 2) have been allowed to keep up to two Chinook per day. Anglers in La Push (Marine Area 3) and Neah Bay (Marine Area 4) were already permitted two Chinook per day. Anglers in Marine Area 1 (Ilwaco) are restricted to just one Chinook as part of their two salmon daily limit.
All marine areas are now open to salmon angling seven days per week and wild coho must be released in all four areas. The ocean fisheries in marine areas 1 and 2 are slated to remain open through Sept. 30, while marine areas 3 and 4 are scheduled to remain open through Sept. 21. A section of Marine Area 3 will temporarily reopen from Sept. 27 through Oct. 12.
The WDFW has announced new smelt regulations that are meant to protect the juvenile salmonids in Puget Sound. The new rules stipulate the changes:
• Close nighttime recreational dip net fishing. Recreational dip net fishing will be allowed from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday through Tuesday. Jig gear can continue to be used all day, seven days a week.
• Add a new 60,000-pound annual quota for the Puget Sound commercial smelt fishery.
• Reduce the commercial fishery by one day each week, allowing commercial fishing from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday during seasonal openings in each area.
The new regulations will also close inactive commercial smelt fisheries, including dip bag and purse seine.
Increasing water temperatures in western Washington lakes are driving down trout catch numbers and angler reports are correspondingly sparse.
“With warmer water temperatures, anglers should seek deepwater structure such as ledges and weed lines to find warmwater species during the heat of the day,” said Danny Garrett, WDFW lead warmwater fisheries biologist, in a news release. “In clearer lakes, such as Lake Washington, start your search for perch and bass in 15 to 20 feet of water. In shallower lakes with stained water, such as Lake Cassidy, look for fish along the weed edge in five to 10 feet of water.”
Despite the slow lake fishing, the WDFW says colder water, like that found in Puget Sound, is still providing good catch opportunities.
“Try trolling for these fishes below the thermocline with common gear such as wedding rings, woolly buggers, hoochies, and even bare hooks baited with shoepeg corn behind a dodger — usually 12 to 30 inches — at slow speeds,” said WDFW biologist Justin Spinelli in a press release. “Remember that kokanee, in particular, migrate vertically in the water column as they pursue invertebrates so try various depths until you find the schools.”
If don’t have a boat or can’t make it to the cold water, August is a prime time to try your hand at yellow perch, bass, bluegill, and catfish in lake settings. Yellow perch is especially impervious to the high daytime temperatures and continue to feed throughout the day.
In prized tiger musky news, David Hickman of Richland has had his record setting catch confirmed by the WDFW. The fish, caught on Curlew Lake in Ferry County on July 26 using a white spinner, shattered the previous record held by Chehalis resident John Bays. Bays’ fish, caught in 2001 in Mayfield Lake, weighed just over 30 pounds, while Hickman’s new record catch weighed 37.88 pounds and measured more than 50 inches in length.
“Sometimes you can tell by the shape and width of the head that a fish is big,” said Hickman in a news release. “I wasn’t thinking about whether it was record-sized, I just kept thinking ‘I hope my line doesn’t break.’”
HUNTIN’
The WDFW is seeking out public comments on proposed alternative hunting regulations for the 2015-17 seasons. Comments will be accepted through Sept. 22.
The proposals were made by a citizen commission put together by the WDFW and are available for review on the WDFW’s website at,http://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/regulations/seasonsetting/.
A series of public meetings have been scheduled by the WDFW at locations across the state so that the alternatives can be discussed in detail. The remaining meetings will run from 7 to 9 p.m. at the following locations:
• Aug. 21 — Ellensburg: CWU Campus 400 E University Way, Ellensburg, Wellington’s Event Center.
• Aug. 26 — Everett: Holiday Inn Downtown, 3105 Pine St., Everett, Everett Ball Room 2.
•Aug. 27 — Tacoma: Pacific Grill Event Center, 1530 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, Chinook/Klickitat Conference Room.
• Aug. 28 — Vancouver: Heathman Lodge, 7801 NE Greenwood Dr., Vancouver, Pacific Ballroom.
Issues up for discussion include the dates of spring and fall black bear seasons, early archery elk seasons, and modern firearm mule deer seasons. Changes to hunting equipment will also be discussed, including non-toxic ammunition, expandable broadheads and crossbows. Regulation changes will also apply to special permit drawings and the baiting of big game.
According to the WDFW, the final draft will be presented to the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission for adoption sometime next spring.
WILDLIFERS
A relocation effort by the National Park Service has reversed the fate of the once “extinct” fisher. Beginning in 2008, the NPS began moving fishers from central British Columbia to the Olympic Peninsula in order to restart a population that had been nonexistent for more than 80 years. Now the small carnivores are ranging from Neah Bay to Olympia.
Prized for their furs, fishers were pressured out of existence by hunters and trappers, along with the decimation of their forest habitat in the early part of the 1900s. The trapping of fishers has been outlawed in Washington since the 1930s.
Although scientists are employing radio collar trackers and baited camera stations with DNA sampling capability, the exact population of the Olympic Peninsula is not known today. In a Seattle Times report, Pattie Happe, chief of the wildlife branch for Olympic National Park said, “I’m cautiously optimistic,” for the sustainability of the population. The stated goal is to create a self-sustaining population within 10 years.
Fishers are closely related to martens, minks, and polecats. Some 43 different animal species have been spotted on the trail cameras, including bear, spotted skunks, coyotes, cougars, bobcats, raccoons, black-tailed deer, elk, flying squirrels, mountain beavers, snowshoe hares, mice and wood rats.
According to the Seattle Times report, wild wolves are the only mammal not yet recolonized to the Olympic Peninsula. Hunted to “local extinction” in the early 1900s by pioneers, wolves have been reintroduced across Washington but have not yet been documented on the Olympic Peninsula.
