Salmon still among top catches throughout state | Fishing report

Fishing activities abound statewide, and salmon remain one of the top choices. The Buoy-10 salmon fishery at the Columbia River mouth near...

By Mark Yuasa

Seattle Times staff reporter

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Fishing activities abound statewide, and salmon remain one of the top choices.

The Buoy-10 salmon fishery at the Columbia River mouth near Ilwaco ramped up earlier than expected as a huge run of 655,000 chinook started to stage from the Astoria-Megler Bridge downstream.

"We're starting to see a lot of effort at Buoy 10, and it should really start to build by this weekend," said Wendy Beeghly, a state Fish and Wildlife biologist. "We saw about a third of a fish per person, and the catch was almost all chinook along with a few coho."

A Buoy-10 check from Sunday showed 134 boats with 379 anglers keeping 130 chinook and 16 hatchery-marked coho. The preseason catch expectations are 13,900 chinook and 8,000 coho.

Anglers many retain chinook and hatchery coho and steelhead at Buoy-10 through Sept. 3, and then from Sept. 4-30 only hatchery coho or steelhead may be kept.

The coastal salmon and tuna fisheries are now at their peak, but success is all about location.

"We saw decent salmon catches in some places, and not so good catches at others," Beeghly said. "There was also a lot of variability between boats for tuna, but some pretty good catches."

At Neah Bay, anglers averaged 1.3 fish per rod, and most were hatchery coho. It was slow at La Push with 0.85 fish per rod, and about two-thirds of the catch were hatchery coho.

At Westport, it was 0.70 per rod with most boats targeting chinook just outside of Grays Harbor along the beaches. Ilwaco averaged 0.90 fish per rod, and about 75 percent of the catch was hatchery coho.

Tuna boats were about 20 to 40 miles offshore, and averaged as much as 10 fish per rod. Westport and Ilwaco were the main tuna ports with some charter boats catching 8 to 10 to a high of 20 tuna per rod.

The Willapa Bay chinook fishery is starting to gain some interest with the peak action occurring around Labor Day.

Sockeye fishing is also getting plenty of attention on both sides of the Cascades.

Locally, Baker Lake has been fair to good for sockeye, and through Tuesday, 16,141 sockeye have been transferred up to the lake with a total of 26,548 trapped in the Baker River. Last week, the updated run size was 42,400 sockeye for the Baker River.

East of the mountains, Lake Wenatchee remains off and on for sockeye while the Upper Columbia in the Brewster Pool was good. Others are also starting to target kings off the Okanogan River mouth.

Mark Yuasa: 206-464-8780 or myuasa@seattletimes.com


Fishing report
Location	Comment
Statewide lakes	Good for perch, bass and cutthroat in Lake Washington. Lake Sammamish opens for chinook beginning Thursday. Good in Riffe Lake for coho. Fair for kokanee in Lake Stevens. Fair for trout in Lake Goodwin. Bumping Lake is worth a try for kokanee. Good for lake trout in Lake Chelan. Good for trout, bass and walleye in the Potholes Reservoir. Good for kokanee at lakes Kachess and Keechelus off I-90.
Biting: Yes Rating:
Statewide rivers	Slower for steelhead in the Lower Columbia, but more chinook showed up in catches. Fair to good for steelhead in Bonneville Pool near the mouths of Drano Lake and White Salmon River. Fair steelhead action in Cowlitz. Good for steelhead, walleye and chinook caught in The Dalles Pool of Columbia River. Samish River is open for kings but spotty. Fair for kings in the Skokomish River below the Highway 101 Bridge, but expect combat fishing. Lower Puyallup is open for salmon. Try for trout casting flies in the Yakima and Methow rivers.
Biting: Yes/no Rating:
Marine areas	The hatchery king fishery in central and northern Puget Sound is good one day and lousy the next. Best catches have been at Midchannel Bank off Port Townsend. Other fair locales are Possession Bar, Point No Point, Pilot Point, Edmonds area, Richmond Beach, Kingston, Dolphin Point off Vashon Island, Skiff Point, West Point, Lincoln Park and Brace Point near Fauntleroy, Southworth and Yeomalt Point. Sekiu to Port Angeles is now closed for chinook, but hatchery coho action has gained steam. Slow to fair for kings in the San Juan Islands. A few kings caught daily off the Edmonds Pier and Seacrest Pier in West Seattle. Slow to fair for hatchery kings off Tacoma and Hood Canal south of Ayock Point. Very good crabbing in Puget Sound and Hood Canal; all are open Thursdays through Mondays only.
Biting: Yes Rating: