SOMEWHERE IN PORT Townsend there is a kid with a broken heart.
He just got dumped by his girlfriend and he’s not taking it too well.
In an effort to ease his pain, he discussd his heartache with a close friend.
His well-meaning pal, searching for something to say to the dumped kid, resorts to an classic saying.
“There’s plenty of fish in the water,” the friend said.
But it didn’t help.
This was the wrong week to use that line.
“Not here, there aren’t,” the dumped kid said.
“The Marine Area 9 chinook limit was lowered to one per day.”
The dumped kid knows his stuff. Anglers in Marine Area 9 (Admiralty Inlet) are indeed limited to one hatchery chinook per day, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife announced.
This new limit went into effect on Monday.
I guess the ruling wasn’t a huge surprise.
For starters, the hatchery kings have been going crazy in Area 9 since the fishery opened on July 16.
Also, there is precedent: The area’s chinook season was completely closed almost two weeks early last year.
Finally, I wasn’t surprised because Ward Norden told me something would probably happen.
In an email approximately 24 hours before the state announced the limit change in Area 9, Norden, a fishing tackle wholesaler and former fishery biologist, predicted that Area 9 would close as early as last weekend.
Of course, Norden wasn’t spot on, as it turned out that the hatchery chinook fishing wasn’t going end in Admiralty Inlet. Yet.
The Marine Area 9 king season is slated to end Saturday, Aug. 31, so even with the decreased limit, there is plenty of time left for quotas to be reached and an early shut down to be enacted.
“. . . we’ve decided to make this change now to try and stay within our catch guideline, and avoid closing the area’s hatchery chinook season early,” state fish biologist Ryan Lothrop said in a release.
During the first 10 days of the Area 9 hatchery chinook season, anglers had kept or released approximately 4,300 legal-sized hatchery kings, which is nearly 66 percent of the 6,528 chinook quota.
Neah Bay closure
If you haven’t done so already, head over to the wall where you calendar hangs, remove the thumb tack, flip the page up and then re-insert the tack.
It’s August.
That means many things.
Summer is winding down.
The kids are about a month from returning to school.
Football season is almost here (although not for Percy Harvin).
Also, the chinook fisheries throughout the North Olympic Peninsula are nearing their end.
In fact, part of Marine Area 4 (Neah Bay) closes today to king fishing — the portion east of the Bonilla-Tatoosh Line, which runs from the western end of Cape Flattery to Tatoosh Island Lighthouse, then in a straight line to Bonilla Point on Vancouver Island.
Essentially, this is the section of Area 4 that is on the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The rest of Area 4 (west of the Bonilla-Tatoosh Line) is open to wild and hatchery chinook fishing until Sept. 22, barring an early closure.
It is still legal to harvest hatchery coho and pinks in all of Area 4.
The summer hatchery king seasons in Marine Area 5 (Sekiu) and 6 (Port Angeles) close Friday, Aug. 16.
In Marine Area 12 (Hood Canal), the chinook season south of Ayock Point is open until the last day of 2013.
August also is when the coho and pinks dethrone the kings.
So, we have that to look forward to.
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Outdoors columnist Lee Horton appears here Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5152 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
