Halibut catch show there is still plenty of quota poundage to go around for Puget Sound and the North Coast catch areas.
Puget Sound, which includes Marine Area 5 (Sekiu), 6 (Eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca) and areas 7-10, counted 1,468 anglers catching 256 halibut at an average weight of 14.9 pounds for a weekly total of 3,814 pounds through last Saturday.
Cumulatively, Puget Sound has caught 19,930 pounds of halibut with 58,361 pounds remaining.
On the North Coast, which is made up of Marine Area 3 (La Push) and 4 (Neah Bay), 935 anglers caught 446 halibut at an average weight of 15.34 pounds for a weekly total of 6,843 pounds through last Saturday.
Cumulative catch for the North Coast through last Saturday is 12,029 pounds, leaving a whopping 116,899 pounds remaining.
These totals are distributed by Heather Hall, who oversees halibut fisheries as part of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Intergovernmental Ocean Policy group.
Commercial salmon troller Joel Kawahara wrote in to offer some ideas on where the halibut may or may not be.
“My observation is that the ocean waters are not quite turned into spring condition,” Kawahara wrote. “Sea Surface temperatures are cool: 50.3 farenheit. Winds are not always quiet, as you mentioned, and they have been shifting from northwest to southeast blows. The result is that the bait has been on the move a lot. When we find a little bait, salmon fishing improves and we get the occasional halibut. Usually the bait we see will move by the next day and the area we were fishing becomes very unproductive.
Even though halibut are bottom dwellers, they like to come up and eat herring or anything else they can fit in their mouth. With the bait shifting around it, seems that the halibut either are cruising with the herring schools like salmon, or just staying on the bottom until something starts happening.
“With cooler waters, halibut are also likely not yet moving to their spring/summer habitats, meaning waters less than 200 fathoms (1,200 feet) deep.”
There are some options for recreational anglers: wait and see if catch totals remain low and the season gets extended, go and fish deeper waters now if you have a capable vessel or go and fish now and stick closer to shore.
Neah Bay closure
The closure of Makah Tribal lands to nonresidents, including the boat launch at Big Salmon Resort and the Makah Marina, will continue through Oct. 1, after a vote of the Makah Tribal Council this week.
There’s potential to revisit the decision if enough of the tribal population is vaccinated and vaccination numbers increase in larger counties like King and Pierce, where most summer visitors hail from.
Coupled with La Push’s continued closure, Sekiu will be the primary jumping off point for vessels heading to fish off Neah Bay for the foreseeable future. This adds a good 45 minutes to each fishing trip each way and increases fuel consumption while also turning the little fishing village into a bit of a madhouse on summer weekends.
It’s inconvenient, but the Makah Tribe is a sovereign nation and has the right to limit entry to hordes of potentially unvaccinated non-residents for as long as they deem appropriate.
The tribe stands up for recreational anglers when it comes to negotiating for increased halibut quota or during North of Falcon, so let’s hope the angling community rallies behind Neah Bay when the eventual decision is made to reopen to the public.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-406-0674 or mcarman@peninsuladaily news.com.
