WHERE’S THAT WESTERLY afternoon breeze when you need it to clear out the smoke filtering down from our neighbors to the North?
High temperatures and hazy skies are of little concern to summertime salmon anglers, they will hit the water each morning in dogged pursuit.
Out in Sekiu, the humpies (pinks) have shown up in droves, according to Brandon Mason of Mason’s Olson’s Resort (360-963-2311) in Sekiu.
Mason said late Thursday afternoon that visibility is about 2 miles in any direction. He credits the smoky conditions for bringing in the pinks.
“Everybody keeps coming and saying the smoke is worse in Port Angeles,” Mason said.
“It’s made the humpies show up, so if you want your limit on humpies you’ll be done [fishing] in five minutes.”
And Mason said the pinks are of a size that may make releasing them a difficult decision in this year of no two-pink bonus limit.
“They are big this year, 7-to-9 pounds, which is big for this early in the year,” Mason said.
Kings the focus
Mason said coho aren’t coming through in big numbers yet, but most anglers are still concentrating on hatchery kings which are open through Tuesday, Aug. 15.
“Coho are still a little early, but we’re getting a few here and there,” Mason said.
“I’d say 95 percent are king fishing and the other 5 percent are pink fishing.”
And since kings and pinks comingle in many of the best fishing spots, those chinook anglers are getting a workout.
“They can’t even get their downrigger clips in without the humpies hitting,” Mason said.
“All the kids are all smilling and having fun because they are catching fish.”
The bite window for kings, Mason said, is early in the morning and just before sunset.
“There’s a good three-hour bite window from about 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. in the morning and the evening bite runs from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.,” he said.
“And when there’s a little slack tide there’s another small bite window in the afternoon.”
Most of the success is coming in about 300 to 500 feet of water, about 60 to 80 feet down on the downrigger, according to Mason.
And he wanted to remind everybody in Port Angeles and Sequim that when the salmon season wraps in Marine Area 6, Sekiu will still be open for another two weeks of hatchery coho fishing (plus pinks).
Dribs and drabs
Off Port Angeles, the fishing has been as spotty as the visiblity.
Brian Menkal of Brian’s Sporting Goods and More (360-683-1950) in Sequim said hatchery king fishing has been a bit of a crapshoot around Port Angeles.
“Pretty spotty around PA as far as kings go,” Menkal said. “I had a couple of gentlemen come by about 4 p.m. [Wednesday] that had heard of some good catches at Freshwater Bay.
“Then I talked to a guy who fished Ediz Hook until 11 a.m. [Thursday] and then went out to Freshwater Bay and all he caught was a barely-legal chinook.”
Menkal hasn’t heard of much coho action and state creel reports back that up.
“We haven’t had any rain to bring them down the Strait, and there’s none in the forecast at all,” Menkal said. “That makes it tougher for us as it’s going to keep the coho out in the Pacific Ocean.”
Menkal had one Port Townsend customer say he’d gotten a pink, but had had no other humpie reports.
“We get pinks up the Dungeness and in the rivers along the Hood Canal and near Seattle,” Menkal said.
“But they don’t come up the Hoh, the Bogachiel or any river in the Quillayute River system. And I don’t know why that is. I’ve asked [expert guide] Pat Neal about it, too, and he didn’t have an answer.”
Menkal said that those anglers willing to head west and endure road construction-related delays on U.S. Highway 101 may be rewarded.
“Jackson Maiers has been catching springers on the Sol Duc [River],” Menkal said.
Menkal also saw evidence of poaching on a trip to the Calawah River a few weeks back.
“Snaggers had gone into the Calawah at night and really scattered the fish,” Menkal said.
“If you see lots of heavy tackle in the morning on the banks, see some blood on the rocks, it’s been hit by snaggers.”
Neah Bay and La Push
Effort dropped and catches slowed off Neah Bay, meaning hatchery chinook fishing will continue for the foreseable future in Marine Area 4.
A total of 6,378 kings were caught through July 30, 80.7 percent of the 7,900 chinook guideline.
Coho catches ramped up last week and anglers have now landed 1,812 of the 4,370 silver quota (41.5 percent).
In neighboring Marine Area 3 (La Push), anglers have caught just 216 of the 2,500 chinook guideline (8.6 percent), while coho numbers are a bit higher (172 caught out of a 1,090-fish quota).
