Forecasting salmon runs is similar to forecasting Pacific Northwest weather. Sometimes it’s accurate, sometimes it’s not. Regardless like the television weather forecasters, right or wrong, they all get paid.
Case in point; if you spent time this summer chasing king salmon off the Washington coast, with success or failure, do you believe the spring modern day forecast record of 650,000 fall king salmon is accurate?
While I have been hearing this question repeatedly the last month, I have been one of those anglers, chasing king salmon most of the summer.
Yes, the ocean fishery has been inconsistent the past two months, in terms of the presence of chinook, but I like the bigger picture. Analyzing the catch data, for example, out of Westport during the last week of July and the first two weeks of August, I am blown away by the results. Literally, thousands of anglers, like me, in search of the big one, encountering more often than not, good numbers of kings. The data suggests that during the timeframe fore-mentioned, that anglers averaged a king salmon per person during those three weeks. In my career at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, paying attention to similar data, these catch rates are off the chart. My mentor, Frank Haw, told me eons ago, that when the chinook salmon catch achieves a half fish per angler, that means that the fishing is red hot. Therefore, a king salmon per angler must qualify as white hot.
I spent the third week of August fishing out of Ilwaco at the mouth of the Columbia River. My catch results were very good, especially on my last day (Aug. 27) when three of us landed five kings and one coho in the ocean. Remember, the king salmon limit in the ocean this summer was expanded to allow two kings per day, per angler. That happens in the fishing world about as often as pigs fly.
September, from this writer’s perspective, is the bell lap for this year’s summer fishing season. It is a time when most anglers shift their attention from chinook salmon to coho salmon and wow, are there ever great fishing options to consider.
My first recommendation has got to be the ocean: Ilwaco, Westport, La Push and Neah Bay. Each of these four ports, are currently open to salmon fishing, traditionally driven by the coho salmon quota. If the coho quota is not achieved by the date for each port, then each of the areas will close on a season closing date, leaving some level of coho salmon on the quota table. Make sense? For example, the cutoff date for Ilwaco this year is September 30. For Westport, it’s September 19 and on the north coast, at La Push and Neah Bay, it’s September 18. Do you realize what that means? It means incredible coho salmon fishing, coastwide. It means, in a year like this, coho salmon as big as semi-trucks.
Fishing near the mouth of the Columbia, and in the river per se a week ago, I saw a coho salmon driving a 20-foot trophy boat! And, it was missing an adipose fin, the result of the fin clipping process at a WDFW salmon hatchery. Somebody get a large hook into that coho! Seriously, mid-teen coho were not uncommon. Big, cart-wheeling, sprinting shades of chrome, screaming around the boat like a formula one race car on the first lap. Gotta love it. Go fishing on the coast this month and you’ll see what has put this salmon angler on spin cycle.
Sekiu in mid-September is money too. Salmon biologists suggest mid-September is prime time for the peak of the big ocean run coho to make their way from ocean pastures to Puget Sound. Sekiu is lights out in mid-September. Good luck finding a room as the town will be plugged with anglers who understand prime time. Sleeping in a tree is always an option.
Finally, I can’t overlook north Puget Sound in mid-September. The Edmonds Coho Salmon Derby (Sept. 11) and the Everett Coho Derby (Sept. 18-19) are great, well attended salmon derbies offering tons of prizes. Having attended these two events for the last six years, I have witnessed strong coho fishing on Possession Bar near Edmonds. While the coho are found deeper in the water column in this region, usually around 100 feet, similar to the coastal stocks, I anticipate they will be as big as Clydesdale horses this year. A coho 20 pounds or better will likely provide the winning angler with a wheel barrel load of cash at both events.
It’s coho salmon fishing time in the Pacific Northwest, hey-now, hey-now. Giddy-up and I’m saddled up to find that big coho behind the wheel of the Trophy Boat I saw last week. See you on the water.
Case in point; if you spent time this summer chasing king salmon off the Washington coast, with success or failure, do you believe the spring modern day forecast record of 650,000 fall king salmon is accurate?
While I have been hearing this question repeatedly the last month, I have been one of those anglers, chasing king salmon most of the summer.
Yes, the ocean fishery has been inconsistent the past two months, in terms of the presence of chinook, but I like the bigger picture. Analyzing the catch data, for example, out of Westport during the last week of July and the first two weeks of August, I am blown away by the results. Literally, thousands of anglers, like me, in search of the big one, encountering more often than not, good numbers of kings. The data suggests that during the timeframe fore-mentioned, that anglers averaged a king salmon per person during those three weeks. In my career at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, paying attention to similar data, these catch rates are off the chart. My mentor, Frank Haw, told me eons ago, that when the chinook salmon catch achieves a half fish per angler, that means that the fishing is red hot. Therefore, a king salmon per angler must qualify as white hot.
I spent the third week of August fishing out of Ilwaco at the mouth of the Columbia River. My catch results were very good, especially on my last day (Aug. 27) when three of us landed five kings and one coho in the ocean. Remember, the king salmon limit in the ocean this summer was expanded to allow two kings per day, per angler. That happens in the fishing world about as often as pigs fly.
September, from this writer’s perspective, is the bell lap for this year’s summer fishing season. It is a time when most anglers shift their attention from chinook salmon to coho salmon and wow, are there ever great fishing options to consider.
My first recommendation has got to be the ocean: Ilwaco, Westport, La Push and Neah Bay. Each of these four ports, are currently open to salmon fishing, traditionally driven by the coho salmon quota. If the coho quota is not achieved by the date for each port, then each of the areas will close on a season closing date, leaving some level of coho salmon on the quota table. Make sense? For example, the cutoff date for Ilwaco this year is September 30. For Westport, it’s September 19 and on the north coast, at La Push and Neah Bay, it’s September 18. Do you realize what that means? It means incredible coho salmon fishing, coastwide. It means, in a year like this, coho salmon as big as semi-trucks.
Fishing near the mouth of the Columbia, and in the river per se a week ago, I saw a coho salmon driving a 20-foot trophy boat! And, it was missing an adipose fin, the result of the fin clipping process at a WDFW salmon hatchery. Somebody get a large hook into that coho! Seriously, mid-teen coho were not uncommon. Big, cart-wheeling, sprinting shades of chrome, screaming around the boat like a formula one race car on the first lap. Gotta love it. Go fishing on the coast this month and you’ll see what has put this salmon angler on spin cycle.
Sekiu in mid-September is money too. Salmon biologists suggest mid-September is prime time for the peak of the big ocean run coho to make their way from ocean pastures to Puget Sound. Sekiu is lights out in mid-September. Good luck finding a room as the town will be plugged with anglers who understand prime time. Sleeping in a tree is always an option.
Finally, I can’t overlook north Puget Sound in mid-September. The Edmonds Coho Salmon Derby (Sept. 11) and the Everett Coho Derby (Sept. 18-19) are great, well attended salmon derbies offering tons of prizes. Having attended these two events for the last six years, I have witnessed strong coho fishing on Possession Bar near Edmonds. While the coho are found deeper in the water column in this region, usually around 100 feet, similar to the coastal stocks, I anticipate they will be as big as Clydesdale horses this year. A coho 20 pounds or better will likely provide the winning angler with a wheel barrel load of cash at both events.
It’s coho salmon fishing time in the Pacific Northwest, hey-now, hey-now. Giddy-up and I’m saddled up to find that big coho behind the wheel of the Trophy Boat I saw last week. See you on the water.
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