Outdoors

POSTED: Thursday, Jul. 09, 2009

Skagit's later kings take center stage

Sport anglers have a rare treat afforded them on the lower Skagit River starting this week.

For the first time in at least 12 years, a one-month recreational opportunity will target the summer/fall stock of chinook salmon. The fishery opened at noon Thursday, July 9.

Only the lowest two of the Skagit River's management zones will be open for this directed fishery.

They are:

? from the mouth of both forks upstream to the Memorial Highway bridge at Mount Vernon.

? and from the Memorial Highway bridge upstream to the mouth of Gilligan Creek.

Aaron Bosworth, regional fisheries manager of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said this recreational fishing opportunity is designed to be a 'conservative' one recognizing that though this chinook stock is considered healthy, it, as a part of the Puget Sound chinook population, is federally protected under the Endangered Species Act.

By management prescription, jointly agreed to by state, tribal and federal fisheries managers, the goal for the Skagit's native summer/fall stock of chinook nominally is to have 14,900 wild fish return to the spawning grounds.

State and tribal runsize forecasts for 2009 produced in January estimate that 23,400 wild summer/fall kings will make it back to the mouth of the Skagit River.

To keep its impacts within acceptable limits (numbers of wild chinook caught), this targeted fishery will take place over just 30 days on the early part of the run.

Sport fishers will get to plumb the Skagit's depths just three and one half days each week, from noon Thursdays through Sundays.

Additional special regulations include limiting anglers to two chinook salmon only per day of which just one may be an adult. In freshwater adult chinook are defined by rule as being at least 24 inches long.

No other salmon may be kept in this fishery in this area of the river.

Also, the night fishing ban will be invoked, which precludes anglers from wetting a line any earlier than one hour before sunrise and no later than one hour after sunset each fishing day.

Anglers must release any other salmon they hook and land alive and unharmed, which also means they may not remove those fish from the water.

Access to the Skagit River is termed 'ample' by many if you have a boat, but there is a lot of riverbank space that while appearing open to land-bound fishers is actually out of bounds.

Charles Bennett, a commissioner of Diking District No. 12, said that there are many stretches of the Skagit where the land, on which dike and levee protection structures are located, is privately owned.

They are often but not always conspicuously posted to ward off trespassing and anglers should abide by and respect the wishes of landowners, Bennett said. One such example of a stretch where dike land is privately owned is the Avon Bend area west of Pulver Road.

In other locales, the diking district may own the property along the river's edge on which dikes are situated and in those cases where the public has access to the dry side toe of the dike, anglers may cross the dike and descend to a water's-edge fishing spot.

One such place is in the City of Burlington at Skagit River Park where, by agreement between the diking district and the city, the public may access the river from park land, said Bennett.

With the exception of the Hub Sportsmen's Association bank and dock facilities, from the Gardner Road launch ramp south to the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railroad bridge anglers may cross the dike from any public land to fish.

Bennett stressed that anglers not only should be aware of where they may go legally, they must abide by common sense rules of behavior such as:

? taking with them everything they pack in. Don't leave litter behind.

? not building fires and being careful when smoking. Diking districts are mowing vegetation now that will become tinder dry.

? respecting fellow anglers and other people along the river.

? parking legally well off roads, avoiding private driveways.

Bennett said that the district expects to have wood debris cleared from its land on Whitmarsh Road adjacent to the railroad bridge in the next two weeks freeing up space for off-road parking at the popular fishing Johnson's Bar hole.

Here are key public accesses to the banks and waters of the lower Skagit for this fishery:

Blake's Resort (North Fork): privately owned fee-access site having good parking, a concrete launch, dock space, cabins and ample room for RVs. Blake's will be in the thick of doorstep action down where chinook first enter the Skagit.

WDFW North Fork Access (North Fork): located off Moore Road on Fir Island, this is a bank access only site.

Spudhouse Ramp: located just above the divergence of the North and South forks where the famous 'hogline' of anchored boats often forms, it has a concrete ramp, but limited parking and some bank space.

Edgewater Park: a city park in West Mount Vernon north and south of the Memorial Highway Bridge, it has a good ramp with a cross-current approach and some bank fishing, but it's on the shallow side of the river bend.

Young's Bar: a state fish and wildlife bank and sand bar access only also in West Mount Vernon, it is a popular old-timers' haunt at a slotwater notch. This is a great easy chair plunking spot when the river's down.

Johnson's Bar: Also a bank/gravel bar access only, it's located off Whitmarsh Road on the north side of the river at the BNSF railroad bridge. Highly popular.

Skagit River Park: a City of Burlington park on the west side of the river providing, in cooperation with Diking District No. 12, good high bank access for anglers mostly on the outside of a bend.

Gardner Road Launch: a spacious, solid concrete ramp that can handle side-by-side water entries or pullouts on the southeast side of Burlington. Drive south from Highway 20. Bank fishing is allowed downstream here, too.

Joseph Ramp: associated with Sedro-Woolley's Riverside Park, this has an angled, single-width concrete ramp and good parking, plus the family can picnic in the park while you fish.

South Skagit Highway: freelance bank fishers, seeking a little elbowroom, find excellent accesses to chinook holding waters at a number of points along the county road above Highway 9 bridge from east of the residences upstream to the High Bank above the pipeline crossing.

River Road: southeast of Sedro-Woolley, east of Riverside Park a small number of river bank cubbyholes give access to some snaggy, but potentially rewarding waters.

Wildcat Steelhead Club: the second of the private accesses, the club has a dock, picnic area and solid angled boat ramp. An annual membership is required to use these sites. This club has lobbied strenuously for this fishery for a long time. Check the club's Web site at http://www.wildcatsteelhead.com/info.html.

LICENSES AND CARDS

To fish salmon in freshwater, anglers age 15 and older must have some 2009 version of a Washington freshwater fishing license or a combination fresh- and saltwater fishing license plus a free salmon, steelhead, halibut, sturgeon and Dungeness crab catch record card.

Young anglers age 14 and under do not need a fishing license but they must have a free catch record card to keep any salmon or steelhead they land.

Immediately upon retaining a 'legal keeper' chinook or steelhead anglers must record it in ink on the card and turn them in at the end of the season.

MAKE A CONTEST OUT OF IT

The Mount Vernon Parks and Recreation Department plans to hold its Ray Reep Salmon Derby Saturday, Aug. 8. toward the end of this opening, but when the chinook should be more abundant.

More details will be available soon at the City of Mount Vernon's Web site on the parks and recreation page.

SEASONS NOW AND LATER

A portion of the upper Skagit also is open until Wednesday, July 15 to the taking of another chinook type, hatchery origin spring chinook homing on the state's Marblemount Hatchery.

Unlike the lower river fishery where any chinook may be kept. Skagit springs must be adipose fin clipped to be legally retainable.

While the Skagit's pinks and early coho are off-limits in the summer/fall chinook fishery.

Following a six-day hiatus, Aug. 10-15, this portion of the lower Skagit reopens Sunday, Aug. 16 for what should be frenzied action for pink salmon, also know as humpies and coho salmon, aka silvers.

The river from Gilligan Creek upstream will open for humpies and coho a little later.