Skagit Area Report

[Robbo]

Kevin John
Holiday Sports Center
360-757-4361

Lingcod-
Opened on May 1st and runs seven days a week through June 15 in our area. The daily limit is one fish within the 26”-36” slot limit with a depth restriction of 120 feet. Meaning you CANNOT fish for ling deeper than 120 feet. Spearfishing season will run May 21-June 15 with a 36” maximum size.

The tides are pretty good this week, especially in the mornings and should be a good chance to fish some of your lighter gear and smaller baits in prime conditions.

Halibut-
Halibut reopens tomorrow! That’s Thursday May 16th through Saturday May 18th; Reopens Thursday May 23rd through Sunday May 26th; and the final opener will be Thursday and Friday May 30th and 31st.

This week’s tides are some of the best that we will see this season. My advice, get out there as early as possible. A soaker until mid-morning followed by only a foot of change per hour is about all you can hope for. The marine forecast looks great tomorrow ok for Friday and a bit more questionable for the weekend; Me, I’m sick tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it goes. If you don’t come down with a case of Flatty Fever or opt to hold out for the weekend you might think about McArthur Bank or Burrows Bay if the weather gets snotty, both have put out some flat fish.

Shrimp-
Our local waters have been split into three sub areas to allow for better management with slightly different seasons. Area 7 East and South will be open May 15-18 and May 29-June 1. Marine Area 7 West will open Wednesdays-Saturdays only until June 1. After June 1 the area will be open Thursdays-Saturdays until the quota is reached or September 15th, whichever comes first.

Marine Areas 8 & 9 are unlikely to reopen for any additional days because of the estimated 30% increase in participation.

Marine Areas 11 & 10 (excluding Elliot Bay) will reopen for one more day on Wednesday, May 22nd from 7:00am-3:00pm.

Area 6 is open daily until the quota is reached or September 15th, whichever comes first.

Turkey-
Turkey season opened statewide April 15 - May 31, 2013. Hunting hours are one-half hour before sunrise to sunset during spring seasons.

DON’T FORGET
Special-hunt permit applications are on sale now and are available until the application deadline on May 22, 2013. Remember that you must declare your weapon type and specify which type of application you require for each species.

CHECK THIS OUT
Heart Lake Kids Event-
It’s that time of year again for the annual Heart Lakes Kids Event put on by the Anacortes Parks Department. To ensure a quality event and allow the large number of freshly planted trout to acclimate the WDFW closes the lake on 5/29 through 6/1 except for those anglers 14 and under participating in the event on 6/1 from 6:00am-12:00pm.

Lake Stevens Kokanee Derby-
Hit up the 4th Annual Lake Stevens Kokanee Derby this Saturday, May 18th. This is a great little event with a $1,000 prize for 1st Place. Tickets are $20, kids 14 & under are FREE. Get your tickets here at Holiday Sports as well Ted’s Sports Center, Triangle Bait & Tackle, Greg’s Custom Rods, 3 Rivers Marine, and John’s Sporting Goods.

The Fidalgo-San Juan Islands Chapter of the Puget Sound Anglers will hold its monthly meeting next Tuesday May 21st at 6:30pm;The meeting will be held upstairs at Village Pizza in Anacortes. Speaking will be Jeff Whidden from North Harbor Propellor on prop theory, maintenance and selection. We also have Jay Lind from SCMRC speaking on derelict gear removal. Don’t miss out on the killer raffles and always informative “Gear Tips” and “How Do You Fish That Place?” segments as well.

The Elite Sports Express Traveling Showroom will be onsite at Skagit Arms Friday and Saturday June 7th & 8th. Featuring Winchester ammunition, Nikon optics, Arma Lite, Springfield and Charter Arms the truck is loaded for bear with all the coolest new toys from the top manufacturers. And AMMO! In addition to lots of recent deliveries the truck also means we will see a fresh load of ammo, INCLUDING 22LR! Better put this one on your calendar!

FRESHWATER FISHING REPORTS
Skagit River-
Although the river is open below the Memorial Highway Bridge the Skagit doesn’t look real great at the moment. This past week’s heat and torrential rain have really made the river come up and get dirty. The Mount Vernon gauge shows the river to have been as high as 25ft early yesterday but much of the lower river is pretty inaccessible to the bank angler.

Lake Samish-
The lake’s surface temperature is up to 60 degrees or so and has started to push the fish down the water column. Many anglers are still flat-lining a dodger and wedding ring 100 feet or more behind the boat and are generally catching smaller fish. This time of year I like to use three or four colors of lead line help my gear get down but many will go straight for the downrigger. The bigger fish have definitely been down deeper in the water column, between 20 & 30 ft and red is still the color. We’ve had a number of really chunky fish in the shop over the past week in the 16”-17” range and good number of 12-14 inchers. Time to get moving!

So a huge number of customers have called in with concern regarding the AIS permits/inspections that are now being required in Lake Whatcom and Lake Samish. This information has been pretty difficult to piece together and was given very little press prior to its implementation. The long and short of it is that Bellingham and Whatcom County are concerned with the possibility of Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) showing up in the local waterways and they are requiring and inspection prior to entry in both Lake Whatcom and Lake Samish. For the specific details try the following link:
http://www.lakewhatcom.whatcomcounty.or ... ograms/ais

Baker and Shannon-
Reports are spotty out of the Baker drainage over the past week. In both Baker and Shannon reports have slowed following the heavy rains that carry lots of dirt and bugs into the lakes. If you are planning a trip up that way you might consider trolling or chumming more heavily than usual.

FROM THE FIELD
Many of you have noticed a new face or two over the past few months, the newest of whom is Dan Lemaich. Dan is another avid fly guy who spends several days a week on the water. Recently he has been chasing sea-run cuts in the salt off of Kayak Point. His recommendation is to fish a few hours each side of the morning high tides because the afternoons tend to have a brisk westerly wind and choppy water. His flies of choice have been candlefish imitations about 2 ½” long in light colors, large Carey Specials with silver bodies and white Woolley Buggers. For the gear guys look at ¼ and 3/8oz Krocodiles, spinners and Kastmasters in whites or metallic finishes.

Lake Sixteen and Lake Shoecraft are both fishing well for nice “planters”, 10”-12” and fat, with a few holdovers to 17”. Here it’s been careys, buggers abd chironomids. The occasional evening hatch of mayflies, small and dark in size 16 or 18 and some late midge activity in the size 18-22 has also been a good bet.

SALTWATER FISHING REPORTS
San Juan’s-
Not a lot in the way of killer reports from the salt this past week with all that wonderful weather we had keeping most boats on the trailer. This week looks a lot better and I would expect to see a lot more effort with halibut opening back up tomorrow. After our first opener most of the fish checked in have come from Hein and Middle Banks with some very solid reports off of Eastern Bank as well. If the weather is less than perfect or downright bad there are a few alternatives. Mutiny Bay and Burrows Bay are both short runs and are relatively protected from all but a westerly wind If you are looking to do a little shrimping too McArthur bank is just south of Iceberg point, some of the hottest shrimp grounds in the area.

Tight Lines,
Kevin

[Dan Carney]

So I stopped by Lake Samish yesterday and sure enough, this sign is posted at the launch.

Sammisn Sign (176x240).jpg (63.05 KiB) Viewed 2948 times

I followed the link in Kevin's article and the inspection is $50 for a year or $20 a day. While I think all boaters should be very concerned about spreading aquatic invasive species, this program won't do anything to stop them. At lake Whatcom where they have inspectors on the ramp it might but an annual sticker is just another money maker. I guess I will be fishing in Skagit county and not Whatcom...
L8R
Dan