Lake Washington Sockeye Counts

[Nelly]

We can hope can't we???

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Despite a forecast coming in under the minimum required for a recreational season for sockeye on Lake Washington, it's interesting to watch the daily counts as the salmon stream through the Ballard Locks.

Here's the link to the WDFW's Hiram M. Chittenden Locks Sockeye Salmon Counts which are conducted from June through July http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/counts/sockeye/

Let the counting begin and lets hope that some of that Fraser River bumper crop of reds takes a "detour" down south!

[SCHANKER]

thay would be nice!

[Smalma]

The early counts are not very encouraging. Only 310 fish counted from 6/12 through 6/15 with only 14 fish yesterday.

To put that in perspective the 310 fish is by far the lowest counts for the first 3 days since before 2000. For the previous the counts for those first 3 days have ranged from a low of 1,200 to more than 11,000. Unfortunately the reports from the Skagit also indicate a dearth of sockeye so far.

The good news is that is way too early to say what the overall run strength. History has shown that the it will be sometime after the first week of July before we have a strong indication of the run strength. Further the counts can change dramatically literally over night.

Curt