Lake Washington gets 3-day fishery

Lovely weather and a horde of sockeye are expected to greet thousands of anglers on Lake Washington for a three-day fishery — the first since 2004 — that begins Saturday.

"We're very excited to provide this opportunity in Lake Washington, and it is an amazing fishery with a high success rate," said Tim Flint, the head state Fish and Wildlife salmon biologist. "The interest in the fishery is great, and where else can you have a salmon fishery in protected waters so close to a metropolitan area?"

The lake will be open for fishing from one hour before sunrise until one hour after sunset each day. There will be 100-feet closures on both floating bridges and a 1,000-foot closure at the mouth of the Cedar River.

Daily limit will be two sockeye per angler, minimum size of 15 inches. Once an angler catches his limit, he must stop fishing even if others on the boat haven't yet caught their limit.

Any other salmon caught must be released and cannot be taken out of the water. Freshwater regulations apply, meaning barbed hooks are allowed.

This year's Lake Washington in-season run size has been changed to 411,000 sockeye (preseason forecast was 211,000), which is above the 350,000 spawning escapement goal.

The 61,000 sockeye surplus will be split evenly between sport and tribal fishers. Also, the tribes agreed to give 4,700 fish from their share in order to allow sport anglers more time on the water.

"We appreciate the tribes for providing us the extra fish; otherwise we wouldn't be able to provide a full day of fishing on Monday," Flint said.

The temporary hatchery on the Cedar River just below Landsburg Dam is a big reason this fishery became a reality.

About 20 percent to 25 percent of the 2002 and 2004 sport harvests were sockeye that originated from the temporary hatchery, and getting a permanent facility will double the production of fry to 34 million.

"We clearly wouldn't have had this fishery without the temporary hatchery in place," said Frank Urabeck, a state Fish and Wildlife sport fishing advisory board member and Puget Sound Anglers spokesman.

This year's run will be comprised of 15 million sockeye fry (total fry, including wild fry from the Cedar River, is 42 million) from the temporary hatchery that was constructed in 1991.

A permanent facility would already be in place, but hatchery opponents are still adamant about finding a way to terminate it or halt the work. Opponents have filed a suit in federal court to stop hatchery production, and that will not be heard until next year.

Other positive factors for a strong run include ideal ocean conditions and marine survival; improvements in the lake's northern sockeye run; and better passage at the locks when juvenile fish migrated out to sea.

The Muckleshoot Tribe will fish tonight in a small area of the Ship Canal and Lake Union, and the Suquamish Tribe plans to fish Wednesday in an area below the Ballard Locks.

"Getting this fishing season was not unexpected based on what we saw with sockeye fry production in 2002 [the parent run to this year's run]," said Mike Mahovlich, a Muckleshoot tribal biologist. "You never say never, and this shows why having in-season data [fish counts at the locks] is so important."

The last time the big lake had a fishery was in late July 2004, with a return of 403,000 fish. About 27,626 sockeye were caught by 27,757 anglers during a 2 ½-day fishery — almost one fish per rod.

Other fisheries have occurred in 2002, 2000, 1996, 1988 and 1984.

State and tribal fish managers have indicated that no additional fishing will be allowed beyond Monday, unless the run is much stronger than the in-season data shows.

Mark Yuasa: 206-464-8780 or myuasa@seattletimes.com