Fishing | Better get to halibut while you can

Bottomfishing has been the big draw for anglers all along the Washington coast, and the popular northern coastal halibut fishery opens Tuesday.

Those who plan to fish for halibut at Neah Bay and La Push should go quickly because the May fishery last year was open for only four days.

"Our moorage space is pretty filled up for the halibut opener, and people have been getting limits of lingcod and sea bass," said Steve Jimmicum at the Big Salmon Resort in Neah Bay. "Seal and Sail rocks are good for lingcod and bass, and for the bigger lingcod, head to Tatoosh."

The North Coast will be open for halibut Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays until this month's quota is achieved. The fishery will then reopen on selected dates next month.

The south central coast off Westport produced some decent halibut fishing during the first three days it was open, and rockfish and lingcod fishing remains excellent.

"Halibut fishing at Westport has been good, and there is enough in the quota to keep it open through May 11 and 13," said Michele Culver, a state Fish and Wildlife regional director. "We'll evaluate it after that to see if we can reopen it on May 18, but that remains questionable."

Ilwaco is open daily for halibut and the fishery should stay open through this month.

Lingcod and halibut fishing from Port Angeles to Puget Sound was fair to good, but extreme low tides in recent days has made it somewhat tough.

"We've had good lingcod fishing when the low tides aren't running so hard, and I am pretty happy with the fishery," said Gary Krein, owner of All-Star Charters in Everett. "We're getting the lingcod either around Possession Bar [south side of Whidbey Island] or south side of Hat Island."

Other spots in Puget Sound to try for lingcod are south of Alki Point near the green buoy markers, in front of the Edmonds and Everett marinas, Point Evans, Allen Bank off Blake Island, Toliva Shoal, Burrows Island and Smith Island.

Halibut fishing is slow to fair off the humps near Port Angeles, Freshwater Bay, Partridge, Hein and Salmon banks, Mutiny Bay and off Fort Casey on Whidbey Island.

Fishing reports

• Spot shrimp in Puget Sound and Hood Canal: There was a 5 percent decrease in the number of boats this year (1,467) versus opening day 2007 (1,544), said Therese Cain, a state Fish and Wildlife biologist who oversees the Hood Canal shrimp fishery that started this past Saturday. "I'm sure higher gas prices and the drizzly, cold, gray day played a role in the decrease in effort," Cain said.

However, Cain noted that catch rates — an average boat catch of 15.7 pounds of spot shrimp — increased compared with opening day last year.

Hood Canal is open Saturday and May 14 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Shrimp fishing in Marine Catch Areas 9 and 10 (northern and central Puget Sound) closed yesterday. Central Sound may reopen for one day next week if there is enough remaining in the quota. South central Sound (Area 11) is also closed.

Saratoga Passage (Area 8) is open and will close when the quota is reached or on May 31, whichever comes first. Fishing is allowed 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

The San Juan Islands (Area 7) are open Wednesday to Saturday, and close once the quota is attained.

• Trout and bass in lakes: Bass fishing on Lake Washington is good, and on Saturday anglers reported catching smallmouth bass left and right, said Bryan Nelson at Three Rivers Marine and Tackle in Woodinville. "The water temperatures are warming up in the lakes, making for good bass and trout fishing," Nelson said.

Lakes worth a try for trout are Ballinger, Pine, McMurray, Heart, Angle, Spanaway, Howard, Cottage, Rattlesnake, Wilderness, Gissburg, Deer, Goss, Mineral, Desire, Meridian, Ohop, Armstrong, Bosworth, Ki, Martha (Alderwood Manor) and Padden.

East of the Cascades, the warmer weather should improve the trout bite at Warden, Wapato, Conconully Lake and Reservoir, Jameson, Leader and Spectacle.

• Spring chinook and steelhead in Columbia River above Bonneville and its tributaries: The Lower Columbia tributaries (Cowlitz, Kalama and Lewis), and Wind River and Drano Lake are fairly slow, said Joe Hymer, a state Fish and Wildlife biologist. Dam counts at Bonneville showed promise — 9,686 spring chinook on Sunday — and then it dropped off to 2,800 by Tuesday, Hymer said.

Hymer said the best spot for spring chinook was in the Columbia mainstem below the John Day Dam, which closes after Saturday. The Columbia estuary below Wauna power lines reopen Saturday for sturgeon retention.

Boat anglers in the Wind averaged one chinook per every 10 rods, and at Drano, boat anglers averaged one per every 8.6 rods this past week.

Shad and hatchery steelhead below Bonneville Dam opens May 16, and hatchery chinook jack and steelhead fishing below Interstate 5 begins May 16.

• Salmon in southern Puget Sound: Fishing is open south of the Narrows Bridge. Try Anderson Island, Point Fosdick, Fox Point and Gibson Point on the east side of Fox Island.

• Spring chinook in Yakima River and the Columbia River at Ringold: "The fish just aren't in the river yet, but it should pick up soon," said John Easterbrooks, the state Fish and Wildlife fish program manager. "We had pretty good effort at Ringold [Thursday through Sunday], and 81 anglers had 13 adult hatchery fish, and six wild fish were released." Fishing is open from the I-182 Bridge in Richland up to the State Route 224 bridge at Benton City; and from the I-82 bridge at Union Gap up to 3,500 feet downstream of Roza Dam.

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