Ocean salmon season opens, should heat up

Mother Nature often dictates whether the ocean salmon fishery is a do or don't, and judging by this past weekend's opener and through midweek it was a mixed bag of success.

"The North Coast opened [June 27] and it was not quite a fish per person, and I bet I didn't see a coho over 4 pounds, although one weighed 11 pounds," said Scott Barbour, a state Fish and Wildlife biologist who sampled the Neah Bay area.

The Neah Bay check from Saturday showed 223 anglers with 51 chinook, 117 coho and nine pinks.

"Guys who did the best were out at Table Top where you couldn't keep the coho off, and those who did better on chinook were right off the green can at Waadah Island right at daylight," Barbour said.

Just down the road from Neah Bay, La Push anglers averaged a solid 1.75 fish per rod, and most were coho 5 to 6 pounds.

Further south, the weather played a bigger role at places like Westport and Ilwaco where 10 foot swells and a 2 to 4 foot wind chop made for some sloppy seas.

"The ocean was pretty bad [Monday], but some boats managed to stay out [Sunday] and get limits, and overall they did better than a fish per person," said Larry Giese with the Westport Charterboat Association. "As soon as the weather calms down we should have some slam bang fishing."

At Ilwaco, almost nobody got out on Monday except for one charter boat that limited, but Sunday's opener was very good.

"It was pretty successful [Sunday] with a 1.8 fish per person average at Ilwaco," said Wendy Beeghly, a state Fish and Wildlife biologist. "It was almost all coho [3 to 5 pounds], and we sampled 240 coho and seven chinook."

Westport is open Sundays to Thursdays, then daily starting July 24. Ilwaco is open daily. Neah Bay and La Push are open Tuesdays to Saturdays, and then daily starting July 18.

Locally, Central Puget Sound is slow for coho off Kingston, Jefferson Head and Richmond Beach areas.

"We got one nice 15 pound chinook we released, and some shaker blackmouth [fish under the 22-inch minimum size limit] off Jeff Head [on Monday]," said Gary Krein, owner of All-Star Charters in Everett. "My main concern is we haven't seen many resident coho and hope some more show up soon."

The San Juan Islands, Sekiu to Port Angeles and Hood Canal south of Ayock Point are open for salmon. The inner-Elliott Bay king fishery opens tomorrow.

In south central Sound, hatchery chinook fishing remains slow in the Tacoma area, south of the Southworth Ferry Landing, and Dolphin Point off Vashon Island. The Tulalip Bay bubble king fishery has been slow.

Fast cast: The Cornet Bay pier has been very good for smelt jigging on the flood tide. The Edmonds pier has yielded some catches of kings, including a 22 and 23 pounder of late. A long distance ocean charter out of Westport hooked into an excellent tuna bite way off the mouth of the Columbia River. The Lower Skagit River opens July 9 for kings.