Fishing Journal
Information For The Serious Angler
$2.00
May 2007
Puget Sound Ling Cod May 1-June 15 New Puget Sound Salmon Seasons
Area 7: July1-July 31: Two Salmon limit only, one may be a chinook, plus an additional two pink salmon. See closures page 110 WDFW reg. pamphlet. Area 8-1: August 1-Sept. 30: Two salmon limit, release chinook and pink salmon. In other words: only coho! Area 8-2: August 1-Sept. 30 Two salmon limit, release chinook. Plus two additional pink salmon. In other words: you can keep two coho and two pink salmon. Tulalip Bubble: June 1-Sept 24, closed June 24. Open Friday through Noon Monday. Two salmon limit, plus an additional two pink salmon. Area 9: July 16-August: Two salmon limit, hatchery chinook only plus an additional two pink salmon. Single barbless hook required. Area 10: July 16-August 16: Two salmon limit, hatchery chinook only plus an additional two pink salmon. Single barbless hook required. Beware of quota season on chinook. Read page 117 in reg. book
Free Newsletter
Starting June 2007, the Fishing Journal will be Free Online
Starting with the June issue of the Fishing Journal, it is going to be free to anyone. There is only one “catch”, you will need to go to www.johnssportinggoods.com and download the Fishing Journal on the first of every month. The link will be on the left hand side. Just click on the fish with the word “Fishing Journal” under it. The newsletter will be in PDF format, so it will take maybe two minutes to download if you have a reasonably fast computer. Most of you by now should have Adobe Acrobat (PDF) converter installed on you computer. If you don't, I will have a link that will that will take you to the free download. There are a couple good reasons to stop mailing the Fishing Journal. The number one reason is the cost of mailing and the cost of paper. The second reason and the most important is that I want the newsletter to be out on the first day of every month. This month for example I wanted to do maps on shrimping that opened May 5, but I knew that between printing time and mailing time, the newsletter would never get to you until after May 5th. The third reason is that I want to save the Everett Salmon and Steelhead Club the cost of producing and mailing the newsletter. This savings to the club will be significant and it
should allow the club to put the savings toward saving salmon and steelhead. I will continue producing the ESSC newsletter for the club and provide them paper copies as long as they wish. Paper copies of the newsletter will be available at John's Sporting Goods. They will be free to current subscribers until the end of 2007. Even if your subscription expires you can get a newsletter for free if you stop by and pick it up. Anyone who feels that they want a refund can get one simply by calling or emailing (jamnw1@aol.com) me and I will refund the remaining amount of your subscription.
2007 Puget Sound Salmon Season
By John Martinis The salmon seasons are getting a bit more liberal year after year. However, it is like watching the grass grow. Nevertheless, I am happy with the increased opportunity to be out on the water. The major change in this year's regulation package is the additional Chinook opportunity in Area 9. The new Chinook opportunity starts July 16 and possibly runs through August 15. The new package is based on a Chinook quota of 7,000 fish. Any way you look at it, you have to like it. This is our first opportunity to harvest mature Chinook in a decade in Area 9. This fishery will be a clipped adipose fin (release wild Chinook) fishery. With the hatchery fish only rule, new
John’s Sporting Goods Web Page www.johnssportinggoods.com
Just Fishing
regulations come into play. #1: Single point barbless hook required. #2: Wild Chinook cannot be brought out of the water and into the boat. In addition to catching two hatchery Chinook an additional two pink (humpy) salmon can be caught. That's right, a four salmon limit in Area 9. Area 8-2 has a strangely worded salmon limit. It reads, “Daily limit 2 (combined), plus two additional Pink. Release Chinook.” I read that as the limit is two coho and two pink salmon August 1 through September 30. Very strange. Let me write the regulation pamphlet next year! The Tulalip Bubble Chinook fishery opens June 1 and runs through September 24, Closed on June 23. Very strange again, just make the rules consistent and simple and run the season until September 30th. Jeeez! By the way, you can keep an additional two pink salmon. Yes, that means two Chinook and two pink salmon. Not bad, four fish limit, two big ones and two small ones. Area 10: Yikes, look at page 119 in the regulation book. I don't know wether to laugh or cry? Can you possibly fish for salmon legally in this area? Well it's not that bad because once again I will make it simple for you. The heart of the matter is keeping hatchery Chinook July 16 through August 15. Maybe? Here is where it gets confusing. There is a 7,000 fish chinook quota in the combined Areas 9&10. Don't get excited yet. There is a 1,700 hatchery Chinook quota in Area 10. Then there is a Shilshole Bay closure and an Elliot Bay closure. Next year I want the WDFW to give me page two of the regulation book. On that one page, I will simply state what you can fish for and when. They can have the other 137 pages telling us what we can't do. Give me two Extra Strength Excedrin PM.
2
in a bucket of water and they will survive with almost no oxygen. When you get ready to fish for ling cod, put a 2/0 or 3/0 hook through the upper lip of the sculpin. Use 26 ounces of weight and let the sculpin to the bottom. The more traditional way to fish for ling cod is with a 4-6 inch twin tail scampi plastic tail mounted on a 24 ounce lead head jig. Any time I fish for lings I always put bait on the hook. Octopus and herring are best baits to use. I caught many lings with baby octopus in there mouth. This is important: When you are jigging for lings, don't use the classic jigging motion with your fishing rod. Just swim the jig slowly. Make it look natural. If you think about it; there isn't any baitfish jumping around like a monkey on the bottom. The bait is swimming and darting around. Now watch your fishing line closely. Ling cod will always swallow the jig when it falls toward the bottom. You will not feel any bite. The line will slack and that is your clue that a ling has picked up your jig. Give the jig a good jerk and let the fish and chips begin! Don't count out using dead bait for ling cod. Herring and octopus used alone has never gone out of fashion. Rig either bait on a two hook salmon leader. Use 2-4 ounces of lead and let it to the bottom. Once again swim the bait in a natural baitfish swimming motion.
Ling Cod
By John Martinis Here we go. Simple fishing season, simple rules, just go catch'em. The general Puget Sound rule for catching Ling Cod is May 1 through June 15. The minimum size is 26 inches and the maximum size is 40 inches. Check your particular Area to make sure the rule applies to you. Ling cod fishing is much anticipated every year, only because the fishery is getting better as time goes on. If you have been out fishing lings, you have noticed that there is a boat load of sub-legal fish around. This points the needle to better fishing in future years. I will explore three good ways to fish for ling cod. In recent years, live bait fishing has become very popular. This is the most deadly way to fish for lings. The limiting factor on live bait is availability of bait. The best bait is live “pronghorn sculpins” (bullheads). They can be caught in about sixty feet of water throughout Puget Sound. They can be hard to catch during ling cod season. Sculpins migrate to shallow water later in the summer. However that is after ling cod season. You can catch sculpins with worms and a size #6 worm hook on a medium action trout rod. These are pretty hardy creatures, so you can throw them
Johns online Salmon Tackle Store
www.johnssportinggoods.com/ Salmon%20Tackle.htm
Shellfish Hotline 1-866-880-5421
Fishing Maps
Maps For The Serious Angler
3
Fish these areas for lingcod in 60-90 feet of water. Look for a rocky bottom and fish the last hour of any tide. Twin tail scampi tails are the best bait with a lead head jig. Put a strip of herring on the jig for some enhanced flavor!
WDFW FISHING HOTLINE 360-902-2500
Puget Sound Lingcod
January Feb March April May June July August Sept Oct Nov Dec
Lingcod Lingcod
A Publication of Everett Steelhead & Salmon Club
May 2007 about what is available. Bring your questions about British Columbia fishing, you are only two hours away and the trip can be well worth it. The June presenter is Gary Loomis, originator of the G. Loomis rods which have been one of the benchmarks of fishing rods for years. Gary sold the G. Loomis Company to Shimano and is now very active in Fish First which is an attempt to respond to some of the problems with fish habitat and restoration of fish runs. You can go to his web site to see what he has been involved in but come on June 21 to the Perpetual Help meeting hall and see for yourself. PSA, which is the club's umbrella organization dedicated to protection of the resource, feel strongly enough about Fish First that they have become a member. Gary also is pushing for the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) which has led successful fights to protect fish runs from destructive netting methods in other states. Whether you wish to become active or not is a personal decision but Gary Loomis feels, correctly, that if we do not become active, the fish will disappear. There is ample evidence that unless some controls are put into place, destructive commercial measures will decimate all the fishing grounds. Finally, mark your calendar for the annual club picnic this year which will be on July 29 at Silver Lake. This can be a great time to meet the members and their
Club News
By Jim Brauch The primary news, to me at least, is the next Kid's fishing events and the help from members to make these events successful. May 5 there will be the Marysville event at Jennings Pond. This will probably be over by the time you get the newsletter but if you do get the message, show up early to help set up and be ready to help the young ones who need help. This can be crowded but fun. After that, the Cast for Kids event is on May 12 at Silver Lake. This is a labor intensive event requiring as much help as we can get so try to be there if you can. We will be gathering at about 7:00 a.m. and the kids start coming soon after. We go until the afternoon with groups every 45 minutes. Many of the kids arriving will know nothing about fishing so your expertise is needed. Please help. On April 25, we had the Kids Trout Fishing Class and we had thirty three participants which nearly filled the hall we had to work out of. Several club members showed to help out and I appreciate that since even I can't entertain 33 people for two hours without help. The weather was bad but the turn out was good. In case you haven't noticed, I'm really big on youth events and hope most of the members can join me in my enthusiasm. The weather was also bad at the North Lake Gissberg April 14 event and of the 4480 fish planted,
I don't think 500 were caught. There were some good ones though and the kids had a good time. If you can pass for 14, grab your rod and head that way, there are lots of fish left. If you can't pass for 14, grab a kid and take him/her along. Doesn't even have to be your kid. If you missed Terry Rudnick, you missed an excellent demonstration of how to fish for halibut. Terry showed how to use the spreader explaining some people set it up backward. The spreader is a device designed to keep the bait and the weight separate as it goes down into the deep water and it is very important it be set up correctly. He also spoke of different types of bait and jigs. Good presentation and all present appeared to enjoy it. Terry spoke about the depths he has fished for halibut and I can relate to that, I once pulled a 110 pound halibut from 500 feet of water. Darn near killed both of us! The May presenter is Vic Carrao of STS Guide Service, British Columbia fishing guide. Vic fishes the Frazier River as well as its tributaries and will discuss methods and places to fish. I have fished with Vic for sockeye in the Frazier River and, especially if the Lake Washington sockeye fishery does not open, this can be an excellent bet to fill your freezer. He also fishes for kings (they call them springs) silvers (they call them coho) and for the great catch and release sturgeon fishery in the Frazier. Vic is an all around guide and should be very informative
Staying tied to our membership
families as well as have some good eats, competitive contests and great prizes. The annual “losers” drawing is held at the picnic so all those loser raffle tickets you put into the pot may now be eligible for some great prizes. I always feel good when that ticket I lost on is now a winner.
course, furnished the rod rack, fish clock and the crib board. I hope all had a good time and maybe next year I can teach them how to catch fish (or not). Blackmouth fishing by, the time you read this, will be over but at times, the fishing was very good this year. Lots of shakers but some pretty nice keepers too. I got out a couple of times and I hit some. That should end the salmon fishing at least locally until summer. There are some fish available in the Columbia and maybe keep an eye on the Cowlitz for fish to be had. Most of the fishing now is trout which I enjoy and summer steelhead start coming in June so if you don't fish trout, take a break. Maybe you can take up golf or some other ridiculous sport like that. Trout lakes are now open and if you really want to enjoy them, learn how to fish them. I have some tips such as keep on the surface with either a fly, Dick Nite spoon or a Wedding Ring spinner if you see surface activity. If you don't see activity and you know there are fish there (look to the stocking report on the WDFW web page) fish off the bottom with bait, jigs or nymph pattern flies. As the water warms up, look for that 55 degree water and the fish will gather there. This is when that depth/fish finder really comes in handy. After the first few weeks of the season, about the time you read this, go to Lake Goodwin, Flowing Lake or Blackman Lake for some of those bigger trout. Goodwin is not stocked with triploids but will hold some big trout. For a good time, go over the mountains to places like Fish Lake or Jameson
Lake. Lots of trout opportunities, just put some time in. If you ain't fishing, it's your own fault. Keep your rods up and your lines tight.
FISHING REPORTS
The hopefully annual ESSC Blackmouth Derby which was called off on its target date just because of bad weather was finally held on March 31. I went out on March 30 in front of Edmonds and we limited the boat (three people) in less than 2 hours but that was not the case on the following day for most. I could not enter the derby due to previous commitments and the fish were sparse. First place was Jack Blair with a monster of 4.65 lbs which was worth $140 (that is over $30 a pound Jack), second place was won by Bradley Koplitz who was fishing in Ben Bear's boat, he won $70 (which is almost $30 per pound. These were the only fish caught for the derby so the next winners won by drawing tickets. Sharon Zaleck took home third place with $42 and Doug Olson, last years big winner took home $28 for forth (I can't tell you how much that is per pound). Other prizes taken by ticket were an Ugly Stick Rod by John Wayne, a Pfueger Reel by Bill Bourgouis, a rod rack by Woody, a fish clock by Chuck Drake and a crib board by Bill Davis. All were happy with their prizes and we have to thank Fabian from Jerry's Surplus for the rod and the reel. Henry, of
Starting June 2007, the Fishing Journal and ESSC Club Newsletter will be Free Online
Starting with the June issue of the Fishing Journal, it is going to be free to anyone. There is only one “catch”, you will need to go to www.johnssportinggoods.com and download the Fishing Journal on the first of every month. The link will be on the left hand side. Just click on the fish with the word “Fishing Journal” under it. The newsletter will be in PDF format, so it will take maybe two minutes to download if you have a reasonably fast computer. Most of you by now should have Adobe Acrobat (PDF) converter installed on you computer. If you don't, I will have a link that will that will take you to the free download.
Tight Lines
7