Baker Lake Sockeye Fishing

We have had a number of the customers fish Baker Lake this week and all have done quite well, with limits being more of the norm than not. Generally speaking most that have been successful have been trolling the area in the upper portion of the lake around Noisy Creek. This is the area of greatest concentration of fish. If you have electronics you can locate the schools of fish on the sounder and see the depth that the fish are stratified at. Many of the fish schools are located in the middle of the lake and not always along the shoreline. The fish have been at the 15 - 25 foot level for the most part. Make sure that you are there early as the bite has turned off by 7:30 a.m.. As far as gear goes an o/o, o, or 1 sized dodger in chrome, hammered chrome or chrome siler scalite finishes have been the attractor of choice. A small pink mini squid tied with double red 1/0 2/0 hook combinations, a bare hook leader consisting of red or black 1/0 - 2/0 hooks tied back to back or this same leader with a couple of small pink beads slid down the leader and topped with a Mac's pink smile blade have all been accounting for good catches. Fish your offering around 1 1/2 times the length of the dodger behind and fish slowly 1 - 1.2 mph. This will be just enough speed to get the dodger to slide slip side to side. The one thing that you want to due is to make sure to tip the front hook of your leader with a small piece of raw shrimp / sand shrimp. This little addition has proven to be the frosting on the cake, as far as productivity goes. You can also use a little krill scent for good measure. As the fish have been fairly shallow this season make sure to troll your gear a good distance behind the downrigger release, as gear fished close has definitely been far less productive that that fished 25 - 35 feet behind the release. This fishery has so far been quite good and should continue for quite some time. If you are looking for a great place to go camping and have some good fishing Baker Lake just might be your place.

Edmonds Coho Derby Tickets

We have recieved tickets for the every popular Edmonds Coho Derby being held on Saturday, September 10, 2011. Tickets are ready to be sold and as there are a limited number it would be best to get yours early before they are sold out! Don't take a chance of being disappointed by not being able to participate. This years coho run is expected to be outstanding by the WDFW. Tickets run $30.00 - Cash Only!
I will post a little more on the derby shortly.

Lake Chelan Reports - Darrel & Dad's Family Guide Service

What continues hot for the 6th straight week is trolling for Mackinaw on the Lake Chelan “Bar”. Also heating up is trolling for Sockeye Salmon below Wells Dam on the Columbia. We are continuing to troll for those Lakers in depths of 120 to 150 feet on the Bar just out from the Mill Bay boat launch. This pattern has worked for six weeks! Considering the unusual June and July weather, that is truly amazing! We have had consistent success pulling T4 and U20 flatfish in Purple Glow at 1.2 to 1.5 mph. Mack’s Lures Cha Cha Squidders in glow colors with a purple blade also worked fine. Additionally Silver Horde’s Ace Hi Fly in glow colors baited with a strip of Northern Pikeminnow also worked great. Don’t forget that you can add an Action Disk from Wigglefin.com to give all those squid rigs a bit of a different action. Big Smile Blades from Mack’s Lures are another fine choice. Although early and late in the day continue to be best, we have caught nice numbers of fish throughout the day. Salmon fishing has begun to heat up below Wells Dam although the Brewster Pool continues to be thin. The majority of the fish being caught below are delicious Sockeye. You can catch them by pulling Mack’s mini-Cha Cha Squidders baited with Pautzke Fire Cured Shrimp behind a 0 chrome or chrome scale dodger. Your fishing tip of the week is to remember etiquette when fishing below Wells Dam. It is a dense fishery with loads of current. Playing bumper boats is considered poor manners. Keep your setbacks very short. No more than 30 feet. Usually, 15 to 20 feet will work fine. Signal you intentions clearly to boats heading your way. Try not to weave. With the incredible amount of water being pushed down the Columbia, boat control can be difficult and tempers can flare. Your kids tip of the week is to remember that the vast majority of annoying misbehaviors by school age children are attention getting mechanisms. Try to use redirection instead of correction whenever possible to steer behavior in the correct direction. More importantly give those kids legitimate avenues for attention. I know, we are all busy. That undivided attention (right, without texting or reading emails) is an important investment. Your safety tip of the week is to pay close attention to fire safety now. Even though it’s been wet, we are moving into that late summer window where the fire danger becomes the greatest.

Anton Jones of Darrell & Dad's Family Guide Service (http://www.darrellanddads.com/ or (1-866-360-1523)

Pictured: 7/19/11 - The Evans and Ferguson parties with their pile of 32 Mackinaw from a two boat morning half day trip.

Also Pictured: 7/23/11 Keith Sims of Kirkland, WA with son Max (11) of Berlin, Germany and their mornings catch of Mackinaw. Max was getting ready to go back to Germany. They fished with friend Bob Uptagrafft of Everett (not pictured). Deckhand Jaime Abaraca helped them hold the fish up.

Whidbey Island Beach Fishing

The salmon fishing off the western beaches of Whidbey Island have started with a mix of resident coho, pinks and an occasional king salmon being caught. The beach fishermen that I have spoke with the past few days have all said that they have been seeing fish caught though nothing really outstanding at the present time. They have mentioned that the fishing has steadily improved since the July 16th opener. By this weekend we should be seeing good numbers of pinks hitting the beaches as there are lots of pink salmon in the Straits at the present time with Port Angeles being the eastern most area of prolific numbers. For the most part anglers are tossing pink Wannabees or #2 or 2 1/2 inch pink Buzz Bombs for the pinks and resident coho. The few kings that have been caught have been on Luhr Jensen 1 oz Krockodile spoons in chrome colors or pearl white (which they no longer manufacture).

Area 9 & 10 Salmon Reports

The salmon reports that we had out of Marine Areas 9 & 10 where in fact all accross the board this past weekend. We had reports of outstanding fishing from some of the customers and reports which brought the question, "Are there any salmon in the sound". Some of the best reports that we had came from the SE section of Jefferson Head. There were good numbers of kings caught here in the 90 - 180 foot depths. There were also a good number of resident coho caught incidental to the kings, these fish have been quite good size with a many of them around the 5 pound mark. The Richmond Beach area king fishing dropped off substaintially with even the good fishermen scratching perhaps a single fish for the mornings effort. Possession and Satchet Head likewise did not produre outstanding reports over the weekend. Most fishermen have been disappointed with the quality of fishing so far this season trying to compare it with the fantastic king salmon fishing which we had last year. There were a few pinks mixed in with the catches over the weekend but I would still have to say that we are perhaps a week to ten days off before we really have the herds of pinks in our area.

Pink Salmon - What's Happening

For those of you that are anticipating this years record pink salmon run, I am please to tell you that they are on the way. Though we have seen the first of the vanguard fish poking their way into our local waters over the past ten days or so, the bulk of the fish are still out in the Straits to the ocean. The boys at Port Angeles said that the numbers that they are catching off the PA spit has ramped up big time this week to a point that those who are targeting Chinook have found them to be a sore point of contention with the pinks grabbing just about anything that is presented in front of them. We have heard the beach fishermen off the west side of Whidbey have been getting greater number of pinks virtually every day. I would have to say by this next weekend we should be seeing good numbers of pinks in our local fishing area. Just a note - Remember that Areas 8-1 & 8-2 do not open up until August 1.

Baker Lake - Sockeye Reports

We have been receiving a number of Baker Lake Sockeye reports this AM, and it has been everything from skunked to limits depending upon whom you have spoke with. There were approximately 140 - 150 boats on the lake this mornings opener. I was not amazed with this number as I think we had half of them in the shop the past few days gearing up. The Noisy Creek area of the upper lake seemed to produce the best, with good numbers of fish schooled up here. The guys that caught good numbers of these 6 -7 pound fish did best first thing in the morning fishing down at the 25 foot depth range with pink mini squid behind a dodger. This fishery should continue to get better with the number of sockeye being trucked to the lake from the Baker River fish trap.

Sitka, Alaska - Kings and Silvers

For those of you that might be going to Sitka shortly here's a little report. Both the king and silver salmon fishing has been quite good the past few days. Even with the commercial salmon trolling season just finishing up there are still good numbers of fish around. The silver salmon fishing has been quite good in most of SE Alaska recently, everyone to whom we have spoken with the past week all report decent fishing. Though most sport fishermen do not really target the pinks of chums both species are quite numerous at the present time and do contribute to the action.

Here's a nice average Sitka king caught by Dave Hardy.

Kings To Close In Skykomish -Effective July 23

July 19, 2011
Skykomish River closes to chinook retention
Action: Close chinook salmon retention on the Skykomish River.
Effective date: July 23 through July 31, 2011.
Species affected: Chinook salmon
Location: Skykomish River from the mouth upstream to the Wallace River.
Reason for action: Chinook brood stock collection at the Wallace River Hatchery is well behind the goal of 3,200 fish. As of July 18, only 597 chinook brood stock have been trapped at the hatchery. The closure of the selective chinook sport fishery on the Skykomish River is necessary in order to fulfill brood stock collection requirements. If the brood stock collection goal is met prior to July 31, the Skykomish River selective chinook sport fishery may resume.
Other information: The Skykomish River from the mouth upstream to the Wallace River will still remain open for hatchery summer steelhead and all other game fish.
Information contact: Jennifer Whitney, District 13 Fish Biologist, (425) 775-1311, ext. 107.

Baker Lake Sockeye Season

For the second straight year, anglers will be able to fish for sockeye salmon in Baker Lake, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) announced today.
From July 23 until further notice, anglers can retain up to three adult sockeye salmon that exceed 18 inches in length from the log boom barrier at Baker Dam upstream to the mouth of the upper Baker River. All other salmon, as well as bull trout, must be released.
Brett Barkdull, a fish biologist for WDFW, said this year’s return is expected to meet spawning production goals. As of today, 8,285 sockeye had returned to hatchery facilities at Baker Lake.
“About 3,600 of those sockeye salmon have been released into Baker Lake,” said Barkdull. “We expect that number to continue to increase as we approach Saturday’s opener.”
Barkdull reminds anglers that the Baker and Skagit rivers remain closed to salmon fishing.
For more information on the Baker Lake sockeye fishery, check the fishing rule change at https://fortress.wa.gov/dfw/erules/efishrules/erule.jsp?id=1073. Additional information on Baker Lake sockeye is available on WDFW’s website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/salmon/sockeye/baker_river.html.

Baker Lake Sockeye Season

Though we have not heard officially, we have heard that the Baker Lake sockeye fishery will open this Saturday, July 23rd. Once I receive the official notice I will post all the particulars. This fishery was extremely popular last season and I am sure that it will be such again. These are without a doubt the largest & most prime sockeye to be caught in this state. The waters in which they travel are very cold making for a really prime fish. If you need any leaders tied or gear rigged let us know and we'll be glad to give you a hand.

Chelan Area Fishing Reports - Darrell & Dad's Guide Service

What still continues red hot is trolling for big Lake Trout on the Lake Chelan “Bar” early in the morning. We are trolling for those Mackinaw in depths of 120 to 150 feet on the Bar just out from the Mill Bay boat launch. The uplake half of that piece of structure has been absolutely loaded with quality fish the past few weeks. This pattern has been solid for over a month now. We have had consistent success pulling T4 and U20 flatfish in Purple Glow at 1.2 to 1.5 mph. Mack’s Lures Cha Cha Squidders in glow colors with a purple blade also worked fine. Additionally Silver Horde’s Ace Hi Fly in glow colors baited with a strip of Northern Pikeminnow also worked great. Don’t forget that you can add an Action Disk from Wigglefin.com to give all those squid rigs a bit of a different action. Big Smile Blades from Mack’s Lures are another fine choice. Although early and late in the day continue to be best, we have caught nice numbers of fish throughout the day.

Also continuing to provide entertainment for our deckhands is fishing a chunk of laker entrails from the dock to catch Northern Pikeminnow that you in turn can use to catch lakers. The great circle of life at work.

Fishing for Chinook and Sockeye Salmon has been slow off the mouth of the Okanogan River. The fish counts just aren’t there yet.

Your fishing tip of the week is to have that “ticker” going in your head. You should never leave an untouched presentation down there on Chelan for more than 45 minutes without checking it. You don’t want to be pulling a fouled up presentation around all day with no chance of catching a fish. You would be surprised at the number of guys that leave things down there for two or more hours. Also, if you are in an area for one and a half hours without a bite, you want to change something. That means either your location or your presentation. Remember, it’s a sucker bet to leave fish to find fish…

Your kids tip of the week is to remember snacks to keep the younger anglers from acting out. Doling out a favorite snack can stretch out the fun part of your fishing day and keep it from being an endurance contest.

Your safety tip of the week is to really pay attention out there. There are loads of people that are first time boaters. Don’t be afraid to slow down and give way to avoid collisions. This is our busiest time of the year. Summer in Chelan! Another day in paradise!

Anton Jones of Darrell & Dad's Family Guide Service (http://www.darrellanddads.com/ or 1-866-360-1523)

Pictured: 7/12/11 A group of players from the Seattle Mariners came out and caught a nice pile of Lake Chelan Mackinaw with us on the All Star Break! What a nice bunch of guys! They got the guides and the deckhands in the picture too!

Also Pictured: 7/12/11 Aaron Laffey of the Mariners with the big fish of the day, an 18.6 pound laker.

Finally Pictured: 7/12/11 - Brian Hale of Australia with a 16 pound late evening Lake Chelan Mackinaw

Point No Point - Mooching

We had some fairly good reports coming out of Point No Point fro the moochers this mornings out going tide. There were perhaps around 30 kings caught today by the mooching fleet. Not a bad showing overall. The tides will be ideal for tomorrow morning also.

King Fishing - Area 9

With Marine Area 9 and 10 opening locally today for retention of hatchery Chinook there were a multitude of anglers hitting the salt this morning. We have had a number of reports in this AM and to be quite frank the reports have varied tremendously. The ever popular Mid Channel Bank out of Port Townsend was quite a dud this morning. We have spoke with a number of our customers that were fishing there and everyone did not have a single fish on board and mentioned that they had only see a couple of fish caught for the 100+ boats. With the very poor results the number of boats fishing dropped quite rapidly either calling it quits or searching for a better producing area. We heard better, though not great reports coming from the Possession Bar area of south Whidbey Island with a number of our customers boating fish in the low teens to low twenties. This seemed to be the most popular area with some 300+ boats plying the waters. The Pilot Point/Apple Tree/Kingston side of the Sound produced fairly well early this morning. The vast majority of the folks we spoke with that were successful today were all towing plugs, either Silver Hordes of Tomics in a variety of Glow finishes.

Kokanee Fishing - Lake Stevens

With so much to do outside with salmon, steelheading and crabbing going on there has been little effort on the kokanee scene at Lake Stevens. The fishing has been very good for the few which have been giving the lake a try. I spoke with one of the regular guys this week that had fished on Wednesday and he and his partner managed to land 19 plump kokanee for their efforts. They found the fish at 60 feet and caught them fishing a small #14 Spin N Glo in Flour. Red with silver mylar wings fished in front of a pair of hooks baited with gulp maggots and white corn fished behind a Silver Horde Mini Dodger. The fish were in the 13 - 14 inch range and very plump. The fish are starting to show a little maturity.

New Item! Pautzke's Crab & Shrimp Fuel

Pautzke has just come out with a "New Item" for the crab and shrimp fisherman. It is called Crab and Shrimp Fuel. This product is an augmentation to your favorite baits to enhance the amount of scent that you put into the water. You can marinate your bait the night before with the Crab and Shrimp Fuel to make sure that it maximizes the penetration into you fish carcasses, turkey, chicken or bait pellets. The Fuel comes in quart containers and we are retailing it for $9.99.

Port Angeles Salmon Reports

Spoke with Norm Metzler this AM o find out whats going on in the PA area salmon wise. Norm said that the fishing has been quite good since the opener on July 1. He mentioned that the PA Spit as well as Freshwater Bay have been both putting out good numbers of nice Chinook. He said the largest hatchery king he has seen weighed in pushed the scale at 34 pounds. Most of the fish are in the low to mid teens to low twenties. He said with the numbers of dogfish in the area that most anglers are downrigger fishing trolling hardware with Hot Spot Flashers and Silver Horde Kingfisher of Coho Killer spoons being the most commonly used. As far as spoon colors go the Cop Car and Cookies and Cream finishes have both been producing quite well. This is a two hatchery Chinook limit area. I asked him if they have been getting any humpies as of yet and he said that they haven't, though he said that they should be seeing them any day as there are good numbers being caught in the Sekiu area.

Crabbing Reports

Overall, I would have to say that we have had nothing but stellar reports from just about everyone concerning the crabbing here in Puget Sound. The reports have been very good from just about everywhere. There have been a few folks that have have been complaining but they are the exception rater than the rule. There are a few areas where that tribal fisheries hit hard and they have been a little scratchy. If you check your gear and are not doing well "Move"! Some times you need to explore a little bit to find the right area or the correct depth. Make sure that you bait your traps well with good bait and make sure that you have weighted your pots to keep them put in place so that they do not move with the tides. Crab do not like to enter into a bouncing pot! We have lots of good crabbing in front of us, so get out there and have some fun!

Skokomish River Salmon Season Set

OLYMPIA – The recreational salmon fishery on the Skokomish River will get under way Aug. 1 downstream of the Highway 106 Bridge and Aug. 2 upstream of the bridge to the Highway 101 Bridge under regulations similar to last year.

State and tribal co-managers recently reached agreement on salmon fisheries in the river after several weeks of discussions, said Pat Pattillo, salmon policy coordinator for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).

Earlier this year, the state and Skokomish Tribe were unable to reach agreement on the fisheries during the annual salmon season-setting process, known as North of Falcon. Instead, the co-managers agreed to continue negotiating.

“While it took us a little longer than usual, we reached agreement on fisheries that meet conservation objectives for wild salmon and still provide meaningful opportunities for anglers,” Pattillo said.

Like last year, the daily bag limit on the Skokomish will be two salmon for anglers fishing from the mouth of the river to the Highway 101 Bridge through Sept. 30. Anglers must carefully release any wild chinook salmon they catch. They also must release chum salmon through Oct. 15.

Anglers will be required to release any salmon not hooked inside the mouth and must retain the first two legal salmon they catch. In addition, single-point barbless hooks are required and a night closure and anti-snagging rule will be in effect.

Pattillo said the Skokomish River from the Highway 106 Bridge upstream to the Highway 101 Bridge will be closed to recreational fishing on designated Mondays and Tuesdays to avoid potential gear conflicts with treaty tribal fishers. Those closures are scheduled for Aug. 1, 8-9, 15-16, 22-23, 29-30 and Sept. 6.

Recreational fishing downstream of the Highway 106 Bridge will remain open seven days a week through the fishing season.

For more information, see the fishing rule change at https://fortress.wa.gov/dfw/erules/efishrules/erule.jsp?id=1066.

Marine Area 10 - Salmon Reports

With the C & R fishery going on in Marine Area 10 in most of the area (make sure you know the closure areas)for Chinook salmon, we have been receiving some fairly good reports in the Apple Tree and Jefferson Head portions of the area. There have been some decent Chinook being hooked and released. Most of the fish that we are hearing of have been in the mid teens to mid twenties. There are a number of smaller Chinook feeders (Blackmouth) being caught and released also. Remember that resident silvers are fair game during this fishery as of July 1, most of them are smaller fish in the 18 - 22 inch range though there have been a few in the 4 - 5 pound range, which are darn nice resident coho for this time of the year. This area will open for hatchery Chinook retention on July 16.

Have a "Great" 4th of July!

Just a quick note to wish all of you a "Great" 4th of July! Hope that you are enjoying a nice day on the water with family and friends.

Chelan Fishing Report from Anton Jones - Darrell and Dads Family Guide Service

What continues red hot is trolling for Lake Trout on the Lake Chelan “Bar” early in the morning. Also hot was flyfishing Grimes Lake for nice numbers of quality sized Lahontan Cutthroat trout.

Troll for those Mackinaw in depths of 120 to 140 feet on the Bar just out from the Mill Bay boat launch. The lower half of that piece of structure has been absolutely loaded with quality fish the past few weeks. This last reporting period has got to be the absolute peak for numbers and big fish. I had a “career” half day trip where my customers got 17 fish in four hours with a total weight of 133 pounds! Every day has been good. We have had consistent success pulling T4 flatfish in Purple Glow at 1.2 to 1.5 mph off the outriggers. Mack’s Lures Cha Cha Squidders and Silver Horde’s Ace Hi Fly in glow colors baited with a strip of Northern Pikeminnow also worked great. Those downrigger presentations have been especially deadly early in the morning when we idle our troll to less than one mile per hour.

Casting a Worden’s Roostertail around the docks on Chelan can yield Northern Pikeminnow, Cutthroat trout or Smallmouth Bass. This early summer is a time when shore fishing Chelan can be productive.

On Grimes Lake, our guide, Jeff Witkowski has had great success fishing chronomids and pheasant tail nymphs. These are beautiful fish in a unique location.

The Upper Columbia opened for Chinook Salmon during the reporting period, but looking at the counts of fish over the dam, we are not very excited yet.

Your fishing tip of the week is to use “set tension” downrigger releases on Lake Chelan. We highly recommend Sam’s Pro Releases by Silver Horde. They are simple to use and very effective. “Set Tension” releases prevent false releases, allowing you to keep your presentation in the strike zone on Lake Chelan. This is especially critical when you are fishing extreme depths because you can spend a significant portion of your day resetting lines instead of catching fish.

Your kids tip of the week is to make sure you have comfortable like jackets for your little people. It is critical to you retaining your sanity. You don’t want to have the options of either a fussy kid or an unsafe / illegal situation.

Your safety tip of the week is to remember to stay hydrated. Water is your best bet. Those electrolyte replenishers are pretty good too. Summer in Chelan! Another day in paradise!

Pictures: 6/30/11 - Larry Seureau's 15 year old nephew from Wisconsin with a 20 lb 8 oz Lake Chelan Laker.

Also Pictured: 6/30/11 - Larry with his nephew with their total catch for a 4 hour trip. Our deckhand, Jaime Abarca (15) of East Wenatchee had to hold up the middle. It was 133 pounds of lakers...

Finally Pictured: 7/2/11 - Spencer Davis (12) of Schawana with a 25" Grimes Lake Lahontan Cutthroat trout.