Managers say this fishery is likely to be over quickly because of the relative low abundance of wild fish in the Snake’s 2013 run. Just 18,900 wild springs will be among the expected overall 58,200-fish return.

Anglers may keep one adult hatchery (marked) chinook and four hatchery jack chinook (under 24 inches in length) except in the area of ‘The Wall’ (vicinity of juvenile bypass facility/pipe)  at Little Goose Dam where the daily bag is one marked adult and one marked jack a day.

The take permit issued by NOAA Fisheries for this angling opportunity involving federally protected Columbia Basin salmon carries a maximum allowable mortality on wild fish that are hooked and released.  The assumption is that a certain percentage of the naturally bred fish die after their encounter with anglers and under terms of the ESA-driven recovery plan, the estimated total number of lost springs may not exceed a small pre-set percentage of the total wild run.

The three Snake reaches available to anglers are or will be:

• Below Ice Harbor Dam (from U.S. Highway 12 bridge upstream to 400 feet below Ice Harbor Dam) opening Friday, April 26.
• Below Little Goose Dam (from Texas Rapids boat launch upstream to the fishing boundary marker below Little Goose Dam including ‘the wall’ on the south shoreline at the Little Goose juvenile fish bypass facility opening Sunday, April 28.
• Below Clarkston (from the Steptoe Canyon Road and Highway 193 intersection upstream to the Washington/Idaho state line opening Sunday, April 28.

Anglers must fish with debarbed hooks, stop fishing when they retain their adult chinook and release unmarked chinook and all steelhead regardless of pedigree.

In addition, fishers must buy a Columbia River Salmon and Steelhead Endorsement to legally partake of this fishery. State managers point out that without the revenue from the CRSSE, which pays for federally mandated monitoring, this fishery could not be opened.

The post Snake River openings for spring kings starts today (Friday, April 26) appeared first on Whatcom County Outdoors Blog.

State fishery managers say the combination of angler take and mortality associated the hooking and releasing of wild fish they encounter in Washington northern inland waters has exceeded the pre-season guideline for the management zone.

Calculations indicate that as of the first week in April the total angler count (kept and released chinook) was estimated to be 4978 fish.

The so-called winter blackmouth fishing season of 2012-2013 closes Tuesday, April 30 in Marine Area 7 to reopen the first of July for summer salmon.

The post One salmon a day but not from greater Bellingham Bay appeared first on Whatcom County Outdoors Blog.

Washington State Department of Transportation maintenance crews from Skagit and Methow valley shops unburdening pavement on both sides of the summit were expected to link-up Thursday, April 11 just west of Rainy Pass.

But new snow slide accumulations that occurred Wednesday, April 10 on the Liberty Bell section of the highway will not be removed until Monday, April 15 when WSDOT avalanche specialists can return from Stevens Pass to safeguard workers doing the clearing.

Eastbound motorists may start queueing at the gate above Ross Lake at milepost 134 late Tuesday morning but there’s no word yet whether Tootsie Clark’s cinnamon rolls will be in the offing.

With this early opening motorists are advised to be prepared for more winter to happen on the route including snow and debris slides for the next few weeks.  Be sure to pack a survival kit (blankets, food, water, flashlight, flares and chains) and if a blockage is encountered either turnback to phone range to report it or move to location on the road that’s sheltered from slides and wait it out until clearing machines arrive.

The post North Cascades Highway set to open Tuesday, afternoon April 16 appeared first on Whatcom County Outdoors Blog.

Originally this change was to have taken effect the first of May, but since it is an annualized limit, state fisheries managers moved to synchronize it with the fishing license year, April 1 to March 31.

Anglers who obtained Washington catch record cards for the coming year before the new rule was enacted are reminded to ignore the three now-extra ‘kept’ sturgeon boxes printed on those cards. The department will begin issuing in a week or two revised 2013-14 CRCs with just two sturgeon spaces.

It also appears that retention of sturgeon has been or will be eliminated in many fishing venues including Puget Sound, its tributaries in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Washington Coast and the lower Columbia River. Catch and release may continue, though under previous restrictions.

All these rule changes are the result of concern over the continued decline in abundance of the lower Columbia River’s whites.

The reason for statewide application of these rules is that the biological consensus (from tag recovery data) is that there are three main Pacific Coast populations centering on the Sacramento, Columbia and Fraser rivers. Sturgeon caught anywhere along the coast and in other freshwater tributaries including Port Susan and the lower Stillaguamish River are likely to be wanderers from these three breeding centers.

Washington sportfishing regulations cycle comes full circle at the end of April when a new 2013-14 FishWashington regulations pamphlet will be released. Until then except for emergency orders the 2012-13 edition remains in effect and is available from any fishing and hunting license dealer or online at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/.

The post Two keeper sturgeon a year soon to be the limit appeared first on Whatcom County Outdoors Blog.

At a meeting set for Wednesday evening, March 27 in Colville (at the Ag Trade Center), WDFW regional and headquarters staff will outline their assessment efforts for deer, elk and other game animals in that area of the state that include regular population estimations and compilations of annual hunter harvest information.

They also will discuss wolf population dynamics here and reports coming from other western states relating wolf impacts to their deer and elk populations.

Washington wildlife managers hasten to add that they have yet to measure adverse impacts to this state’s deer and elk herds where wolves have established themselves.

The post Washington managers discuss wolf impacts in Northeast appeared first on Whatcom County Outdoors Blog.

The four-day series of morning openings (midnight to noon) are as follows:

• Thursday, March 28, minus 0.3-foot low tide is at 7:57 a.m., Twin Harbors only
• Friday, March 29, minus 0.6-foot low tide is at 8:40 a.m., Twin Harbors, Long Beach, Copalis, Mocrocks
• Saturday, March 30, minus 0.7-foot low tide is at 9:26 a.m., Twin Harbors, Long Beach, Copalis, Mocrocks
• Sunday, March 31, minus 0.6-foot low tide us at 10:16 a.m., Twin Harbors only

If you are 15 years of age or older, your 2013 licenses are good for this dig but on April 1 the new 2014 fishing and hunting licenses must be in hand. The daily limit is the first 15 razor clams that you take into your hand regardless of size and condition.

Tentative opening dates in April, along with morning low tides, are:

• Thursday, April 9,  Twin Harbors only
• Wednesday, April 10, Twin Harbors only
• Thursday, April 11, Twin Harbors only
• Friday, April 12, Twin Harbors, Long Beach, Copalis and Mocrocks
• Saturday, April 13, Twin Harbors, Long Beach, Copalis and Mocrocks
• Sunday, April 14, Twin Harbors, Long Beach, Copalis and Mocrocks

and

• Wednesday, April 24, Twin Harbors only
• Thursday, April 25, Twin Harbors only
• Friday, April 26, Twin Harbors, Long Beach, Copalis and Mocrocks
• Saturday, April 27, Twin Harbors, Long Beach, Copalis and Mocrocks
• Sunday, April 28, Twin Harbors, Long Beach, Copalis and Mocrocks
• Monday April 29, Twin Harbors, Long Beach and Mocrocks
• Tuesday, April 30, Twin Harbors only.

Washington hunting and fishing license purchasing options are available at https://fishhunt.dfw.wa.gov/

The post Spring razor clam digs slated, end of March, in April appeared first on Whatcom County Outdoors Blog.

The reason behind the closure is that Kendall Creek Hatchery has not yet received enough adult hatchery winter-run steelhead to make its 2012-13 egg-take goal and under Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife policy basin-to-basin egg transfers are no longer allowed between facilities to make up such deficits.

The two other north fork steelheading reaches remaining open to angling are from the hatchery boundary upstream to to Maple Creek and  the lower North Fork from its confluence with the South Fork upstream to Mosquito Lake Road bridge.

Open to the end of January are the Middle Fork Nooksack up to the City of Bellingham’s diversion and the South Fork Nooksack up to Skookum Creek and the mainstem Nooksack from the Lummi Nation Boundary up to confluence of the north and south forks.

The closure is scheduled to lift Friday, Feb. 1 allowing anglers to close out the North Fork’s season that under permanent regulations will end Friday, Feb.15.

The post Portion of North Fork Nooksack to close for 15 days appeared first on Whatcom County Outdoors Blog.

Customarily, the last release of the season _ at most Western Washington sites in most years _ is made Wednesday evening for next morning Turkey Day gunners to chase then and through the end of the month.

Whatcom Wildlife Area Manager Richard Kessler reports that he has birds sufficient to do a Wednesday, Nov. 21 evening release for Turkey Day gunners as well as one planting on the weekend thereafter.

Belinda Rotton, manager of Skagit Wildlife Area, says she also has enough birds for a Thanksgiving Eve release on the Bow Hill Designated Release Site in Skagit County, but no more at this time.

Both managers are awaiting word as to whether there are sufficient birds at the Bob Oke Game Farm in Lewis County for two complete weekend (Friday and Saturday) releases plus a mid-week plant just before the bulk of the westside season closes Thursday, Nov. 30.

EXTEND YOUR BIRD HUNTS

Upland bird gunners unwilling to call it a season at the end of November, have several options within striking of Bellingham.

These westside pheasant release sites are among those staying open an extra 15 days since there is virtually no chance there will be clashes on them between competing camps of disguised duck hunters and frenetic pheasant chasers.

COMING SUNDAY

For more details about plans for the end of the pheasant hunting season here and possibilities for stretching your upland options plus more fishing and hunting news, read the Outdoors Column in the Sunday Herald.

The post November’s end means traveling for birds appeared first on Whatcom County Outdoors Blog.

The other marine areas reopening then are 4 (east of the Bonilla-Tatoosh line), 5, 6, 8-1, 8-2, 9, 12 and 13.

All areas will be open to crabbing seven days a week until to Monday, Dec. 31 with five 6 1/4-inch wide male Dungeness and six 5-inch wide either sex red rock daily limits.

Only Puget Sound management zones in the vicinity of Seattle/Bremerton and Tacoma/Vashon will stay closed because their non-treaty sport catch quota was full harvested during the summer season.

Legal Dungeness crab kept between Oct. 13 and Dec. 31 must be recorded on the winter catch record card.

The mandatory report period will open for 31 days in January.

The post Personal use crabbing reopens in most inland waters areas appeared first on Whatcom County Outdoors Blog.

Targeted at Fish Lake, located five miles northeast of Cheney, will be an infestation of illegally released northern pike that have taken over these waters. Before the advent of pike dominance, fish and wildlife department records show Fish produced the most recent state record tiger trout, a 14-pound specimen. Fish also receives brook trout.

In Little Beaver Lake, one of a string of lakes along the Chesaw (Oroville-Toroda Creek) Road on the Okanogan National Forest, it’s yellow perch that are competing with what once was a good crop of eastern brook trout.

Burke Lake, one of four finger lakes in western Grant County south of Quincy, is managed by the department for an annual March 1 trout fishing opener. To that end, fingerling rainbow trout are released in early fall to grow through the winter in Burke’s seep-fed waters. Unfortunately, a bevy of competing fish species is stymieing this strategy, which, by the way, is a less costly way to provide trout fisheries.

If approved by the state fish and wildlife director, rotenone will be put into the lakes this fall. Prior to the onset of the project, the department often temporarily suspends bag limits to allow anglers an opportunity to take as many fish as possible before the waters are treated.

Comments on the proposal should directed to Bruce Bolding in care of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, 600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091.

The post Three eastside lakes proposed for treatment to oust unwanted fish appeared first on Whatcom County Outdoors Blog.