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The Washington Fisheries folks came out with their official forecasts for salmon runs this summer. Good news overall. They are predicting one of the 5 best runs of chinook in the last 50 years. The Hanford Reach should have an even better run than last year with upriver "brights", somewhat misnamed! The pink run in the Puget Sound is predicted to be 6 million fish, down somewhat from the unbelievable 9 million 2 years ago, but if you are fishing where we do, Sekiu, there will be lots of the 14 million fish Canada is predicting for the Frazer River, in that many of them head up the Straits and then through the San Juan Islands. The coho fishing, which was good last summer, should be better this year with about 1/3 more fish. So, sounds like a great year! Mike
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Thats great news Kodiak , thanks for the report.......
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Sounds like a great forecast Mike. I'll be in Alaska fishing the second week of June so I'm not sure if I'll make it to Sekui this year, probably not with diesel expected to hit $5 a gallon by this summer. Oh well there's always Anderson Ranch LOL!!
Thanks for the report!
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i heard today that they are not expecting a lot of chinook to make it into the idaho area this year. that all the coastal runs will be phenomenal but inland is expected to be rough this year.
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There's going to be a lot of happy seals this year!
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Mike, I got a call last night from my buddy who lives up in Sedro Wooley and fishes the Skagit. He is all fired up about the reports. I usually go and fish for pinks in August but might have to make two trips and hit the silver run as well. I just wish there was a way to get over there without having to deal with the traffic in Seattle.
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If you want the scenic route, you can get off in North Bend and take the back road to Fall City - Carnation - Monroe. It isn't really faster and the roads are small and twisty especially by Fall City. If you are towing think -- sharp hairpin180 degree turns. It can also be very bad if there is snow or ice. Don't take it in the winter at all. Check it out carefully on Google Earth.
At Monroe you can decide if you want to go on over to I-5 or take highway 9 on up. I know that 9 is getting busier all the time so I don't know how bad traffic is there.
Enjoy your trip!
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yeah, I used to go to Seattle and take the ferry over to the Peninsula, and then head out to Sekiu. However, I can't afford the ferry any more with a boat attached, so I head down to Tacoma and head up the other side of the Hood Canal. Almost as fast. Hope the pinks continue coming in as large as they have been. Lots of fun on lighter tackle. I always get a kick out of the folks out there fishing with what looks like about 10 pounds of Penn Reel attached to a pole that looks more like a broom stick! However, we will be over there hopefully when the king season is still on, so we will probably take over different weight outfits. Mike
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Another option is going over highway 2 from Wenatchee.
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I wonder if they are making Salmon forecasts off of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation model... which basically has strong La Nina conditions correlated with higher salmon returns.
Link for the science geeks: http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/research/divis...ca-pdo.cfm
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[quote cpierce]Another option is going over highway 2 from Wenatchee.[/quote]
thats a long, but really pretty way. i am contemplating heading up the Snoqualamie this year. if i went up that way i wouod get stuck fishing the columbia also.... oh the shame!
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Frankly I think the seal population do more harm to the salmon and steelhead runs than the dams do. It is a slaughter going to or from the ocean!
Koch, So much water to drive by, and it is so hard to decide. Don't forget the Yakima too!
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[quote rodngun762][quote cpierce]There's going to be a lot of happy seals this year![/quote]
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I HATE sea lions....why we cannot shoot them is just messed up. [url "http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/research/divisions/fed/oeip/ca-pdo.cfm[/quote]"][/quote][/url]
Lost so many fish to seals and sea lions when I used to fish off the piers in Puget Sound. Cast a four ounce lure all morning, hook one fish, lose it to a damn seal and have nothing to show but a sore arm.
If you're driving to the Washington coast and driving on I-90, you can avoid the Seattle traffic mess by getting off on Hwy 18. It goes all the way down to Federal Way. Nice two lane highway with no nasty hairpin turns. You still have to deal with Tacoma/Olympia traffic, but at least you can skip the twin headaches of 405/I-5.
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Yep, Stacy, that's the route I take. I figure that by the time you wait for the next ferry, and the half hour crossing time, I can drop down to Tacoma and head up the west side of the Hood Canal in just about the same time, assuming, as you point out, that the Tacoma traffic isn't too bad. The nice thing about fishing Sekiu, as I have for over 40 years, is that I have never lost a fish to seals or sea lions. Across the Straits from Sekiu, in Victoria, the seals are much more clever. They just wait at the cleaning stations, and wait for the egg clusters and other tasty tidbits to hit the water. Canadian seals are apparently either smarter or lazier!! Mike
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[quote StacyR]
Lost so many fish to seals and sea lions when I used to fish off the piers in Puget Sound. Cast a four ounce lure all morning, hook one fish, lose it to a damn seal and have nothing to show but a sore arm.[/quote]
We were crabbing from the docks in Westport a few years ago. Kept losing bait and finally spotted a pair of eyes 50 yards away watching us. I went up to town and got some bait boxes and tied them into our crab rings. Ha ha. Dropped them down, the eyes went under, a while later I pulled up destroyed or missing bait boxes. I vote against seals, too.
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