WDFW
If you have fished around the Gig Harbor area for very long you know about Chambers Creek Hatchery. August is by far the best month to fish salmon around here and most of those fish come from Chambers Creek hatchery.
There is a dam at Chambers that was built a long time ago to provide water for the old paper mill that was closed in 2000. In the last couple years Pierce County and the Puyallup Tribe have spent over $13 million on upstream habitat restoration but as I have said a million times habitat means nothing if the fish can’t get to it. There has been one fish ladder in operation and the other was abandoned thirty years ago.
Enter the Chambers Creek Restoration Team. This is a group of volunteers that, with grant funding and technical assistance from the Puyallup tribe, have restored the second fish ladder and christened it on September 27th. While the hatchery kings will still be intercepted and the eggs used to replenish the hatchery, the new ladder will assist runs of coho and chum to get upstream to the habitat that has been restored. Which should mean increased runs of these species and that is great news for those of us that like to fish them in September and October.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
Yes boys and girls it’s time t o go a hunting the elusive wild dungeness crab. I get asked a lot where to go for dungees in this area. Here’s the deal. If you check out this map on Google maps you will see an area in Quartermaster Harbor that I like to crab but people crab all over that area. there are also crab in several other areas like Olalla, Ruston and north of Point Richmond. Use some kind of oily bait like cat food or Tuna. Turkey legs work well but I like to use my Salmon carcasses from the fish I catch. This keeps me from buying bait and allows me to transform more of the salmon into an edible form.
You also want to make sure you only keep legal crab.
For Dungeness it is males only and 6.25 inches inside the points. Males have a narrow triangle on their belly. like this:
Here is a helpful guide in the Reg book:
I’ll be out first thing in the AM. good Luck and Good Fishin’
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
The WDFW has seen fit to give us two more days to fish offshore for Halibut. May 31 and June 2. I can’t wait.
http://wdfw.wa.gov/news/may2312d/
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
WDFW sent me a note today with this years Halibut Openers. For LaPush, where I usually fish, it will be just as we suspected. May 10, 12, 17 and 19th these are Thursday, Saturday. If there is quota left there will be an open on May 31 or June 2. If there is still Quota left after that there will be periodic openers Thursdays and/or Saturdays till the quota is filled.
For the rest of the coastal Marine areas and the Puget Sound you can check the press release here.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
WDFW has approved razor clam digging for this weekend on four of the five beaches. Low tide for Friday is supposed to be around 4:30 so the best digging will start around 2:00pm. That means no lanterns no headlights just go get some!!!!
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
Ok, so I totally suck at this WDFW two cards for crab thing. And, honestly I think it is a setup. WD
FW figures if they can make it complicated enough lots of people will forget and next year they can get an extra $10 out of them. So much for my conspiracy theory.
I am writing this post to tell you all that I and my 12 year old daughter just turned in our winter crab catch to WDFW at this site. It was a great winter season.
Good Luck.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
WDFW gave us a little Christmas gift and opened crabbing in area 11. It will remain open until the end of December. In the last couple weeks we have caught good numbers of fat, hard shelled dungeness. The bodies on these winter crab are are jammed full of meat where in the summer a lot of them are soft and in the molting process. 
This is a good time to use those Tuna scraps you have left over from the summer. If you don’t have that Turkey legs, Salmon carcasses or heads will work and in a pinch you could even use good old Puss in Boots cat food.
Oh and Sportco has a great deal on crab pots at $15 for a nice box whith an opening top. Crabbing in Quartermaster Harbor has been a great time for the kids and I. We’ve even gotten some of our friends in on the fun.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
Hoping to go out to Ocean Shores to dig some Razor Clams on Friday. Assuming the weather cooperates. Thinking I’ll go around through Shelton to avoid the traffic. Tide is -2 at about 6:30pm so were hoping to get out there around 5ish load up and come home.
Ocean shores is open Friday but not Saturday. For full details on what is open and what isn’t check this link.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
It turns out there is more quota left so there will be some more Chinook retention in the ocean.
The rule now reads: Change daily bag limit in Marine Areas 1, 2, 3 and 4 to two salmon only one of which may be a chinook, release wild coho.
Effective dates are:
Sept. 5 through Sept. 30, 2011, in Marine Area 1 and Sept. 5 through Sept. 18, 2011 in Marine Areas 2, 3 and 4.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
Locations & Dates:
Area 1: from the Interstate 182 bridge in Richland (river mile 4.5) to 400 feet downstream of Horn Rapids (Wanawish) Dam (river mile 18.0); May 7 – June 15.
Area 2: from the Interstate 82 bridge at Union Gap (river mile 107.1) to the BNRR bridge approximately 500 feet downstream of Roza Dam (river mile 127.8); May 14 – June 30.
Daily limit of two (2) hatchery chinook. Minimum size – 12 inches. Hatchery salmon are identified by a missing adipose fin and a healed scar in the location of the missing fin. Wild salmon (adipose fin intact) must be immediately released unharmed and cannot be removed from the water prior to release.
In both areas, the use of two (2) fishing poles is permitted during the salmon fishery provided the participating angler has purchased a “Two-Pole Endorsement” (in addition to the freshwater fishing license and Columbia River salmon/steelhead endorsement).
Special rules apply. See the press release for details.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
Gig Harbor Fly Shop
Gig Harbor.com