Posts Tagged ‘WDFW’
Well it’s been a long cold winter but spring has sprung and it’s time to get ready for LaPush Halibut.
I took a trip up recently to fish lings and rockfish just to get back out on the big ocean. It was a great day. Got our lings and a couple seabass, had great ocean conditions and even saw some transient Orca whales. I am including the video link, even though it is crappy, because these big guys were running and you don’t see that all the time.
I spent the winter upgrading the boat, pics to follow, and taking classes for my OUPV (captain) license. Exams were successful and I am now officially Captain Kerry W Allen. I am a Navy veteran, I have worked for the federal government for 25 years and I finally have a marketable skill. The jury is still out as to whether I will start chartering this year or next. Oh, and no I can’t marry people.
The new regs are out. Area 11 will be closed for Salmon during May but Lings will be open May 1st through June 15th. 26 to 36 inches.
We are planning several Ocean trips this year for Halibut, Tuna and maybe even a Salmon trip or two out of Westport. I will start sending the newsletter again soon to keep everyone up to date on what’s Happening.
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
I don’t know if others experience this but I seem to have a lot of smarty pants type people around me. I was supposed to go crabbing with my friend YT (pronounced whitee) on Sunday but I worked a little overtime so I didn’t get the boat back in the water. We were going to drop some pots at Quartermaster Harbor and troll around for a couple hours get some fat winter crab and go home.
Today is monday and I see YT and he says “we only got three crab” in that “ask me what else happened” kinda voice. So I say “but they were big fat nice ones, yes?”. He couldn’t hold it any more and told me he caught a nice 23lb Blackmouth while soaking the pots. Needless to say it didn’t take much prompting to get the rest of the story. 
He was fishing on the west side of Point Dalco, in about 100 feet of water. he was running a hot spot on the downrigger ball, with about a 4 foot leader, and a coyote spoon about three feet behind that off the release. I will try to post a pic of this rig in the future.
Good Job YT
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’s the end of October and that means some great fall fishing is coming to a close and with it goes the retention of wild kings and the ability to keep two Chinook. The good news is blackmouth season is upon us. My personal favorite Puget Sound fishery is blackmouth, or local kings, so I get very excited about this time of year. We are back to releasing wild Chinook (adipose fin in tact) and only keeping one Chinook but there are still some chum around and local coho to fill the two fish limit. And we will have winter crabbing in area 11 this year starting November 21st seven days a week til December 31st.
There is nothing like a crisp clear winter day, where the sun is out and the water is perfectly flat. There is very little competition for these fish so I am usually the only boat out, or one of just a couple. If I’m lucky I can get my buddy James or one of the other hard cores to go. We fish Blackmouth mostly at the tide changes, and hour before to an hour after. I’ll fish the Girl Scout Camp or Point Richmond on the in and Point Defiance on the out. Or Gig Harbor on either tide. There is a hump just north of the harbor that holds fish on the leeward side.
I troll between 2.5 and 3 MPH but will go slower if I’m running fat plugs like the Tomic Tubby’s. I usually run spoons or hoochies in green. I also have a couple Tomic Plugs one white and one green that work really well for Blackmouth. For instructions on rigging these check out my youtube channel. Don’t forget to subscribe. And you want to run this right on the bottom. usually if you run your downrigger ball the same depth as the water, or even a little deeper for the angle, you will usually be close enough. These fish are sitting on the bottom and feeding up.
Don’t forget to wear a life jacket when fishing in the winter and let someone know where your going and when you’ll be back. Unlike the summer, there aren’t a lot of other people around so a small mistake could be disastrous. Good Luck
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
I made my third Tuna trip Saturday. The first one we got three, two trolling and one on bait, but everyone was having to scratch for what they got. The second we were skunked and it was like fishing in the dessert. Turns out we missed them by about thirty miles.
Between the second and third I learned about “the slide”. 
This is the term used for the transition between trolling and bait. Simply when you hook up on the troll the trick is to turn the boat gently toward the hooked up rig and shut down, start throwing chum in the direction of the fish to try to bring the school to the boat. Some guys will cast swim baits or lead jigs to help with this.
So we goes out and starts to troll. We troll plugs because that is what worked before. We catch one right away, screw up the slide and they’re gone. We see jumpers occasionally but can’t get them to take (there’s a lesson here). We finally headed south to where someone said they were catching and tried there. As soon as we got there we hear on the radio someone is catching back near where we were. Crazy. Suddenly ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZing!! tuna on, port side!! I turn the boat a bit shut down and go back and start clearing gear. Meanwhile john is reeling in the troll fish and mike is throwing chum and rigging live bait. I get a chovie in and let him swim. a couple secconds go by and the chovie starts to wiggle, then the line just starts steadily running off the reel. I count to 5 and engage the drag and…….the fight is on. 
we get him in the boat and john hooks up another, then mike on a jig, I hook another and hand it off to Kevin. His fish runs under the boat and cuts the line on the trim tab. John catches one more and a few break off and get away. Then it just sort of shut off. we tried to troll around a bit more but it was late and we needed to get home so.
We had a lot of new experiences this time but the real lesson was when we saw the jumpers we should have slid up close and thew bait and them. Basically going strait to a bait stop without the troll. This is how several others were able to catch 25 or 30. Tuna lessons can be very time consuming, expensive and frustrating. But I have discovered a fishery that is absolutely addictive, that only a relative hand full of people participate in and (unlike Puget Sound Salmon) information is shared freely. There are no secret spots or special tactics. Everyone cooperates because there are lots of fish and the ocean is very big.
Another big shout out to all the guys on Bloodydecks.com for all the help.
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
Gig Harbor Fly Shop
Gig Harbor.com