[Hal C]

- Posted here with permission by Tony Floor and NMTA - The Northwest Marine Trade Association, the oldest and largest regional boating trade organization in the nation.



Welcome to 2011!



The calendar doesn’t lie. Without remorse, 2010 is history and hello, like it or not, meet 2011. I sense time is moving faster now and I’m barely hanging on as there is so much to do on and off the water.

It was only a month ago in this writing, I drew the fishing focus of attention to the winter season opening of the San Juan Islands for hatchery-produced chinook. The opener exploded with chinook salmon catches, throughout the Islands as anglers were blown away with the great fishing. I know, as I was there.

A sport fishing group in Friday Harbor, known as the San Juan Islands chapter of Puget Sound Anglers hosted the first ever Resurrection Salmon Derby, Friday and Saturday, December 3rd and 4th. Are you ready for this? Forty-seven boats entered this first time event and landed 120 fin-clipped, hatchery-produced chinook salmon. That is the definition of hot chinook fishing as it means nearly three chinook salmon per boat! And the fish were quality, with a 19-pounder producing a check for $10,000 for team Big Kahuna out of Everett. I was impressed. That 19-pounder made my 14 ½ pounder look like a trout. That’s okay. I’m betting mine tasted better based on mass passing out with friends and neighbors around my dinner table. I’m also betting it had nothing to do with the grape juice.

Since the opener in the Islands, fishing has remained hot despite blasts of arctic air coming down the Fraser River, and the monsoon conditions of rain and wind called the Pineapple Express courtesy of the south Pacific. Yes, it’s been tough to get on the water, any water during December in Puget Sound, with the exception of a bathtub. I don’t do bathtubs nor have I ever caught a salmon in a bathtub. Enough said.

[Captain Walker]

Watch for the next article from Tony about the Spring and summer salmon run projections.
_________________
Captain David Walker

Moderator, Boaters Line Moderator
dwalker@go2marine