Lower Skagit to offer a sockeye fishery

Chinook usually get the headlines, but according to regulations released recently by the state Fish and Wildlife Department, sockeye may edge out their larger cousins as the stars of this summer's Western Washington salmon fisheries.

Predictions for a strong Baker River run of the smallish but high-quality salmon have resulted in a new fishing opportunity on the lower Skagit River, June 16 to July 15, with a daily limit of three sockeye. The river will be open from the Memorial Highway (Highway 536) bridge in downtown Mount Vernon, up to Gilligan Creek, about three miles above Sedro-Woolley.

State biologist Brett Barkdull in the agency's La Conner .... http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20120419/SPORTS/704199956/0/sports01