Unusual Fish Caught in Marine Area 9

I was out at PNP this morning trying my luck fishing for Coho. Nothing all day until about noon I was talking on the phone to NickD90 about his day on the water when a fish drilled a guys lure 4ft from shore. He quickly drug it up and I went back to fishing thinking the bite turned on. He called over to me and when I looked up he was standing over the fish very confused. I walked over and he asked what the hell it was. I went thru my check points to determine and it wasnt coho or king. Upon further investigation it turned out to be a 10lb Male Steelhead and a hatchery one at that. Has anyone else ever heard of catching Steelhead out of Marine Areas or am I just that new? Should have gotten a picture!

Do a google search for Whidbey beach steelhead and this is the first result.

http://www.piscatorialpursuits.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/84118/Whidbey_Steelhead.html

I used to fish Ft. Casey about 20 or so years ago in November and December when the rivers were blown out. Caught a few steelhead using the same setup described in the link but never fished it consistently enough to really figure it out. I always thought trolling the shoreline like you would for sea-run cutthroat using the beach rig would work well for saltwater steelhead.

Caught a couple in the salt in Alaska, none in WA.

Yea the guy was fishing a white UV hoochie type jig off the bottom. . I was surprised he caught any thing honestly. I was fishing buzz bombs, spoons, and mooching herring all morning with no luck. Wasnt much else I could throw out there. And I caught bull heads is all...

Had a vacation house in Lagoon Pt. on Whidbey island in the 70's and caught Steelies from beach using orange wing bobbers and pink/red hootchies

I heard 28" searun cutts can be caught out your way. Well at least according to one board member

Why did the guy keep a fish that he didn't know what species it was? Seems to me it should have been IDed before he bonked it.

Bonk first, check species later.
A common beach occurrence which I'm sure you've seen before with the amount of time you spend on the beaches.
Last year blackmouth became humpies and humpies became kings.......

I don't see anything in the post that confirms the fish was even retained.

It was retained the guy smacked realized it was a King and then the other 2 guys with him (all older guys, 60s) said you better go hide that thing I dont know if we have the license for it.. (which they did) but seemed shady

So was it a steelhead, king.....geoduck?

It was defiantly a buck Hatchery Steelie

Chinark.

Agreed....first it was a steelhead, then it became a retained realized shady king after it got smacked, now it is back to a steelhead.

Sounds like a Chinark for sure.

Shapeshifters, those Chinarks.

It was a very nice looking hatchery brat and fairly unusual for our beach (Pt. No Pt.) only 1 caught every few years or so over the past 40 years I've fished it. The older gentlemen in their 60's are friends of mine and quite long term residents to the area have caught several thousand fish off that beach as have I since in my teens. They had a little different version of the story but over all have helped many Tourist Fishermen ID and educate them on proper handling and/or release from the beach. It has always amazed me the lack of Steelhead there compared with the high numbers just 6-8 miles North on the Whidbey shoreline.

July fishing has become pretty much a bust over the past 10 years with the huge decline in Resident Coho once so abundant in the area. In the late 70's to mid 80's it was a reasonable expectation to hook into 15-20 one to four pound Coho in a few hours of the outgoing tide. There have been a few nice 3-5 pounders caught in the past week even a 5lb hatchery by a neighbor of mine there last Sunday. Looking forward to Chinook showing up a little later though will probably be a very short sport season in the Southern part of #9 this year. More Chinook this year than last = less Sport Fish Quota = hmmmmm.........


Cheers, Todd

Thanks for setting the record straight and the history lesson.

Likewise. Thanks for clearing up the fish ID.
There are some great oldtimers that fish there. I've learned a lot from them over the years.
I miss old John who used to fly & gear fish there. He could predict the bite even while relaxing in his lawn chair.

I agree the July resident coho fishing is a shadow of it's former self.
I remember many july days in the past watching sandlance jump onto the beach with coho in hot pursuit.
SF

Along the same line of thought I have asked several folks both with the State and on the PSRFE group exactly how the additional 250K Chinook that are supposed to come out of the Wallace River hatchery (deal that was cut with the Tulalip tribe whereby they got additional eggs) will improve our opportunity. Being absolutely reckless I asked if it might result in opening 8-2. Apparently that is not on the radar. What I did get back was a rather generic response that more hatchery fish makes it less likely that ESA fish will be hooked thereby allowing for an extended season. Or something to that effect which included references to the NOF process.

I keep waiting for someone in an official capacity to say "See, with those additional Wallace fish your marked selective season will be extended." And I keep waiting and waiting......

Oh, and further critical thinking is to ask why WDFW enters into that type of agreement without first having negotiated some form of quid pro quo regarding use of the State's share rather than have to battle for those fish later during NOF.

Maybe WDFW needs to suggest that failure to obtain tribal agreement on the PNP launch permit may put the Wallace deal in jeopardy.