Kennedy Creek

Been years sinceI have headed out to Kennedy for chum. Saw that it was opened under a ereg so I think I'll try this afternoon before the next round of rain.

Today it was certainly not worth it. Saw, maybe, one live fish and three carcasses. Creek was shallow but there were deep areas for fish of there were any. Saw three other anglers who all had the same experience; maybe one fish seen.

On the other hand, it was a nice sunny day, saw a Bald Eagle and a Bufflehead. And got some casting practice.

Did you see any cutthroat jumping or dimpling on the surface while there?
SF

Nope. The one fish I saw may have been a cutt but it seemed too large so I assumed it was a chum. Just a bit of action in a deep run.

Thanks for the reply. There should be some around there. The cutt fishing in the south sound and on the canal has been pretty good the past month or so.
SF

Based on what I saw in Kennedy there wasn't much for chum eggs or carcasses there. As I recall, the run used to ending now on Kennedy so I wonder if the cutts have moved towards Skookum, which is a later timed return.

I have hear that Skookum is the largest spawning area for south sound Cutts. Is there anywhere to fish around the mouth or is it all private?

Don't know about access but it is probably a lot private. Skookum did host a lot of spawners when I was working. They have tons of chum to consume, too.

Little Skookum Inlet is, indeed, a good spot, for cutts and chums. Trouble is, since the Port Blakely access got sold to the Squaxin Tribe, there is no public beach access. Another boat-only South Sound fishery now....

It would be cool to see Kennedy Creek make a comeback, but it seems pretty darn unlikely. Such a beautiful estuary, though....

I remember that the chums were way down in the 80s. The commercial fishery was tweaked and numbers jumped back up a bunch. Wonder if they have gone back to hammering them off if the creek itself has issues now.

It has been kind of an odd year for chums.
I saw good numbers of coho, but hardly any chums at places I like to fish cutts. On the canal, the hatcheries got chums back but I saw hardly any around the creek mouths I like to fish. Some chums, but not nearly as many as I usually see.
SF

There is that PS even/odd variation in wild chum that seems tied to competition with pinks. Abundant pink fry may generally overwhelm the chum fry. The impact seems to fall hardest on the earlier returning chum stocks. Hood Canal, where the big chum hatcheries are, doesn't really do well with pink.

Good point about the lower chum numbers on odd years.
The creek below my house has chums. They are usually close to being done by now, but some showed up this weekend. They had over 1K return last year according to the stream stewards. Not sure what the number are this year, but I don't think they hit that mark this year.
Summer chum numbers were down compared to last year on one of the streams they monitor. Cutt fishing has been decent.
SF

Another interesting aspect of even-odd chums in PS, at least according to WDF's chum bio (when they had one) is that the even year brood returns primarily as 4s, with some 3s and 5s. The odd-year broods return as 3s and 5s with some 4s. An evolutionary attempt to avoid pinks.

It’s always interesting to see the variations each year as to when the majority of chum fry show up. There has been a lack of them in the areas I’ve fished on the canal recently even though summer chum streams are nearby. I saw zero fry on Saturday. I saw only a few small schools on Sunday. The fish are still eating fry patterns though. We should get a big push here shortly. Haven’t seen any pink fry either but I’m sure some are around.
SF

WA has a big even-odd swing in chum production. Even years have way more spawners which should mean for chum fry in odd years. The pinks make up the difference in spring of even years. With the changes in flows, especially late summer droughts that we see in rain-driven systems the survival egg-fry might not have been as good.

I’m looking forward to the 15 million fry they release from Hoodsport plus half a million pink fry, not to mention the other facilities that release fry.
SF