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Intercept Green-bound kings in Elliott Bay
Washington fishing map feature
By Joel Shangle
It's a part of Puget Sound Salmon mythology that dates back well before the 1852 settling of the Seattle area and the old "Potlatch Meadow," to the ancient fishing encampments of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. In other words, Elliott Bay chinook have been part of Seattle since long before there was a Seattle.
With Seattle as his backdrop, Rami Awad stuck this limit with a flasher
and squid on a gorgeous morning in 2003.
But the Elliott Bay summer chinook fishery circa 2005 is all about modern Pugetropolis, with shining skyscrapers, massive cargo barges and all the trappings of 21st Century industry melding into the landscape of perhaps the greatest metropolitan fishery in the country. Winding through it all — in an uninterrupted lineage that has survived urbanization and modernization — are the fish: big, bright chinook bound for the Green River and its tributaries. They're fish that hover in the bay in a sort of summer "transition mode" between the salt and their final, natal freshwater destinations in the mainstem Green, Soos Creek, Icy Creek, Newaukum Creek and the like. And for the next several weekends, they're available to the trollers, moochers and jiggers of Seattle, many of whom who have been fishing Elliott Bay for longer than I've been alive. "I've been fishing it for 53 years, to be precise, and maybe someday I'll get it all figured out," said Tom Nelson of Salmon University of the July/ August Elliott Bay fishery. "It's a different fishery today than it was back when I first started, for obvious reasons: Back then, there were no downriggers, so you mooched. And back then, the guys who knew how to fish didn't have any problem getting their three-fish limit. Today, the runs have fallen off, it's a one-fish limit, and you're lucky to get that. But it's still Elliott Bay — it's still a great Seattle fishery." Elliott in '05 The Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife felt so good about the 11,000-plus wild chinook projected to return to the mainstem Green River this year that they opted for a Sept. 1 king opener in the river, the first such opportunity on this Seattle urban fishery in several years. An additional 12,000 hatchery fish bound for Soos Creek and Icy Creek boost the projected total for the Green system well over 20,000 fish this summer, which should bode well for Elliott Bay.
Salmon in the City 2005.
"We have a little more confidence that we're doing OK in the Green," said Pat Patillo, WDFW's Salmon program coordinator. "Over the past few years, we've probably been a little more cautious than we needed to be about the Green River system. But this year, we feel like we're going to have more fish than the Rbottom line', which is the spawning escapement goal. So, we were able to be a little more generous with the season." As a consequence, the Inner Elliott Bay summer fishery opens July 8, a full week before last year, and is penciled in for a noon Aug. 22 closure. And unlike 2004, when you could only fish three days a week, the 2005 regulations allow sport anglers to fish from Friday through Monday (a total of 28 days). "The peak of the run is going to be somewhere around early August," said Patillo. "Yes, you'll see some fish in the bay in early July, but it's still early. If you're fishing up in the Strait, in Sekiu, in July, you're fishing the front end of the mature chinook bound for Puget Sound. It'll build from there into July, but the peak is probably around the first week in August." Net worth Sport anglers setting their July and August Elliott Bay fishing calendars should first note the following dates: July 20, 27, Aug. 4 and Aug. 17. The first three dates are test fishery dates for the Muckleshoots, and the last date is for the first scheduled full-on tribal net fishery that'll see a full cadre of nets in the bay from 8 p.m. on the Aug. 17 to 8 a.m. on Aug. 18. The Aug. 4 test fishery in particular — a Thursday — could put a damper on the subsequent weekend's sport bite. "A key is going to be when the Muckleshoots operate their fisheries," said Nelson. "For the Thursday night tribal fisheries, you can pretty well kiss off Friday. You can expect some fish in there on Saturday, and it should be OK to fish on Sunday and Monday."
Bay's best bets The drag-the-bottom mentality you honed during winter blackmouth seasons won't do much good in Elliott Bay. These are mature chinook that spend a majority of their time suspended at differing depths. There's no "magic depth" ala the 120-foot blackmouth range, and no "chinook fishing for dummies" bottom contour to hug with your downriggers. "These fish are not at all like winter blackmouth," confirms Nelson. "They're not on the bottom. They could be at almost any depth, and they like to suspend. Your best bet is to pick a depth between 60 and 85 feet and go with it. Early in the morning, before the sun rises, you'll want to fish as shallow as 30 feet. But as the sun starts to peek over the horizon, you want to start dropping 5 feet every half hour." Riggin' right Nelson might have grown up mooching, but you'll see his big North River Seahawk bristling with downrigger booms when he's fishing Elliott Bay. And you'll likely see him skirting the established trolling paths in 100 to 150 feet of water in front of the East Waterway — all the way to the ferry dock — and along the waterfront in front of Salty's restaurant in 100 to 150 feet of water. He'll hit the downrigger fishery hard early in the morning, and later in the afternoon, which are by far the best times to fish the bay. "The fishery is pretty much over by 10 o'clock in the morning," he said. "It'll pick back up at about 6 p.m., but it's pretty tough to catch anything while the sun is directly overhead. I don't know exactly why that's the case, but I do know that you'll do a heck of a lot better when the sun is slanting into the water. As it gets later in the evening and the light fades, you'll want to bring your gear up shallower, just like you would in the morning." Typical downrigger options include green spatterback and pearl white hoochies, pearl/white or dark green Silver Horde plugs, or green/glo spoons. Mucho mooching Moochers and jiggers should pay close attention to one credo: the closer you can get to shore, the better. Some of the best mooching and jigging in this fishery comes in the shadow of the various vessels moored around the perimeter of the inner bay. "You have to be careful about getting close to Navy ships, but chinook will go up under the big barges and hide," said Nelson. "Moochers and jiggers can go right under the big barges and pick up fish. Trollers can troll around (barges) and get chinook to come out and whack 'em, but the moochers and jiggers can get closer because they don't have to worry as much about tangling up with anchor cables."
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