Skagit fishing season follows upward trend of sockeye recovery
Washington Fish and Wildlife opened a portion of the Skagit River to sockeye salmon fishing last week, as the recent trend of a rebound of the Baker River run continues thanks to co-management of the resource by the state, tribes and Puget Sound Energy.
The opening, which runs through July 31, includes the stretch of the Skagit from the Highway 536 bridge in Mount Vernon to the Dalles Bridge in Concrete. The salmon travel the Skagit on their way to Baker Lake via the Baker River.
Matthew Bogaard, a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife fisheries biologist and the statewide species specialist for chum, pink and sockeye salmon, said the estimates are for a return on 70,861 sockeye this summer. Last year was a record return of close to 92,000 fish, he said.
The numbers are impressive given that returns of as few as 100 fish were recorded in the 1980s, Bogaard said.
Bogaard attributes the success or rehabilitation efforts for the run to the building of the “trap-and-haul” system that gets the returning salmon over dams and into Baker Lake to either spawn in the lake and its tributaries or be harvested at a hatchery. Another factor Bogaard cited for contributing to the health of the run is the system of “floating surface collectors” that trap salmon fry so they can be transported downstream past the dams for their outward migration to the sea.
Scott Schuyler, Upper Skagit Indian Tribe natural resources and cultural policy representative, said the tribe has been working on the restoration of the run since 2004 when Puget Sound Energy sought to relicense its two Baker River hydroelectric dams.
“Culturally, it was — and is — a significant issue for us. We took the position that hydropower had contributed to the demise of this important sockeye run, and hydropower will now contribute to its recovery,” Schuyler said.
He said the tribe’s initial goal was for a run of 75,000 to 100,000 fish. And 20 years later, they are hitting that goal.
“It’s going to be another great year, a celebration for our people — not only because we get to catch the fish but because we get to return to our ancestral home, the Baker River Valley, to catch them.
“I can tell you that most tribal members that know how to can salmon are preparing for that right now,” Schuyler said.
The Swinomish Tribe is also a party to the co-management effort.
The daily sockeye limit for anglers in the opened section of the Skagit is four fish, with a minimum size of 12 inches. Any Dolly Varden/bull trout or other species of salmon must be released.
For anglers looking to try their luck in the Skagit, the folks in the fishing department at Yeager’s in Bellingham recommend plunking with either Spin-N-Glos or sand shrimp.
Baker sockeye aren’t the only big rehabilitation success in the area, according to Bogaard. The Nooksack River has seen a growing chum salmon run in recent years thanks to hatchery efforts there.
— By Bob Payne
Bob Payne is a copy editor, internet producer and writer with a long career in Pacific Northwest media. He’s worked for Oregon Public Broadcasting, The Seattle Times and The Herald in Everett. He grew up in Alaska though, where he spent his summers catching salmon and trying not to get eaten by grizzly bears. He currently lives in Seattle.