OUTDOORS: A smaller king still reigns supreme

What seems like an inordinately small top money fish in a salmon derby hereabouts is in fact just a product of the times in which we fish.

But though the overall biggest fish caught in the San Juan Islands last weekend wasn't going to win the Roche Harbor Salmon Classic, it apparently didn't detract from drama of the unfolding three-day event or ultimately the thrill of grasping the victor's cash.

Bellingham angler Jason King's 16.6-pound blackmouth proved to be the biggest chinook entered in the ninth annual San Juan Islands fishing contest. It edged out the next two entries that tied for second place by 1/4 of a pound.

For King and his three fishing partners, Eric Pedersen, Jim Fowler and Josh Kujawa, the king salmon garnered a cool $16,700 in cash winnings. That's $10,000 first prize from the derby and another informal winner-takes-all $100 side bet kitty anted into by 67 of the contestant boats in the event.

State fishing regulations say that all wild chinook salmon, those possessing their adipose fins, must be released alive and unharmed when caught this time in Marine Area 7.

This important rule applies to all anglers and derby organizers are obliged to follow suit and disqualify any non-marked fish.

The fish that are targets of salmon questors are products of artificial production in a hatchery, most likely in Washington state, where just prior to their release as tiny juveniles they had their inconsequential adipose fins snipped off. For the rest of their lives the missing fin marks them as eligible for harvest from waters where wild origin fish are golden (protected) and have to be released and unharmed.

King said that right away from the dock Friday morning (Day 1 of the derby) they were 'in the fish' on the northeast side of Waldron Island.

Fishing at various depths with cut-plug herring on a short tide, they brought to the boat and set free three native kings in the 18- to 24-pound range, he said.

Just after 9:40 a.m. they hooked first one chinook, then a second fish hit as King was pulling up gear on another downrigger. This doubleheader yielded the eventual winner, but at the time King said he didn't think much of the middling king and slipped it into a plastic bag and onto ice in a chest.

Experienced anglers know that salmon, though actually dead, live on in one sense in that they shrink in weight post-mortem.

Later Friday afternoon after checking derby updates on Facebook, King said he suddenly realized that he might have a money fish in the 16-plus pounder, so he exercised his absolute authority as captain of his boat and headed for Roche Harbor, despite protests from his partners who wanted to keep their lines in the water.

Catching the leader fish on Day 1 of a multi-day fishing contest always has its attendant afflictions, in this circumstance a case of butterflies as well as an involuntary compulsion to repeatedly check social media sources or glance at the leaderboard when back at the dock.

Fishing hard to catch a bigger keeper fish on Saturday and Sunday helped and there were other targets such as total boat weight prize for which they could gird themselves.

But, King said, even though they hooked into more salmon, none surpassed the original, so it became a matter of simply waiting nervously as the clock ticked ever-so-slowly down to the event's end.

King said that landing the money fish is the culmination of his angling aspirations.

"I feel fortunate to live in this area, being able to fish," King said. "This is a life-long dream, something to mark off your bucket list."

As for his protesting crew of salmon fishing partners, they went home happy, too.

In the best tradition of sharing on-the-water-gotten bounty, after gratefully tipping the Roche Harbor derby folks, King said he divided the remainder of his boat's $16,700 total winnings into four equal purses and parceled them out to his mates.

After all, it was a team effort that won the derby, King said.

MORE 2012 SALTWATER DERBIES

Roche Harbor Resort's winter blackmouth set-to is the first in an annual series of 14 saltwater fishing derbies organized under the aegis of the Northwest Marine Trade Association's Northwest Salmon Derby Series.

This year the NSDS calendar includes four pre-spring closure (May 1 in many marine areas) events including the upcoming Discovery Bay (Feb. 18-20), Everett (March 17) and Anacortes (March 31-April 1) contests.

When saltwater salmon angling resumes in July in many inland waters locales, Bellingham PSA's event (July 13-15) heads the list of summer/fall derbies with four more contests in August, three in September and one each in November and December.

Contestants in each of these events, besides vying for the cash and prizes in their chosen individual derby, are also entered in NMTA's annual sport fishing boat package giveaway, a drawing that occurs each September. Anglers fishing in later contests are entered in the coming year's boat lottery.

A relative newcomer to the series itself is the December event headquartered in Friday Harbor, sponsored by the Puget Sound Anglers chapter there.

Known as the Resurrection Salmon Derby, its promoters have a goal of enhancing salmon fishing in the San Juan Islands. Last year after clearing the cash prizes the PSA chapter donated $6,900 to the nonprofit organization Long Live the Kings which operates a private salmon hatchery at Glenwood Springs on Orcas Island.

LEGION SALMON CONTEST NEXT WEEK

There's another less well-known winter fishing contest in the San Juans, but nonetheless it benefits an equally worthy cause.

American Legion Post 93 on Orcas Island holds its 33rd annual salmon derby, open to all comers on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 18-19. Tickets are $50 per person for the two-day event and entry forms are available online at orcaspost93.org/events/fishingder

by. Participants must be registered by midnight Friday, Feb. 17.

Top chinook earns $1,100 with another $2,600 in cash awarded as well as an array of door prizes for derby entrants.

They also host $8-a-plate dinners Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the derby at the post located at 793 Crescent Beach Drive in Eastsound.

The event is held in conjunction with the post's membership drive Saturday and all proceeds clear of prizes go to the post's high school/college scholarship fund.

For more details, call 360-376-4689 (Bob) or 360-376-3432 (Steve). The post's telephone number is 360-376-4987.

BARKLEY SOUND BOUND

The how-to's of fishing British Columbia's picturesque Barkley Sound will be discussed at the monthly meeting of the Bellingham Chapter of Puget Sound Anglers Wednesday, Feb. 15.

Mark Schinman of the Anacortes Chapter of PSA has been making pilgrimages to Barkley for its saltwater fish bounty for 26 years. In his multitude of trips he's learned the ins and outs of getting to this popular, yet still relatively remote side of Vancouver Island not to mention, once there, fishing safely and successfully.

In his presentation, he'll discuss details of both the overland approach (via ferry) options as well as his own on-the-water route to get out to the fishing village of Ucluelet.

And among the myriad things it's helpful to know before you go, Schinman also will describe weather and water conditions and how a reliable onboard radar set and GPS can be your best friends when fishing the real hotspots offshore.

Other essentials in his talk include tried and true terminal tackle rigs and Ucluelet's best places to stay and dine.

Bellingham PSA meets the third Wednesday of each month in the upstairs dining room at Nicki's Bella Marina Restaurant at Squalicum Harbor.

Programs start at 7 p.m. preceded by a no-host dinner at 6 p.m.. Everyone is welcome, you need not be a member of PSA to attend.

The club annually hosts the Bellingham PSA Family Salmon Derby right after the opening of the summer season. This year's contest is July 13-15. For more details about Bellingham's contest and links to other PSA activities, log on to bellinghampsa.com/derby.htm.

SOL DUC PROGRAM TAKEN OFF LINE

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has designated the Olympic Peninsula's Sol Duc River a wild steelhead sanctuary and has ended a 25-year cooperative wild steelhead augmentation program there.

Supported by the Olympic Peninsula Guides' Association, the Snider Creek project, annually produced both winter and summer run steelhead smolts for release into the Sol Duc, which is a major feeder stream to the Quillayute River.

Department officials and the coop group are exploring ideas for moving production releases to the neighboring Bogachiel and Calawah rivers, also tributaries of the Quillayute.

STILL CAN KEEP SOUND STURGEON

Sturgeon-targeting anglers may still ply greater Puget Sound and its freshwater tributaries for whites year-round, but the option to keep them when landed is now significantly restricted.

Under a new PS-directed regulation just adopted by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission, there will be a 75-day catch and keep opportunity inserted in two periods on the annual angling calendar, June 1-30 and Sept. 1 - Oct. 15.

Intended originally to eliminate completely the interception of seemingly vagabond Columbia and Fraser river whites, the original proposal, number 9 in the package of agency recommended changes for the 2012-2013 regulations, called for a full year-round ban on retention leaving only the release option.

The limited allowable catch presumably will have a smattering of Columbia River sturgeon that may need to be factored into the management regime there.

Commissioners also made permanent early winter closures - anywhere from the middle of January to the middle of February - on six greater Puget Sound streams plus several entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca to protect wild steelhead populations and stripped northern pike of their gamefish status.

WDFW will post on its Website by next week the commission's recent fish regs rule-making decisions.

MORE FULL SEASON PERMITS

Acting on a recommendation from the department's wildlife program staff, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission more than doubled the number of multi-season permits that will be awarded this year to Washington deer hunters. In the same vein, panelists also increased elk multi-season permits by about a third.

Holders of these special permits are allowed to hunt in any open unit if all general seasons for the three main hunting weapons categories in a given year provided they use a legal version of the weapon and follow all other rules in place for each season. Practically speaking that's a time span from the first of September to the end of December.

Drawing entrants will now be vying for 8,500 deer and 1,250 elk multi-season tags. The deadline for applications for the 2012 drawing is Saturday, March 31.

Doug Huddle, The Bellingham Herald's outdoors correspondent, since 1983, has written a weekly fishing and hunting column that now appears Sundays. Read his blog and contact him at pblogs.bellinghamherald.com/outdoors.