The parking lot at the Port of Kingston is overflowing with trucks and trailers on weekends and Puget Sound and Admiralty Inlet are ticker-taped with a parade of fishing boats as anglers in North End Marine Areas 9 and 10 go after chinook salmon during a rare opening that began July 16 and runs through Aug. 15.
The legendary Norwegian Point fishery is back. It’s the first time in 13 years that recreational sports fishermen have been allowed to catch chinook in area 9, which includes Admiralty Inlet, north of Hood Canal Bridge at Foulweather Bluff, south to Skunk Bay, around Point No Point and down to Apple Cove Point in Kingston.
Up to two hatchery-raised chinook salmon (marked with a clipped adipose fin), a minimum length of 22 inches, can be kept per day though wild chinook must be released. Two pink salmon may also be kept, but chum released.
The combined chinook quota for the opening in Marine Areas 9 and 10 is 7,000, according Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife regulations. If anglers attain that before Aug. 15, the fishery will close again. That’s why so many are trying their luck earlier rather than later.
There won’t be another opening in Area 9 until the month of November when only one hatchery-raised chinook can be kept.
The next chinook opening in Area 10, which includes Puget Sound south from Apple Cove Point in Kingston to the north tip of Vashon Island, takes place Oct 16 through Nov. 30 with one hatchery-raised chinook allowed; Dec. 1 through Jan. 21, 2008, the allowed limit goes back up to two (minimum size 22 inches).
The Dungeness crab sport fishery is underway as well in Marine Areas 9 and 10, Wednesdays through Saturdays.
For more information on the Chinook opening, go to http://wdfw.wa.gov/do/weekendr/weekendr.htm or (http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/shelfish/crab/) for details on the crab fishery. The North Kitsap Puget Sound Anglers, a group who lobbied for the North End chinook opening, meets at 7 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month at the Driftwood Key Clubhouse (social hour at 6 p.m.), open to all. For more information, contact Jerry Ulsund at (360) 638-0053.
