salmonbarry
6/16/2013 3:06:00 PM3 lbs .5 oz~ the top 6 fish were within a half and ounce! 29 fish weighed in! No sockeye for me but 2 in the derby but no winners with mine being 2 lbs 6.5 oz.. Figured there would be lots of sockeye as over 5000 came through the locks on Friday alone
abdullah
6/16/2013 10:02:00 PMSo I know it's way early, but is there any chance we get a sockeye season this year?
bryanpeck
6/17/2013 6:59:00 AM@ Abdullah - you can watch the sockeye counts at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/counts/sockeye/ - forecast for this year's run is about 95,000 fish which is far less than the 350,000 escapement goal. However, if you start seeing daily counts exceeding 10,000 fish per day (and especially if those counts last for numerous days in a row) I'd say there is a chance. The official count just started last week so they haven't updated the grid with 2013 numbers yet, but I'd expect it sometime this week. You can also see Mark Yuasa's recent article about LW sockeye here: http://seattletimes.com/text/2021192669.html. While a mostly surface trolled during the derby (avoiding contact with the sockeye) I did mark two schools of what I'm sure were sockeye just off the SW corner of Mercer Island.