EVERY WEEKEND IS a big weekend this time of year.
Especially during this month, due to what Brian Menkal of Brian’s Sporting Goods and More (360-683-1950) in Sequim calls the “short and fierce” halibut season.
“There are such little windows, and so wise anglers take advantage of them,” Menkal said.
This coming weekend, however, is a significant fishing weekend of the year, especially for halibut.
This isn’t the last week to fish for those massive, ugly, delicious fish, but this weekend might be the apex of the halibut fishery.
The season begins to wind down in most marine areas, and everything after this is gravy.
It is also a holiday weekend, and with Memorial Day comes the Port Angeles Salmon Club’s annual halibut derby.
Additionally, Marine Area 5 (Sekiu) — the only area on the North Olympic Peninsula yet to open to halibut fishing — finally begins it halibut season today.
After watching as the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and then the northern coast of the Pacific Ocean, open to halibut fishing earlier this month, Sekiu finally gets its chance.
Marine Area 5 was the hardest hit by the reduced halibut seasons throughout the Strait, losing nine days of the popular fishery.
Sekiu is open today through Sunday, then Thursday, May 30, though Saturday, June 1. The season concludes with a one-day reopening on Saturday, June 8.
Last year, the Marine Area 5 halibut fishery also began during Memorial Day weekend, and then was open Thursdays through Saturdays through June 23.
Gary Ryan of Van Riper’s Resort (360-963-2334) in Sekiu said the conditions for this opener might not be optima due to minus tides.
“The more minus tides, the more current,” Ryan said.
And more current makes it difficult for anglers to keep their bait near the bottom of the Strait, where the halibut hang out.
That doesn’t mean anglers will sit at home and wait for better tides.
“It’s the best we got,” Ryan said.
“In a short season like this, you have to make hay when it rains.”
Ryan added that anglers who are out during the slack tides should find some good success.
Even with the less than favorable tides, Sekiu is a nice spot for halibut, because, as Ryan notes, there is more halibut in the western portion of the Strait.
Neah Bay producing
Marine Area 4 (Neah Bay) takes a break from the halibut fishery this weekend before its final hurrah Thursday, May 30, and Saturday, June 1.
That is, if enough quota remains.
Neah Bay wasn’t as busy last weekend as it was the previous weekend, when it had the benefit of being the only halibut fishery open on the Peninsula.
But anglers who made their way west were rewarded.
“The fishing is so good out here, that almost everybody catches their limit,” said Dawn Lawrence of Big Salmon Resort (360-645-2374) in Neah Bay.
Menkal echoed this sentiment, saying that of the people he’s talked to who went to Neah Bay last week, “Everybody got their fish.”
With that kind of success, the question becomes: Will the Neah Bay halibut fishery even be open next weekend?
“We’re crossing our fingers,” Lawrence said.
Along with the business the halibut fishery brings, Big Salmon Resort has scheduled, and has been promoting, its 10th annual halibut derby for Saturday, June 1.
Obviously, ending the season prematurely would be unfortunate for both the resort and anglers.
Final razor dig
Twin Harbors will hold the final razor clam dig of the season, a three-day dig beginning Friday and running through Sunday.
The dig was approved after marine toxin tests showed the clams at Twin Harbors are safe to eat.
Harvest quotas have been met at all other razor clam beaches.
“This last dig caps off a great season,” said Dan Ayres, state Department of Fish and Wildlife coastal shellfish manager, in a press release.
“Since last October, diggers have harvested more than five million razor clams, making this season the most productive in over 20 years.”
The next razor clam season will begin in the fall, when older clams have recovered from spawning, and a new generation begins to grow beneath the sand.
Here are the low morning tides of the three-day Twin Harbors dig:
■ Friday: 6:34 a.m., -1.7 feet.
■ Saturday: 7:21 a.m., -2.2 feet.
■ Sunday: 8:09 a.m., -2.4 feet.
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Outdoors columnist Lee Horton appears here Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5152 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.