Wednesday, Oct 8 was the first day of test fishing for South Sound chum at Apple Cove Point. While the timing of the tides wasn’t ideal (it was ebbing during the morning), they were big tides, which usually seems to make for good seining at ACP. We caught a total of 817 chum (plus 65 coho and 1 immature chinook) in six sets with more than half of those (430) being caught in the last set of the day. The chum were 70.5% males, and they were very big fish, with an average weight estimated at 10.4 pounds. Here are the catches by set, and the age distribution:
Set 1 – 26 chum
Set 2- 24 chum
Set 3 – 136 chum
Set 4 – 154 chum
Set 5- 47 chum
Set 6- 430 chum
| Ages | Male | Female | Total |
| 3 | 3.1% | 1.0% | 4.1% |
| 4 | 59.2% | 26.0% | 85.2% |
| 5 | 8.2% | 2.6% | 10.7% |
| Sex Ratio | 70.4% | 29.6% | |
| Avg. Length (cm) | 76.0 | 72.1 |
Questions can be directed to Bill Patton at the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission <[email protected]> (360) 528-4383.