Despite the winter chill, Washingtonians have plenty of reasons to head outdoors during the holiday season, including steelhead fishing and the possibility of the first New Year’s Eve razor clam dig in years.

Evening clam digs are tentatively scheduled at ocean beaches from Dec. 31 through Jan. 3, pending the results of marine toxin tests.

“We had 22,000 people on the beach in 2006, the last time conditions allowed for a New Year’s dig,” said Dan Ayres, coastal shellfish manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). “It’s a great way to welcome the new year.”

Meanwhile, winter-run hatchery steelhead are moving up Northwest rivers in increasing numbers, providing new fishing opportunities from the Olympic Peninsula to the Columbia River Basin.

The WDFW warns winter anglers to be extremely cautious about it. According to U.S. Coast Guard guidelines, no one should venture onto lake ice unless it is at least 4 inches thick, clear and solid. As much as 9 inches may be needed to safely support snowmobiles or other vehicles. Such ice depths can form after at least a week of below freezing temperatures, both day and night.

Ice depths vary throughout a waterway due to underwater structures, springs, geothermal activity, and water movement caused by flows, wind, or waterfowl use. Rivers and streams rarely have safe ice because of constant currents. Thawing and re-freezing can create air pockets that leave ice “honeycombed” or porous and significantly weakened.

Drilling a hole in the ice from a safe, near-shore location can give anglers an idea of ice depth. However, drilling only provides an estimate of the ice depth because shallow water near shore freezes quicker than deeper water in the middle of a lake where springs may slow the freezing process.

Here are a tips to help keep an outing safe:

• Don’t fish alone. Let others know exactly where you and your fishing partners are going and when you plan to return.
• Keep fishing holes small and few. When drilling fishing holes with an ice auger, keep the diameter under eight inches. Bigger holes are not necessary to land fish and can create a safety hazard for others.
  Watch your step. Avoid ice fishing near feeder streams or known springs; brush, logs, plants or docks; multiple ice cracks or ice that is popping or otherwise audible; and dark-colored ice that may be weak.
• Spread out. Too many people congregated in one area may be more than the ice can safely support. Disperse weight and fishing holes.
• Be prepared for weather conditions. Dress in layers and wear thermal underwear, fleece or wool, and wind and waterproof outerwear, especially for feet, hands and head. Take extra clothes, food, water, sand for on-ice traction, and a sled for easy on-ice transport of all equipment.
• Be prepared for emergencies. Carry equipment such as ice picks or awls, rope, and personal flotation devices. Also pack a first-aid kit and matches for starting a fire.

The WDFW offers the following information about fishing, crabbing and clamming opportunities around the state.

North Puget Sound

Fishing has been light in the region, but a few stalwart anglers who made it out on Puget Sound recently have hooked some bright salmon.

“There are not a lot of anglers out on the Sound right now,” said Steve Thiesfeld, WDFW fisheries biologist. “But those anglers who put in some time on the water over the last week are finding some fish. It’s certainly not red hot, but fishing has been fair in some areas.”

Marine areas 7 (San Juan Islands), 8-1 (Deception Pass, Hope Island and Skagit Bay), 8-2 (Port Susan and Port Gardner), and 10 (Seattle/Bremerton) are open for salmon. Anglers fishing those marine areas have a two-salmon daily limit, but must release wild chinook. Marine Area 9 (Admiralty Inlet) is closed to salmon fishing through Jan. 15.

Crabbing also is an option. Marine Area 10 and most of Marine Area 9 are open for crabbing seven days a week through Jan. 2, 2010. The portion of Marine Area 9 south of a line from Foulweather Bluff to Olele Point is closed for the season. Crab fishing also is open seven days a week through Jan. 2 in marine areas 4 (Neah Bay), 5 (Sekiu) and 13 (south Puget Sound). 

The daily catch limit in Puget Sound is five Dungeness crab, males only, in hard-shell condition with a minimum carapace width of 6 inches. Fishers may catch six red rock crab of either sex per day, provided those crab measure at least 5 inches across.

In the rivers, there have been a few reports of anglers hooking some bright steelhead but overall, fishing has been slow.

Anglers should be aware that a portion of the North Fork Nooksack River is closed to sportfishing until further notice. The river is closed from the yellow post located at the upstream most corner of the hatchery grounds, approximately 1,000 feet upstream of the mouth of Kendall Creek, downstream to the Mosquito Lake Road Bridge. The closure is necessary to ensure egg-take goals are met for hatchery winter steelhead at the Kendall Creek Hatchery.

South Sound/Olympic Peninsula

From the coast to Puget Sound, anglers have several opportunities to add seafood to their holiday menu, including razor clams, chum salmon, Dungeness crab and steelhead.

Favorable tides have allowed WDFW to tentatively schedule a razor clam dig starting New Year’s Eve. If marine toxin levels show the clams are safe to eat, evening digs will be held between Dec. 31 and Jan. 3. Final word will be issued about a week before the dig, after a final round of marine toxin tests has been completed.

For best results, clammers should start digging at least one hour before low tide. No digging will be allowed before noon any day. Evening low tides for the upcoming dig are:

• Thursday, Dec. 31 (6:16 p.m. -1.1 ft.) all beaches
• Friday, Jan. 1 (7:01 p.m. -1.8 ft.) all beaches
• Saturday, Jan. 2 (7:45 p.m. -1.6 ft.) Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, Mocrocks
• Sunday, Jan. 3 (8:29 p.m. -1.2 ft.) Twin Harbors

Harvesters are allowed to take no more than 15 razor clams and must keep the first 15 they dig, regardless of size or condition. Each digger’s clams must be kept in a separate container.

A license is required for anyone 15 or older. Any 2009 annual shellfish/seaweed license or combination fishing license is valid. Another option is a razor-clam only license available in annual or three-day only versions.

Meanwhile, steelhead fishing is heating up on north coast rivers. “After a long stretch of high and colored waters, we’re seeing some prime fishing conditions,” said Mike Gross, WDFW fish biologist.

Wild steelhead-retention rules are now in effect on the Bogachiel, Calawah, Clearwater, Dickey, Hoh, Hoko, Pysht, Quillayute, Quinault and Sol Duc rivers. Anglers may retain one wild steelhead per license year.

Farther south, anglers are still catching late-run hatchery coho on the Humptulips River, where salmon fishing is open through January. “The river’s been quite busy and anglers are doing well,” Gross said.

Anglers fishing Grays Harbor rivers are looking forward to steelhead season in the weeks ahead. Popular local rivers include the Satsop, Wynoochee and Wishkah.

Chum salmon fishing has all but wrapped up in most places, but is just beginning in the Nisqually River, which is open to salmon fishing through January. The late chum run doesn’t hit full stride until mid- to late December and generally remains strong until at least mid-January, said Steve Thiesfeld, WDFW fish biologist. “The Nisqually’s a good fishery and the chum are typically bright and in good shape,” he said.

Thiesfeld also suggests some winter blackmouth fishing in Puget Sound, where the salmon fisheries in marine areas 11 (Tacoma-Vashon Island) and 12 (Hood Canal) are open through Dec. 31. “Participation’s been slow with this cold weather, but anglers who’ve been out are finding blackmouth in Hood Canal,” Thiesfeld said. 

Anglers fishing these areas may retain one chinook as part of their two-fish daily limit. 

Recreational crab fishers have a few more weeks to drop a pot or two, but should note that all Puget Sound marine areas close to crab fishing Jan. 2, 2010.

Until then, crab fishing is open seven days a week in marine areas 4 (Neah Bay), 5 (Sekiu), 10 (Seattle/Bremerton), 13 (south Puget Sound), and a portion of Marine Area 9 (Admiralty Inlet). The portion of Marine Area 9 south of a line from Foulweather Bluff to Olele Point is closed for the season.

The daily catch limit in Puget Sound is five Dungeness crab, males only, in hard-shell condition with a minimum carapace width of 6 inches. Fishers may catch six red rock crab of either sex per day, provided those crab measure at least 5 inches across.

Recreational crabbers are required to send in a winter catch card or report their catch online by Jan. 15. People failing to submit their winter reports will receive a $10 fine when they apply for a 2010 Puget Sound crab endorsement.

Southwest Washington

Anglers have been catching increasing numbers of winter steelhead on tributaries to the lower Columbia River, although fishing was slowed in early December by a winter freeze. Meanwhile, a pre-season forecast of next year’s upriver spring chinook run is expected to cast a warm glow on fishing prospects for early 2010.

Hatchery-reared winter steelhead are striking in increasing numbers on the Cowlitz River near the trout hatchery as well as in the lower river, said Joe Hymer, a WDFW fish biologist. Steelhead action is also starting to pick up in the Lewis, Kalama, Grays, Washougal and Elochoman rivers, he said.

“Steelhead fishing has been locked in kind of a deep freeze during the early part of the run,” Hymer said. “But once things warm up – especially if we get some rain – this fishery could really come alive.”

As with all steelhead fisheries in southwest Washington, only hatchery fish with a clipped adipose fin and healed scar may be retained. All wild steelhead must be released.

Frigid weather has also slowed fishing for white sturgeon on the lower Columbia River, which is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from the Wauna powerlines upriver to Bonneville Dam through Dec. 31. Only one legal-sized fish was counted among the hearty bank anglers who braved the cold east winds below the dam during an early December creel check.

“A thaw would give anglers a chance to catch a few more sturgeon before they lock up for winter,” Hymer said, adding that a better bet might be Battleground Lake or Klineline Pond.

Looking forward to spring chinook fishing? Based on last year’s count of upriver jacks, the prospects should be good, Hymer said. More than 80,000 upriver jack salmon were tallied at Bonneville Dam this year, which one fishery manager described as “off the charts.”

Eastern Washington

Bill Baker, WDFW district fish biologist from Colville, reports that Hatch and Williams lakes in Stevens County produced good catches of rainbow trout on the Dec. 1 winter-only season opener, but are now icing up.

“Anglers were easily catching limits of rainbows at Williams, with fish ranging from 9 to 12 inches,” Baker said. “Anglers were having to work a bit harder at Hatch Lake, but were still catching limits of 10 to 13-inch rainbows if they were persistent. All these fish are robust and overall, fishing is good.”

With the region’s recent single digit temperatures at night, both lakes are icing up quickly, but probably not enough to safely walk out on to ice fish, Baker said. A week or more of the same conditions and both might offer safe ice fishing.

The region’s two other winter-only trout lakes, Fourth of July on the Lincoln-Adams county line and Hog Canyon in southwest Spokane County, will offer no fishing this season. 

Marc Divens, WDFW warmwater fish biologist, notes three year-round waters near Spokane—Eloika, Newman, and Silver—could produce decent catches of everything from crappie to perch through the ice when conditions are safe. At all three lakes winter anglers will see new boat launches and docks recently completed for use next spring.

Some of the best open water fishing in the region continues to be found at year-round Sprague Lake. The rainbow trout there range from 15-25 inches, and five-fish limits are still being caught. Sprague anglers are reminded that only two of the five trout they retain can be over 20 inches.

Lake Roosevelt, the Columbia River reservoir formed by Grand Coulee Dam, is also open year-round and is producing big net-pen-reared rainbows. Both boat trollers and shore anglers are catching fish throughout the reservoir.

Snake River steelhead action hasn’t been officially measured recently. But anecdotal reports indicate the big ocean-going rainbows, which have returned in record numbers this year, are still being caught by those willing to brave the extreme cold and wind chill on the big water.

North Central Washington

Bob Jateff, WDFW Okanogan district fish biologist from Twisp, says steelhead fishing is slowing down in all Columbia River fishery areas above Wells Dam as water temperatures drop. Anglers are reminded of the mandatory retention of hatchery-marked steelhead caught in the upper Columbia River fishery. Daily limit is four adipose-fin-clipped hatchery steelhead.

“Ice fishing opportunities will improve as colder temperatures help increase ice thickness,” Jateff said. “Lakes to try in Okanogan County are Patterson and Davis near Winthrop, Big and Little Green near Omak, Rat near Brewster, and Sidley near Oroville. Rainbow trout are the predominant species in these lakes, with a five-trout daily catch limit. Patterson also has a good population of yellow perch with no minimum size and no daily catch limit.”

South Central Washington

The region’s winter-only season rainbow trout water, North Elton Pond along Interstate 82 near Selah in Yakima County, is well-stocked with hatchery fish. The daily catch limit at North Elton is two trout.

Winter whitefish action on the Yakima River’s 3,500-foot stretch below Roza Dam will likely pick up as winter advances. Whitefish are also fair game now on sections of the Naches and Klickitat rivers. Whitefish gear is restricted to one single-point hook with a maximum hook size of 3/16-inch from point to shank (hook size 14). Up to 15 whitefish can be retained daily. Most will run from 10 to 13 inches, found in winter groups in deep pools, and are usually caught with maggots or small artificial flies or lures.

For information and regulations on crabbing, clamming and fishing around the state, check WDFW’s website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/