Photo Essay

FLOAT TUBE CHINOOK

SEWER SALMON CENTRAL: Venn Diagramming the Whatcom Creek Waterway

During a low tide, this cement sewer pipe is high enough above Bellingham, WA’s Whatcom Creek Waterway that it’s possible to pass beneath it.
During a low tide, this cement sewer pipe is high enough above Bellingham, WA’s Whatcom Creek Waterway that it’s possible to pass beneath it. But to reach prime heckling grounds at higher tides, an out-of-float tube traverse is in order. Brad Fisher’s fancy Transformers flippers make the jump a bit easier.
Words, Photos and Captions: Copi Vojta

While I tend to be the least-competitive angler, content—and often preferring—to watch fishing buddies do the catching, my reasons are nonetheless selfish: I love to document if and when a catch happens. Yet the unknowns always remain. Who, if anyone, is going to be the ringer, the top rod? Or, in this case, who is going to be crowned king?

In response to Washington state directives to increase hatchery production of Chinook salmon, a preferred food source for critically endangered Southern Resident orcas, northwest Washington’s Bellingham Technical College began releasing Chinook from the Whatcom Creek hatchery in 2019 with help from the Lummi Nation, Nooksack Indian Tribe, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. In 2025, 7,000 fish were forecast to return.

This has provided a recreational fishery in downtown Bellingham (pop. 99,030) for five years running. In a state with dynamic (to put it kindly) regulations and fisheries, when an opportunity presents itself, the prepared angler must react accordingly. The state designated a monthlong season of Saturdays and Sundays, and the weekend warrior status of our ragtag crew was cemented. With personal watercraft of all kinds, we assembled during early mornings, evenings, or whenever possible. Each season, we made new friends or convinced old friends to join in the fun.

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