All eyes are on early returning salmon runs including sockeye – one of the first summer migrating salmon species – and chinook making the journey from the ocean back to natal streams and lakes. Anglers have already started prepping their fishing gear to hit the Skagit River and Baker Lake where 35,002 sockeye are forecast…
The hey days of the Puget Sound Dungeness crab fisheries could be a thing of the past as some marine areas mainly south of Seattle will be faced with summer closures due a drastic dip in abundance. “We haven’t been this low in Puget Sound for Dungeness crab harvest since 2012, and in general it was below…
While the weather was a bit wet for the statewide lowland lakes trout opener on Saturday that didn’t deter many from getting out to try their luck at catching fish. “We ran into some rain, but that is a typical opening day scenario in the Pacific Northwest and we had a very solid plant of…
Spring is marker when the sun rises earlier and earlier over the eastern horizon, the days are getting a lot longer, the flowers and trees are blooming and so are the trout fishing opportunities. Thousands and thousands of anglers are prepping their fishing gear for the traditional statewide lowland lakes trout opener on April 28-29….
State fisheries and Pacific Fishery Management Council developed ocean salmon fishing options, and some early work was made for Puget Sound and Strait of Juan de Fuca fisheries at meetings that ended last week in Sonoma, California. Chinook and coho returns are still in the recovery phase after several grim years due to poor ocean…
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) unveiled salmon forecasts, and there are some improvements peppered with returns that could restrain opportunities as fishery managers take the first steps in a lengthy process of setting fishing seasons. “Overall Puget Sound hatchery chinook are up 21 percent based on the 10-year average,” said Aaron Dufault,…
With the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) salmon forecast meeting looming on the near horizon – Tuesday, Feb. 27 – to be exact we now have word leaking out on early expectations for the 2018 fishing seasons. “We are still compiling the tables so they aren’t complete yet and won’t have them done…
The possibility of having a smelt season on any tributary of the Columbia River – including the highly popular Cowlitz River dip-net fishery – is still up in the air, but chances are very slim according to the latest news coming out from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). They’re predicting the smelt…
By Mark Yuasa A look back at summer salmon fisheries showed a mash-up of surprises both good, bad and downright ugly. Salmon catches along the coast this past summer in general were decent for chinook, but mainly somewhat a mixed bag of success for coho. “At Neah Bay we saw a lot of chinook and…
While hordes of people will be hitting the shopping malls in the days to come, many others will opt out and head to a year-round lake to catch trout. “It’s going to be an exciting time to go trout fishing (and) certainly a much more wholesome activity than going to the mall,” said Steve Thiesfeld,…