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 popular of the coastal black rockfish and lingcod sport fishery gets underway on March 10 off some coastal ports, and anglers can expect some blissful spring days on water weather permitting. The black rockfish population remains healthy in coastal waters, according to Heather Reed, a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) coastal fish […]
The clock on the wall says it’s time to hitch up the boat for some chinook fishing opportunities in the months ahead. The San Juan Islands (Marine Catch Area 7) continue to produce some stellar hatchery chinook fishing although rough seas and bad weather has been an issue of late. Hatchery chinook in the San […]
The International Pacific Halibut Commission set the 2018 halibut catch quotas in Portland, Oregon on Friday, and the overall poundage is slightly down from last year. The total sport catch quota is 225,366 pounds compared to 237,762 pounds in 2017, and 214,110 pounds in 2016, 2015 and 2014. A breakdown of the 2018 halibut catch […]
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 […]
The preliminary halibut fishing dates for 2018 have been set, but catch quotas won’t be decided until late next month and it’s likely they could be lower than it had been in past seasons. “The (Pacific Fishery Management Council) adopted the 2018 halibut dates at the (Nov. 28-29) meeting, but still need to be approved […]
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, […]
