Salmon anglers are eagerly waiting for this Saturday’s reopening of Marine Catch Area 8-1 and 8-2 for hatchery chinook, which covers the entire 58 miles of the eastern side of Whidbey Island. Many will be targeting hatchery blackmouth – a term used for chinook for their dark gumline – in Areas 8-1 and 8-2 at […]
Halibut seekers can start making tentative fishing plans for the spring of 2019 as preliminary sport-fishing dates were decided this past week at the Pacific Fishery Management Council meetings although catch quotas won’t be finalized until late-January. “We have outlined the halibut fishing dates for 2019, which were adopted but still need approval by (International […]
Nasty, wet weather in the Puget Sound region equals exciting times for anglers who don’t mind donning some rain gear to reap the rewards. Millions of squid have finally arrived in Puget Sound, which is providing a bounty of fun and good catches along the many fishing piers from Des Moines north to Edmonds. A […]
The next and final wave of migratory salmon will garner the spotlight in the weeks ahead as more than 1.2-million fall chum are forecast for Puget Sound and Hood Canal. Chum, better known as a dog salmon for their gnarly-looking jaw-line at spawning time are one of the hardest-fighting salmon species and can weigh up […]
The winter sport Dungeness crab seasons are set to begin this Saturday (Oct. 6), but summer catch assessments showed the overall crab abundance was the lowest seen in a decade. “After looking at the (summer-time) catch data of pounds harvested this will go down as the lowest dating back to 2008,” said Don Velasquez, a […]
While the weather may be cooling down, the fall trout fishing opportunities are actually starting to heat up. WDFW is looking at planting around 2,000 rainbow trout in various Snohomish County lakes and 1,700 will be headed into a few Skagit County lakes on top of the 2,400 annually planted each fall into Beaver Lake […]
Tentative coastal razor clam digging dates have been set and Long Beach will see one of the shortest seasons in more than two decades although albeit shellfish managers are hopeful it is just a one-year anomaly. “Long Beach is faced with a gap year (for digging in 2018-19), and there are clams on the beach […]
Just like clockwork the coho have started to arrive in very good numbers from the Strait of Juan de Fuca clear into Puget Sound right in front of the Seattle skyline, but hitting up a beach for shellfish gathering is right up there on the “must do” list as we head into autumn. WDFW announced […]
You can feel change in the air – and we’re not talking about the haze and unhealthy smoggy conditions from the wildfires – as summer-like salmon fishing action begins to shift toward another prized species known for its silvery color and acrobatic skills. “We’ve had some pretty good resident coho fishing since it opened in […]
Keeping the boat engine purring this month is a high priority as salmon runs are peaking in many places and other freshwater fishing opportunities are hitting a high note. This adrenaline “fishing” rush hits me every August as the window of hooking migratory salmon begins to feel like I’m chasing the caboose of steam train. […]
