Nooksack River Fishing

The Nooksack River, located in Whatcom Country, is made up of three separate forks – the South Fork, Middle Fork, and North Fork – all of which converge and eventually flow into the north end of Bellingham Bay. 

The Kendall Creek Hatchery in Deming, Washington is located on the North Fork of the river and is where the hatchery coho are headed, so anglers targeting these fish may want to consider the legally allowed places to fish on the main stem and north fork primarily.

If you look at the table of contents for this page below, you can jump down to the permanent regulations to get an idea of the places you can legally retain salmon.

Nooksack River conservation issues

I will also allude to species/location topics throughout the opening section of this page. Namely, there’s not a fall chinook run on the Nooksack, though you may encounter late returning “early chinook”. Or strays from the Samish River, perhaps.

Chinook populations are severely depressed on the Nooksack River, in particular the natural-origin chinook.

The Nooksack River is also exhibit A for why simply no longer netting a river for commercial harvest will not immediately bring back a run of salmon as no netting has taken place since the 1970’s.

So what are the issues with the Nooksack River and the chinook salmon run?

The issues are multi-fold, and just like all runs of chinook salmon, they suffer from massive increases in marine mammal predation, a warming ocean that has experienced several periods of hostile conditions for salmon abundance, and 80% of the chinook taken in fisheries happen in northern jurisdictions (Canada and Alaska), which is outside the jurisdiction of the state of Washington.

The main issue for Nooksack River Chinook is the changes to the river itself. If you’re familiar with this topic, you know the standard list that’s coming next:

1. Higher water flows washing away redds during peak spawn timing
2. Low water flows and higher water temperatures, particularly in the South Fork which is snow melt and rain fed.
3. Too much bank armoring and straightening, removing the definition needed to create ideal rearing for salmon fry
4. Lack of ideal estuary conditions for salmon outmigration thriving and survival

As much as is being done to recover this habitat, more is being lost than is being recovered each year due to land use and land development practices.

You can read about the habitat recovery efforts of the Nooksack tribe here. Also, a recent positive development is the purchase of 700 acres along the critically impaired south fork of the Nooksack river, described here.

Hopefully, between habitat recovery and conservation hatchery efforts, we won’t lose this run of wild salmon.

Nooksack River Salmon Fishing 2024

The primary sustainable-to-harvest run of salmon on the Nooksack is the coho salmon run, so that’s what we will focus on in this section.

Updated status on hatchery coho returning to the Nooksack River

The above graph will update every Thursday typically.

When to fish for coho on the Nooksack River?

Anytime from late September into mid-October, you can expect a good downpour of rain to bring some decent numbers of coho into the Nooksack River. However, if you want to time the run up more predictably, anytime in late October through November should have coho present and be fishable as long as water flows and visibility are sufficient.

Forecast for 2024 Nooksack River Coho

2022 was a special year, but otherwise, hatchery returns of Nooksack coho have been decent if not spectacular. 2024 could be another solid year, forecasted to be between 2022 and 2023. Get ready!

om recent runs, but 2023 took a step back. 2024 is expected to be similar to 2023.

Fishing Regulations on the Nooksack River for 2024-2025

Mainstem Nooksack River Fishing Regulations 2024-2025

Species	Date	Additional Rules
from the Lummi Indian Reservation boundary to the I-5 Bridge (Ferndale) CRC (794)
All species	Aug. 1-Jan. 31	Night closure. Anti-snagging rule.
Trout	Aug. 1-Jan. 31	Statewide min. size/daily limit. Except: Cutthroat trout and wild rainbow trout min. size 14”.
Steelhead (hatchery)	Dec. 1-Jan. 31	Min. size 20”. Daily limit 2.
Other game fish	Aug. 1-Jan. 31	Statewide min. size/daily limit.
Salmon	Aug. 1-Sept. 30	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 4 including no more than 2 wild coho. Release wild Chinook and chum.
	Oct. 1-Dec. 31	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 4 including no more than 2 wild coho. Release chum.
from the I-5 Bridge (Ferndale) to the yellow marker at the FFA High School barn in Deming CRC (794)
All species	Aug. 1-Jan. 31	Night closure. Anti-snagging rule.
Trout	Aug. 1-Jan. 31	Statewide min. size/daily limit. Except: Cutthroat trout and wild rainbow trout min. size 14”.
Steelhead (hatchery)	Aug. 1-Nov. 30	Closed.
	Dec. 1-Jan. 31	Min. size 20”. Daily limit 2.
Other game fish	Aug. 1-Jan. 31	Statewide min. size/daily limit.
Salmon	Aug. 1-Sept. 30	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 4 including no more than 2 wild coho. Release wild Chinook and chum.
	Oct. 1-Oct. 31	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 4 including no more than 2 wild coho. Release chum.
	Nov. 1-Nov. 30	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 4 including no more than 2 wild coho and no more than 1 chum.
	Dec. 1-Dec. 31	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 4 including no more than 2 wild coho. Release chum.
from yellow marker at the FFA high school barn in Deming to confluence of North and South forks CRC (794)
All species	Aug. 1-Jan. 31	Night closure. Anti-snagging rule.
Trout	Aug. 1-Jan. 31	Statewide min. size/daily limit. Except: Cutthroat trout and wild rainbow trout min. size 14”.
Steelhead (hatchery)	Aug. 1-Nov. 30	Closed.
	Dec. 31-Jan. 31	Min. size 20”. Daily limit 2.
Other game fish	Aug. 1-Jan. 31	Statewide min. size/daily limit.
Salmon	Oct. 1-Oct. 31	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 4 including no more than 2 wild coho. Release chum.
	Nov. 1-Nov. 30	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 4 including no more than 2 wild coho and no more than 1 chum.
	Dec. 1-Dec. 31	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 4 including no more than 2 wild coho. Release chum.

North Fork Nooksack River Fishing Regulations for 2024-2025

Species	Date	Additional Rules
from mouth to Hwy. 9 Bridge
All species		CLOSED WATERS.
from the Hwy. 9 Bridge to Maple Creek CRC (790)
All species	Oct. 1-Jan. 31	Night closure. Anti-snagging rule.
	Nov. 1-Jan. 31	Motors prohibited.
Trout	Oct. 1-Jan. 31	Statewide min. size/daily limit. Except: Cutthroat trout and wild rainbow trout min. size 14”.
Steelhead (hatchery)	Oct. 1-Nov. 30	Closed.
	Dec. 1-Jan. 31	Min. size 20”. Daily limit 2.
Other game fish	Oct. 1-Jan. 31	Statewide min. size/daily limit.
Salmon	Oct. 1-Nov. 30	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 4 including no more than 2 wild coho. Release chum.
from Maple Creek to Nooksack Falls CRC (790)
All species		Selective gear rules.
	Nov. 1-Jan. 31	Motors prohibited.
Trout	Oct. 1-Jan. 31	Statewide min. size/daily limit. Except: Cutthroat trout and wild rainbow trout min. size 14”.
Other game fish	Oct. 1-Jan. 31	Statewide min. size/daily limit.

Please refer to WDFW’s emergency rules page for a full list of rules that are in effect.

It’s your responsibility as the recreational angler to know ALL of these rules, not just what is discussed here on the blog.