2024 Puget Sound Spot Shrimp Season

shrimping hood canal round pot 3

Our favorite time of the year is at hand! The opportunity to harvest the delicious, the delectable, the delightful: Spot Shrimp of Puget Sound.

This blog post has all the basic information you need to know about the seasons in 2024 and a few helpful resources to refresh your shrimping knowledge since it has been about a year since we were last out there hauling up our pots.

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Persistence pays off when fishing the Columbia River for Spring Chinook

Putting a columbia river spring chinook in the boat

Fishing for springers on the Columbia River is best described as “grinding” since the bites are often so few and far between. Our season in 2024 was definitely defined by the word grind, however it also made us better spring chinook anglers and this blog post will outline why that is.

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When to go Ocean bottomfishing in 2024

Tim poses with big lingcod

For some, spring is marked by the beginning of baseball season, but for many fishy folks, it’s all about ocean bottomfishing opening up!

And that time is this coming weekend, Saturday, March 9th.

I’ve got so many resources for you to consider to get all caught up on ocean bottomfishing prep and ideas in this blog post that we have to get right to it.

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Puget Sound Salmon Forecasts 2024

Couple of beefy puget sound chinook

I endured 6 hours of North of Falcon zoom meetings to bring you these fresh-off-the-grill salmon forecasts for the year 2024!

Okay, it wasn’t that bad. This forecast “unveiling” was the beginning of the North of Falcon process, wherein the salmon seasons get set and eventually printed prior to the July 1st new regulations year.

If you’re already confused, you are in good company as the entire process of salmon forecast models and the resulting seasons leave a lot of recreational anglers who are only semi-familiar with the process scratching their heads.

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Preparing for the 2024 Columbia River Spring Chinook Fishing Season

Nice fat springer caught just above Warrior Rock

The first thing you should know about the 2024 Columbia River Spring Chinook fishing season is that it’s almost here! We’ve had a few chinook go over the Bonneville Dam, and a few reports of chinook caught in the lower river and now is the time to take stock of our gear and make plans to go fishing for the tastiest of all PNW Salmon.

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2024 Winter Chinook Blackmouth Fishery to open 4 days a week

Limits of Blackmouth in MA10 Jan 2022

For many Puget Sound anglers, this announcement of our winter chinook fishery beginning on March 1st, 2024 is absolutely exciting. March is often the beginning of the recreational fishing calendar for those with a boat. This announcement is also a reminder of the challenge and difficulty of fishing seasons in Puget Sound the last few years with the restriction of being only open for 4 days a week.

We cover all the details of this WDFW news and provide links to helpful resources in this blog post.

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Going Smelt Fishing on the Cowlitz River in 2024

Limit of Smelt

Finally, we have a smelt fishery announcement! I know we’ve had a few in the past several years, but they haven’t been quite the same opportunity as what’s expected this Thursday.

If you’ve tried to plunk for steelhead below the Toutle River confluence with the Cowlitz River, you know that the smelt are in and plentiful.

Let’s review what you need to know to be successful on this smelt fishery opener.

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Reviewing 2023 Puget Sound Salmon Seasons and Preparing for 2024

marine area 10 chinook king salmon near seattle aug 2023

I recently attended the Puget Sound Salmon Town Hall earlier this week where we reviewed the 2023 Puget Sound Salmon Seasons, examined the weather and environmental conditions, introduced the 2024 North of Falcon schedule and WDFW attempted to answer questions from a frustrated public.

In this blog post I highlight the parts I think you should be aware of.

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How to make perfect smoked whole deer leg

Closeup of deer leg smoke ring and bark

As most big game hunters know, you get far more “usable” meat from the hindquarters of a deer than the front quarters.

The front quarters are often tougher to deal with and contain far more sinew and ligaments that are difficult to work with for creating nice venison roasts.

The solution is to cook/smoke the front quarters whole!

This blog post will explain exactly how to make perfect smoked whole deer leg with those front quarters that will be the envy of everyone who gets a taste!

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