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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.
Well, I’ve already had my limit of cleaning smelt for 2024, so I won’t be getting in on this next dip opportunity, but I’m excited to see there’s another opener for folks who may have already missed the first one.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Before the spring and summer salmon seasons get announced on the Columbia we get to review the final tally of the 2023 returns and the 2024 forecast.
The summer salmon season in 2023 was one of the absolute best in quite some time!
The abundance of coho and chinook results in many wonderful fish-catching adventures throughout the Puget Sound, Strait, and Ocean.
However, many anglers will best remember 2023 for the two very confusing, confounding, and anger-inducing closures that occurred in Marine Area 10 and Marine Area 11.
This blog article attempts to explain the Marine Area 10 closure in much greater detail than how most of us have previously understood it.
We’ve finally received the much anticipated 2023-2024 Coastal Steelhead season announcement. Or at least we’ve heard the first part of the season…