Blog Posts – Places – Washington – North Puget Sound

Will we get to fish for Washington Coast Steelhead in 2024-2025

December 1, 2024October 31, 2024 by Kyle

The short answer to this question is that it’s highly likely we WILL get to fish for winter steelhead on a majority of coastal rivers in Washington this 2024-2025 season.

Update on 12/1/2024: The answer is yes, we will get to fish for winter steelhead on many rivers according to WDFW News Release here.

The primary reason for that is the much better wild steelhead forecasts that WDFW unveiled earlier in October for rivers up and down the coast. Finally! Some good news on this front after several years of incredibly disappointing forecasts and perplexing fishing seasons that limited even the hatchery fishing opportunities in places with little to no impact on wild steelhead.

Fall Fishing, Hunting and Foraging Opportunities are Incredible in 2024

October 19, 2024 by Kyle

Ray holding a nice coho buck from the coast

We are almost to the halfway point of fall 2024, and oh baby, has it been a good one! Fall is my favorite season, largely due to the incredible variety and quantity of opportunities to harvest wonderful food from the land through fishing, hunting, and foraging.

The blog post covers some of my recent highlights fishing, hunting, and foraging, and tries to point you in the right direction if you want to pursue some of these same opportunities.

Let’s get to it!

Skagit River Salmon Fishing 2024

September 22, 2024 by Kyle

The Skagit River is the premier river of the north cascades draining a massive watershed and providing up to 80% of the influx of freshwater into the Puget Sound. Winding through miles of mountainous terrain, foothills, and farmland before dumping into Skagit Bay between Stanwood and La Conner. This unique Skagit River salmon fishing page … Read more

Puget Sound Salmon Forecasts 2024

March 2, 2024 by Kyle

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.

Reviewing 2023 Puget Sound Salmon Seasons and Preparing for 2024

February 1, 2024 by Kyle

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.

Are you ready for more Washington Steelhead drama prior to the 2023-2024 season?

March 30, 2024September 25, 2023 by Kyle

Hopefully you are right in the middle of a great run of salmon on your local river as chinook, pinks and coho all steam into streams all over Western Washington.

While, summer seems to have just ended (emphatically) with the latest edition of the atmospheric river arriving this weekend and continuing into next week, it’s never too early to start previewing what we can expect during the 2023-2024 winter steelhead season.

It’s river chinook time and that means bobber downs!

March 30, 2024August 30, 2023 by Kyle

River chinook august 2023 caught on float and eggs

Maybe you’ve already got a full freezer from a successful season of saltwater salmon fishing, or maybe this is your first opportunity to wet a line for chinook. Regardless, angling for chinook in our local or coastal river is my FAVORITE PNW harvest recreation activity and you don’t want to miss out on the fun!

I went out this morning and got my limit in a few hours, so I feel inspired to write about river fishing for Chinook and tell you my story.

What happened to our 2023 Skykomish Summer Chinook Fishery?

March 29, 2024April 17, 2023 by Kyle

snoqualmie_river-fall_chinook-wild_forecast_2023

As many of you are now aware, we’ve lost most of the fishing opportunities in 2023 to pursue Skykomish summer chinook and summer steelhead returning in the same timeframe.

The Skykomish summer chinook fishery is an incredible opportunity close to home for many folks in the north Puget Sound region represents a massive amount of business for local guides and the surrounding businesses and fills a hole in the fishing calendar.

How did this happen? And what does it mean for the future of this fishery? Let’s explore together using the data available from the North of Falcon Process and the Management Plan for Puget Sound Chinook agreed upon between the Tribes and WDFW.

Pink Salmon Run 2023

March 29, 2024March 4, 2023 by Kyle

Like the first gleam of dawn on the Duwamish industrial waterway is the glimpse of summertime fun we just received from WDFW via the North of Falcon Salmon season setting process.

That’s right folks, it’s time to board the hype train to humpy town! Pink Salmon season 2023 is upon us!

Let’s get the full rundown of the pink salmon um…run, in 2023.

Puget Sound Salmon Forecasts 2023

March 29, 2024March 4, 2023 by Kyle

This is the big forecast news dump we’ve been waiting for! There’s so much information on what we can expect with regards to salmon fishing in Puget Sound revealed at the beginning of North of Falcon with these forecasts now released.

There was also some framing of the kind of salmon seasons we can expect. I will unpack all of it for you in this blog post, including details about the nearly 4 million pinks (humpies) expected to return to Puget Sound in 2023!