Puget Sound Salmon Seasons 2024

Holding a 17 lb westport chinook king salmon

Let’s take a deep dive look into all of the *proposed* and nearly finalized salmon seasons for Puget Sound in 2024.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

Should we lie to WDFW about the fish we caught?

Box full of fresh chrome salmon

You might be thinking this is a ridiculous blog post just from the title, but it’s actually a really important question to think through with a full understanding of how our fishing and catching data is used by WDFW. By attempting to apply logic and reason to this question we will hopefully illuminate some things we may not fully understand.

Read more

Puget Sound Salmon Seasons 2023

Neah Bay Chinook King Salmon June 2023

We made it, we’re finally here in the summer of 2023! And, I cannot believe I haven’t yet made a comprehensive post about the Puget Sound salmon seasons this year. Inside this blog post I will cover the “likely” seasons WDFW has published for Marine Area 5 – 13, the catch charts that give you some idea about timing the runs, and some of my thoughts on each area.

Read more

Puget Sound Crab Season 2023

Hood Canal Crabbing can product some nice hauls of crab
Hood Canal Crabbing can product some nice hauls of crab

The details of our Puget Sound summer crabbing season have finally been announced! Most of it gets underway on July 1st, with some of the usual areas delaying their openers out of concern for soft shells continuing through July.

This blog post will share the season details and connect you to helpful resources for anyone just starting out, or if you need a refresher / new gear for this crabbing season.

Read more

2023 Puget Sound Spot Shrimp Season

puget sound shrimp coming up

We are only a few weeks away from the 2023 Puget Sound Shrimping season! Now is the time to review season details, and take inventory of your pots, your riggings, and of course your bait.

Do you remember where you left off last year? Do you remember the valuable lessons you learned? Now is the time to review, head to the store if you need to, and come up with a plan to make your 2023 season a big success.

Read more

Puget Sound Lingcod Fishing Season 2023

Lingcod teeth

Puget Sound Lingcod season marks that period in the fishing calendar where we can consistently plan to be on the water and know something will be open to angle for until things die down into the fall.

Inside this blog post you will get a reminder of the season information from WDFW, historical catch timing graphs that indicate the best times and places to fish for lingcod around Puget Sound, and of course date creel information that indicates how many lingcod are being caught in Marine Areas 5-13 in and around the Puget Sound.

Read more