Puget Sound Crab Season 2020

Wonderful dungies
Wonderful dungies!

WDFW has announced the exact details for the opening of the 2020 Winter Puget Sound crab season. There won’t be as many folks on the water and the crab will be larger with more meat on them.

Time to get more tasty Dungeness crab!

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2020 Puget Sound Spot Shrimp Season

Decent shrimp pot pull in the Strait

What is it about shrimping that captures so much of the passion and energy of the Puget Sound outdoor enthusiast?

Is it that these are the best-tasting critters in our local waters? Or is it the “closet deadliest catch persona” we all have buried deep within us somewhere?

Whatever it is, it is clear, that we love our spot shrimp and the process of catching them. The much anticipated 2020 Puget Sound Spot Shrimp Season has been announced, let’s get to the details!

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WDFW To Re-Open Fishing and Hunting

WDFW Open some fishing and hunting on May 5

On April 27th, WDFW and the Governor of Washington State announced the opening of several fishing and hunting opportunities starting May 5th, 2020. And for most of us who’ve been following along here…It’s about time! What does that mean for you? Where will you be fishing on May 5th? We will share our thoughts below.

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Marine Area 9 Blackmouth Fishing February, 2020

blackmouth release of sub legal
Release of sub legal blackmouth

Marine Area 9 opened up on February 1st for fishing for and retention of a single hatchery chinook 22″ and larger (blackmouth). There were some initial positive reports and lots of “shaker city” kind of reports.

I couldn’t help myself for too long before I had to go out and check things out.

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Hood Canal Crabbing January 2020

Hood canal crabbing red rocks and dungies
Hood canal crabbing for Red rocks and Dungies

I’ve wanted to get this post up about our Hood Canal Crabbing trip quickly since winter crabbing is closing at the end of this week, but I’ve been waylaid by a virus (probably corona?) that knocked me out the last 3-4 days.

We were only on the water for about 4-5 hours but experienced decent success with keeper crabs. Most of them were Red Rock, but we still got some nice big Dungeness crab sprinkled in the mix.

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Marine Area 10 Blackmouth Fishing January, 2020

blackmouth keeper netted
Blackmouth keeper in the net

After all the snow, ice, and wind events we’ve had in the Puget Sound area lately, I finally made it out to fish for Blackmouth in Puget Sound. I had heard some recent good reports in Marine Area 10, so we decided to target fishing near Kingston. Marine Area 10 has been open since the start of the year and has just started to produce Blackmouth.

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2020 Puget Sound Salmon Seasons

Sekiu caught king
King caught off of Sekiu

2020 Salmon seasons have been released as the North of Falcon process concludes. While the biggest headline and disappointment is the loss of most of the winter blackmouth season in 2020-2021, it may only be a one year setback. Summer chinook seasons have a slightly higher quota. Everything kicks off on June 1st with the opening of the Marine Area 10 coho season.

My final update to this post is a link to the 2021 Puget sound salmon season post just released.

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Marine Area 13 Chum Fishing, November 2019

South Sound November calm conditions
South Sound November calm conditions

Puget Sound salmon fishing has tailored off significantly as coho runs are fully in the rivers (some runs like the Puyallup are basically over). Chum are now making their way through Puget Sound, but there is some bad news on that front we will dive into.

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