Washington coastal rivers salmon limit reduced, November 2023

WDFW just announced on Nov 3rd, 2023 that the adult salmon limit would be reduced to one fish across many Washington coastal rivers and chinook retention would be eliminated. The reason cited is fewer numbers of unclipped and clipped coho salmon returning than forecasted. I’m curious about this for a few reasons…

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Washington Coastal Steelhead update after Oct 2023 Townhall

Bright chrome coastal steelhead

Last night was the first of several meetings that included the public, on the topic of the 2023-2024 winter steelhead season for the coastal rivers of Washington. In this blog post I will share what I learned and my overall impression of things.

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Wynoochee River Salmon Fishing 2023

wynoochee-coho-1

The Wynoochee River originates from the south slopes of the wild and rugged Olympic mountains and winds its way south until it dumps into the Chehalis near Montesano. The often overlooked cousin of the Satsop River when it comes to salmon fishing can still provide decent fishing for coho and chum salmon.

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2023 Washington Coast Salmon Forecast

Chinook fish box caught on the Washington coast

The Washington coast salmon forecast for 2023 has just been released and this blog post unpacks what we should expect in the coastal rivers and marine waters.

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Chehalis River Winter Steelhead 2022-2023

Perfect steelhead drift

What’s really going on with the Chehalis River winter steelhead season of 2022-2023? Why are recreational anglers being denied access to consume hatchery steelhead and coho which have been raised for the purpose of consumption via the license fees we’ve spent?

Is this all to protect and conserve the vital wild stocks of steelhead whose numbers have dipped precipitously over the last decade and haven’t shown signs of recovery?

Some of the answers may surprise you…

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WDFW announces 2022-2023 coastal fishing season

Nov. 30, 2022
Contact: Region 6 – Montesano, 360-249-4628
Media contact: Mark Yuasa, 360-902-2262

WDFW announces 2022-2023 coastal fishing season

Below is the full WDFW News release, but feel free as well to head over to our 2023 coastal winter steelhead page for more analysis of the now announced rules.

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2023 Washington Coast Steelhead Preview

Steelhead Runsize vs escapement and goals

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but things are not looking good for our Washington Coastal Steelhead season in 2022-2023, in fact my “too early prediction” is that we won’t have seasons on *most* of our favorite coastal rivers this year.

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