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…
WDFW News
Washington Coastal Steelhead update after Oct 2023 Townhall
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.
Are you ready for more Washington Steelhead drama prior to the 2023-2024 season?
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.
Chinook salmon retention closed in Marine Area 10 (Seattle/Bremerton Area)
Sad news and a sad day for Puget Sound chinook anglers who now have all the interior middle Puget Sound marine areas closed for chinook harvest.
Salmon fishing suspended in Marine Area 11 (Tacoma-Vashon Island)
FISHING RULE CHANGE
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
July 13, 2023
Salmon fishing suspended in Marine Area 11 (Tacoma-Vashon Island)
Should we lie to WDFW about the fish we caught?
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.
Salmon fishing suspended in Marine Area 11
June 13, 2023
Salmon fishing suspended in Marine Area 11
Action: Closes to all salmon fishing.
What happened to our 2023 Skykomish Summer Chinook Fishery?
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.
Puget Sound Salmon Forecasts 2023
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!
Chehalis River Winter Steelhead 2022-2023
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…
