Chehalis River Salmon Fishing 2023

The Chehalis River is the most significant coastal river in the state of Washington not named the Columbia River.

The Chehalis River has also been the subject of significant controversy over the past few years revealing the fault lines between user groups, conservation objectives and a variety of other concerns.

One dynamic that does seem to be clear for the 2023 season is that in-river fisheries will once again bear the brunt of the conservation concerns, being the lowest on the totem pole of perceived value and having the smallest voice. Let’s dig in!

Some of this blog post will be the typical format used throughout this blog devoted to revealing return status, forecasts, permanent regulations and other important factors one would reference while doing trip planning research prior to a fishing trip.

I do also want to explore the issues revealed throughout the 2023 North of Falcon process that has those who are closest to the process, on the in-river sporting fishing side, feeling the most left out in terms of fishing opportunity.

But first, let’s provide some helpful links that might help you navigate all this information. There are three major tributaries of the Chehalis that got their own blog posts for the upcoming 2023 salmon season and these are listed below:

Here’s a link to other news and blog posts about the Chehalis River and the watershed in general:

Table of Contents

Issues highlighted during the 2023 North of Falcon Process regarding Grays Harbor Salmon Management

You can use the table of contents links above to skip this section, but if you enjoy your salmon fishing with a side of drama or you are simply passionate and concerned about this topic, read on.

For starters, I’m a newbie to this topic, and I’m using this section to give a greater voice to those who are being most impacted, that being the in-river sport fishing communities that do their salmon angling on Grays Harbor rivers, and more specifically the Chehalis River.

There’s an important document you need to be aware of called the Grays Harbor Management Plan. (GHMP)

It’s an official policy of the WDFW Commission and it’s in effect from the below dates:

Effective Date: March 1, 2014

Termination Date: December 31, 2023

That means it’s the document which should have guided the North of Falcon process in 2022-2023.

The GHMP is #1 about conservation, but also discusses equitable distribution between user groups such as marine sport fishing, tribal commercial, non-tribal commercial, and in-river sport fishing.

There are a few facts which should be known about the Chehalis River and chinook management that I will highlight here and you can come to your own conclusions about what’s going on.

I’m not going to speculate on the “behind the scenes bits” as I believe that would draw attention away from the simple facts on this topic which are paramount.

The on-the-gravel goal for chinook in the Chehalis River is 9,754.
The WDFW escapement estimate after all “approved fisheries” is 9,066 chinook

Why would we approve fisheries and harvest beyond the escapement goal?

The answer is that certain user groups have the ability to push harvest beyond management targets. This is clear even in the Puget Sound Chinook Management plan which is for ESA listed wild chinook.

These groups are outside the jurisdiction of WDFW. Here’s a few of them:

State of Alaska – Sport and Commercial
Nation of Canada – Sport and Commercial
Treaty Indian Nations

We can write whatever policies we want to in our management plans and those groups are not necessarily bound to them. We bring some of these groups together in the Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) and others such as Treaty tribes in North of Falcon (NoF), but WDFW policies which don’t become legally binding for those other user groups don’t have much teeth.

I’m not aware of the legal specifics, but I’m not sure the management plan for Grays Harbor holds as much weight as the one for Puget Sound on local treaty tribes because in the case of Puget Sound, there’s a federal agency which requires the management plan for prosecuting fisheries on ESA listed chinook.

The bottom line is that the GHMP is a nice conservation first document, but adhering to it seems to be aspirational rather than binding, and that is a total shame given the dire need for sustainable fisheries up and down the western coast.

If it was binding, there would be no in-river fishery at all not just a catch-and-release fishery, as we saw with the Skykomish River summer chinook, but we would at least (probably) on paper meet escapement objectives.

If you’re reading this far and think I’m calling out one particular group, that’s not my intention and let me be more fair in this case:

The chinook harvest of Chehalis River chinook is NOT all happening outside of GHMP jurisdiction. There’s still marine sport harvest, there’s non-treaty commercial and non-treaty Chehalis Tribe.

Why would we allow any non-treaty commercial harvest on a resource not meeting escapement goals?

Why would WDFW negotiate with the Quinault tribe for a treaty commercial harvest which takes us below escapement goals even if all other harvest / impact was eliminated?

From a Quinault perspective, marine sport and commercial harvest prior to the terminal run is 10x (Alaska and Canada especially) what they’re proposing to take. How is that equitable? Is this how they hold WDFW and the federal side more accountable for being a serious player in the PFMC?

Does the state and federal level need to be much more serious about addressing conservation for the next PFMC? Absolutely! There’s won’t be a resource to manage at the current rate of environmental, predator and harvest pressure being applied to chinook up and down the coast.

The bottom line is that the first group to get shutdown continues to be the in-river side, which tends to the most able to target only hatchery salmon, yet WDFW seems to make concessions to other commercial fishery user groups fully within the GHMP jurisdiction. And I haven’t even started on the coho side of the discussion yet, but know that it follows a similar story arc.

Or would you like to turn your attention to wild steelhead management on the coast and in the Chehalis River? More pain, indeed.

Feel free to correct any of the above in the comments below, I will happily amend if you provide solid contradictory information, as this is what I know right now from my sources and reading on the situation.

Let’s take a look at the forecasts for this important river system:

Forecast for 2023 Chehalis River Fall Chinook

This is the return map published as part of North of Falcon, you need to look for Chehalis River on the map and interpret the color.

This is the forecast map published as part of North of Falcon, you need to look for Chehalis River on the map and interpret the color.

As you can see, chinook forecasts are in-line with the previous year, but not meeting escapement goals as stated earlier.

In general, coastal wild chinook forecasts are improved from the late 2010 lows, but nowhere near where we would like them to be heading into environmental troubles as we begin another el-niño cycle.

Forecast for 2023 Chehalis River Coho

This is the return map published as part of North of Falcon, you need to look for Chehalis River on the map and interpret the color.

This is the forecast map published as part of North of Falcon, you need to look for Chehalis River on the map and interpret the color.

The bottom line is that the coho returns for Grays Harbor rivers are supposed to be quite robust, but the main complaint of the 2023 North of Falcon process is that the commercial harvest will also be significant, seriously lowering how much the in-river sport angling opportunity will benefit.

You like a graph likes this, up and to the right, but we need to keep conservation goals in-mind to avoid disastrous drop-offs such as 2014-2015.

Forecast for 2023 Chehalis River Chum

This is the return map published as part of North of Falcon, you need to look for Chehalis River on the map and interpret the color.

This is the forecast map published as part of North of Falcon, you need to look for Chehalis River on the map and interpret the color.

Chum was outstanding in 2022, and expected to be on-par to reduced in 2023.

Fishing Regulations for Chehalis River Salmon 2023

from the mouth (Hwy. 101 Bridge in Aberdeen) to Fuller Bridge (Keys Rd.) including all channels, sloughs, and interconnected waterways CRC (317)
All species	Aug. 1-Dec. 31	Two-Pole allowed.
All species	Aug. 1-Nov. 30	Single-point barbless hooks required.
Trout	Sat. before Memorial Day-Apr. 15	Statewide min. size/daily limit. Except: Cutthroat trout and wild rainbow trout: min. size 14”.
Other game fish	Sat. before Memorial Day-Apr. 15	Statewide min. size/daily limit.
Salmon	Aug. 1-Sept. 15	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 6. Release adults.
	Sept. 16-Nov. 30	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 6 including no more than 2 adults. Release adult Chinook.
	Dec. 1-Dec. 31	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 6 including no more than 1 adult. Release Chinook.
from Fuller Bridge (Keys Rd.) to South Elma Bridge (Wakefield Rd.) CRC (317)
All species	Aug. 1-Nov. 30	Single-point barbless hooks required.
All species	Aug. 1-Dec. 31	Two-Pole allowed.
Trout	Sat. before Memorial Day-Apr. 15	Statewide min. size/daily limit. Except: Cutthroat trout and wild rainbow trout: min. size 14”.
Other game fish	Sat. before Memorial Day-Apr. 15	Statewide min. size/daily limit.
Salmon	Aug. 1-Sept. 15	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 6. Release adults.
	Sept. 16-Sept. 30	Closed.
	Oct. 1-Nov. 30	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 6 including no more than 2 adults. Release adult Chinook.
	Dec. 1-Dec. 31	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 6 including no more than 1 adult. Release Chinook.
from South Elma Bridge (Wakefield Rd.) to the Black River CRC (317)
All species	Aug. 1-Nov. 30	Single-point barbless hooks required.
Trout	Sat. before Memorial Day-Apr. 15	Statewide min. size/daily limit. Except: Cutthroat trout and wild rainbow trout: min. size 14”.
Other game fish	Sat. before Memorial Day-Apr. 15	Statewide min. size/daily limit.
Salmon	Oct. 1-Nov. 30	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 6 including no more than 2 adults. Release adult Chinook.
Salmon	Dec. 1-Dec. 31	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 6 including no more than 1 adult. Release Chinook.
from the Black River to the high bridge on Weyerhaeuser 1000 line CRC (315)
All species	Aug. 16-Nov. 30	Single-point barbless hooks required.
Trout	Sat. before Memorial Day-Apr. 15	Statewide min. size/daily limit. Except: Cutthroat trout and wild rainbow trout: min. size 14”.
Other game fish	Sat. before Memorial Day-Apr. 15	Statewide min. size/daily limit.
Salmon	Oct. 1-Nov. 30	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 6 including no more than 2 adults. Release adult Chinook.
Salmon	Dec. 1-Dec. 31	Min. size 12”. Daily limit 6 including no more than 1 adult. Release Chinook.
from high bridge on Weyerhaeuser 1000 line approx. 400 yards downstream of Roger Creek (south of Pe Ell) upstream including all forks CRC (315)
All species		Selective gear rules.
Trout	Sat. before Memorial Day-Apr. 15	Statewide min. size/daily limit. Except: Release cutthroat trout and wild rainbow trout.
Other game fish	Sat. before Memorial Day-Apr. 15	Statewide min. size/daily limit.

Emergency Fishing Regulations for Chehalis River Salmon 2023

The above permanent regulations for the Chehalis River are subject to change at any time and without being updated on this blog. One must consult the WDFW Emergency Regulations before any trips to ensure they are in full compliance with state laws regulating fisheries.

How to fish for Salmon on the Chehalis River

Fishing on the Chehalis River differs greatly based on water flows, which can change dramatically depending on whether some of the opportunity is timed with early fall low-water or after the first major rains that bring hordes of fish charging upstream.

Another factor is where on the river you actually fish. Higher up, you can generally expect less flows, but in general the Chehais River is a major river system that is best fished by plunking or from a drift or jet boat.

Checkout the above video for some details on targeting late fall coho on the Chehalis River.