Up next in 10
2021 PNW Recreation Calendar
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Feb 5, 2025
There is fishing, hunting or shellfish harvesting to do every month of the year in the PNW. I live in western Washington and I walk you through my recreation and harvesting calendar for the year 2021. We discuss steelhead, blackmouth, razor clams, oysters, springers on the Columbia, Shrimping, crabbing, ling cod, rockfish, halibut, trout, kings, coho and pink salmon in the Strait, Puget Sound and in the rivers. We talk about hunting deer and elk. We even cover squidding. Take a look at the many resources and how-to's on pnwbestlife.com as well. Through the blog and this channel, we will keep putting out content all year long about all these opportunities. Happy New Year!
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0:00
happy new year from pacific northwest
0:02
best life
0:03
you know i get asked sometimes from
0:04
people who don't live here
0:06
what time of year should i come to uh
0:08
pacific northwest
0:09
to uh you know get in on some good
0:12
fishing or
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hunting or other kind of recreation you
0:15
know there's something to do
0:17
every month of the year in the pacific
0:19
northwest
0:21
i'm in western washington i'm going to
0:22
talk through my recreation calendar
0:25
for 2021. hopefully it's a better year
0:28
than 2020
0:29
in every way but we're going to talk
0:31
about recreation calendar hunting
0:33
fishing crabbing squidding shellfish
0:37
harvesting
0:38
all all of it we're going to talk about
0:40
what seasons i'm most interested in
0:42
most excited about in 2021 here we go
0:46
all right starting in the month of
0:48
january
0:49
we have a steelhead season going on
0:52
right now for hatchery steelhead
0:54
and i like to go out to the coast hit
0:56
some rivers out there
0:58
that kind of slows down by about uh
1:00
middle of january so
1:02
if you haven't already gotten out you
1:04
got a steelhead
1:05
you want to make some time to do that
1:08
also really exciting
1:09
on january 1st we had the black mouth
1:12
opener in marine area 10
1:14
puget sound that's the area around the
1:16
city of seattle
1:17
uh north tip of vashon up to um
1:20
up to kingston and we were able to get
1:23
in on that opening day
1:25
pull a nice 24-inch keeper out the
1:27
blackmail season
1:28
may be open all month depending on what
1:30
kind of weather we get
1:32
and what kind of how many anglers are
1:34
out there fishing it
1:35
uh it's based on a quota so if uh
1:39
if we encounter too many sublegals and
1:41
we encounter too many wild fish
1:44
this could shut down early um it is
1:46
supposed to open up though
1:48
uh in march again as well when bigger
1:50
fish like springers are returning
1:52
once it gets to about half of the quota
1:54
so this this is a big question mark
1:56
uh fisheries managers are going to be
1:58
more cautious in closing this down early
2:00
um so you might need to get out and get
2:03
your black mouth fixed on puget sound as
2:05
well
2:05
soon we get some nice calm weather all
2:07
right all right now let's talk about the
2:09
month of february
2:10
uh for for me february is prime time for
2:14
steelhead
2:14
the chehalis river system and the
2:16
tributaries of the chehalis river
2:19
uh start to get steelhead in much better
2:21
numbers that is prime time that's when
2:23
you got to get out there
2:24
uh get that done there's still going to
2:26
be steelhead on the coast but hatchery
2:28
fish are going to be slowing down you
2:29
got to pay attention to the new regs
2:31
some of the systems out there are closed
2:33
and you got wildfish coming in in
2:35
february
2:36
uh retention's obviously going to be
2:38
closed for that uh but you can fish for
2:40
them in certain rivers
2:41
you got to pay attention to the regs a
2:42
bunch of special regs uh
2:44
this year uh you could see all the
2:47
washington coast steelhead seasons on
2:49
pnwbestlife.com you should always go to
2:51
wdfw check out their rags
2:53
all right i got razor clams here
2:54
question mark
2:56
i'm hoping that uh shellfish managers
2:59
when they do their testing they're going
3:00
to see that razor clams are safe again
3:04
the dominic acid levels are going to be
3:05
dropping
3:06
um i'm hoping we get this opened up
3:08
again there are
3:10
so many razor clams to go harvest on the
3:13
coast this is
3:14
one of our favorite things to do month
3:16
of february
3:17
get a bunch of razor clams especially if
3:19
you can combine do a little bit of razor
3:21
clams a little bit of steelhead fishing
3:23
out there
3:24
uh that is good stuff now i don't think
3:26
the blackmail season
3:28
is still going to be open in marine area
3:29
10 i think it'll be closed before the
3:31
month end of january so i don't enlist
3:33
it here let's move on
3:38
all right now we're in the month of
3:39
march and one of the things i'm excited
3:42
about march 1st
3:43
we've got the cq green area five
3:46
black mouth opener i would love to be
3:48
out there for that
3:49
gotta figure it out how i'm gonna make
3:51
that happen i'd love to do that
3:53
uh also marine area 10 might open up
3:56
again
3:57
uh again based on this quota system and
3:59
everything and
4:00
uh that could be really good too uh the
4:02
chehalis system steelhead will keep
4:04
it'll keep going and then you gotta add
4:06
the cowlicks into that too
4:08
the callouts steelheading has been
4:10
getting better
4:11
every year since you know since the
4:13
since the blob year so
4:14
uh keep your eye on that look at the
4:16
escapement reports figure out
4:18
uh when to go when the fish are in and
4:21
then
4:22
particularly exciting i did this for the
4:23
first time in 2020
4:25
i took my small jet boat over the bar in
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westport
4:28
on a calm day you've got to look at so
4:30
many things to make sure you're safe
4:31
doing that small boat i got a video
4:34
on the channel all about westport bottom
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fishing in a small boat
4:39
and being safe but i'm excited about
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this usually opens that
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third saturday or that third week of um
4:45
third week of march
4:47
and uh get out there get over the bar
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safely
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get some lean cod get some uh get some
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black rock fish
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that can be a blast um as you get
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towards the end of the month
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you gotta look at the water temps on the
5:01
columbia you gotta look at the dam couch
5:02
going over bonneville
5:04
but a lot of times it's clubbier
5:05
columbia river springer thing gets going
5:08
we don't know yet exactly what the
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season is um
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forecast is similar to last year um so
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there might be a limited opening
5:17
but any chance to get in on columbia
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river springers
5:21
uh you got to jump on that they are the
5:23
best tasting
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salmon uh without a doubt i love to have
5:27
some springers in my freezer every year
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last year was challenging they do the
5:31
code right they closed it
5:32
they opened it up in may it was funky
5:35
sometimes good sometimes really bad
5:36
hopefully we get back to normal we got
5:38
some columbia river springers
5:40
going on in 2021
5:43
all right let's talk about the month of
5:44
april now
5:46
the springer season if it's open it's
5:48
gonna get better
5:50
every day it stays open some years it
5:54
could be closed by april 1st if the
5:55
water's warmer
5:57
a lot of fish are biting a lot of people
5:59
are fishing for them they hit the
6:00
quarter real fast
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a lot of times though this springer
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season will go into the first second
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week of april uh before they shut it
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down hopefully we get a good season here
6:08
good run good water um
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got to keep an eye on those river temps
6:13
again
6:15
i like the sec this uh what is the
6:17
second third week of april here
6:19
there's some good afternoon really low
6:22
tides
6:23
get your oysters done get your clamming
6:25
done
6:27
lots of spots on hood canal uh puget
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town
6:30
different places nearby you don't have
6:32
to go too far
6:33
get your oysters and clams done uh it
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can be awesome
6:36
and then of course later in april we've
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got halibut opening up
6:40
i am determined to fish for halibut this
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year
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uh i've not really chased them too much
6:47
in years past
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i need to get a halibut on my boat this
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year and uh and then you got lowland
6:51
lake opener for trout
6:52
happening in that last weekend as well i
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believe uh here's an idea
6:56
go catch some some some stalker trout
6:59
use them as halibut bait come on send
7:02
them downtown
7:04
those those butts will eat them up
7:07
now we're getting into may this is this
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getting into my favorite time of year
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now we're into may halibut's gonna keep
7:13
going hopefully i got a halibut on my
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boat by now
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uh you've got puget sound bottom fishing
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opening up
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usually may 1st all over puget town
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i'm looking at cq though i love fishing
7:26
out of sea cube for bottom fish salmon
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whatever
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but i want to be out there you know
7:30
marine area nine
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uh you know it's got some good uh good
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bottom fish as well
7:35
possession bar doing the lincoln thing
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out there
7:38
um definitely gotta put some time in
7:42
on the bottom fish get your ling cod get
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your rock fish
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um pay attention the regs there where
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you can go
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and and based on the species there and
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then usually
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up the middle of may here we get the
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spot shrimp opener
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where the puget town turns yellow right
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you got yellow buoys all over the place
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i love
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shrimp we put over a thousand shrimp and
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they close to 1500 shrimp
8:03
in our freezer last year looking to do
8:06
that again
8:07
i love shrimping hood canal puget town
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i just love shrimping period um but
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uh that should be happening pay
8:16
attention to wfw announcements pnw best
8:18
life
8:19
is going to have the shrimping season
8:20
totally covered everything you need to
8:22
know
8:23
about spot shrimping in puget town
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seasons
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how to it's all going to be up there on
8:28
the blog and update it up to date as the
8:30
season goes
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definitely exciting in the month of may
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this this grocery shopping season get
8:35
your
8:36
get your white fish get your shrimp get
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all that in the freezer
8:40
turn the page get ready for salmon
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season
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all right now we're in the month of june
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it's warming up it's getting more
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exciting we got a lot of recreation to
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do
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that resident co-host season usually
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opens up june 1st in marina area 10
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hopefully we can have that happen again
8:55
spot shrimping keeps going
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bottom fish keeps going right so uh some
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of these things they get a lot of
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attention on the openers
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then they die down and then they get
9:04
better sometimes it's great to be out
9:06
there
9:06
and get your lean cod in the middle of
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june right before it closes
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in the puget sound um and then hopefully
9:13
by the end of june
9:15
uh we get that marine area four uh ocean
9:18
opener
9:19
for salmon and uh and good quotas on
9:22
kings and silvers
9:23
uh i would love to be out uh
9:26
dragging some some downriggers uh in the
9:30
ocean maybe doing a little mooching
9:32
around some reefs some rock points some
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cracks in the rocks in marine area 4
9:36
by the end of june that would be
9:39
absolutely awesome i'm looking forward
9:40
to that
9:42
and what about july july
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is absolute heaven in the pacific
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northwest
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the weather's warm you're on the water
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you're dropping your crab pots in the
9:53
morning
9:54
going out get in your salmon getting a
9:56
bunch of crab
9:58
what a great way to spend an afternoon
10:01
morning on the water maybe before work
10:03
after work
10:04
weekends taking days off july is prime
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time if there's one month you're trying
10:09
to figure out when should i come to
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washington
10:13
it's gotta be july okay maybe august all
10:15
right i'm getting ahead of myself though
10:17
july salmon it's all happening uh
10:20
i would love to be out in cq
10:23
i'm pretty much gonna be hunting cq for
10:26
the july first assuming it's july first
10:28
salmon opener out there
10:30
uh that is fantastic it was epic
10:33
last year in 2020 it was unreal uh
10:36
and it got really crowded out there too
10:38
as the word got out but i'm going to be
10:40
i'm going to be there early i'm going to
10:42
be crabbing in
10:43
throughout puget town you get usually
10:46
marine area nine is going to open up
10:48
it's been opening up by about middle of
10:49
july uh you got to get those fish in
10:52
marine area nine
10:53
uh when they're still feeding we're
10:54
biting real good you know last year was
10:56
a little bit weird
10:57
there was so much bait in the straight
10:59
people like oh it was a bad year it was
11:01
a bad
11:01
year there was so much bait out in the
11:02
strait that by the time the fish got the
11:04
marinara nine
11:05
green area ten they were pretty fat not
11:08
very hungry not very bitey
11:10
we actually had a season that went the
11:11
entire uh in
11:13
the entire distance uh we did not hit
11:16
the quota and it wasn't because there
11:17
wasn't fish there was a lot of fish
11:19
they just weren't biting unless you got
11:22
them out there in the straight
11:23
then you absolutely put the put this put
11:26
the slage on them
11:27
absolutely slayed them out there in the
11:29
straight all right um
11:31
by about middle of the month as well
11:33
you're going to get a lot of fish down
11:35
the south sound
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you know early on marine area 11 13 you
11:38
can pull some fish you can grind out
11:39
some fish
11:40
but when you get towards that end of
11:42
july the south sound
11:44
really really heats up fishing
11:48
uh in marine area 10 up north jefferson
11:51
head kingston
11:52
you can put a lot of kings in your boat
11:55
and you start getting those ocean coho
11:56
as well it can be absolutely fantastic
12:00
don't forget don't forget your crab get
12:03
your crabbing done
12:04
now we're living the dream we're in the
12:06
month of august
12:08
and we've got puget sound uh on fire
12:11
for salmon kings are dying down we've
12:14
got silver's coming in ocean
12:15
silver's coming in we got horde of pinks
12:19
probably taking over the sound uh that
12:21
was much better than expected two years
12:23
ago i'm
12:24
expecting huge huge numbers of pinks
12:26
back to the way it used to be
12:28
you're gonna have kings in the river by
12:30
about the middle of august uh you still
12:32
got crabbing to be done
12:33
uh you're gonna have pinks in the river
12:36
by the middle end of august
12:37
and then uh you got to get down to
12:39
bouition hopefully we get a better
12:41
season
12:41
than we did last year but uh by the end
12:44
of august at least
12:45
i gotta get down to this buoy ten and uh
12:48
try to do some salmon fishing down there
12:50
i did that uh for the first time in a
12:52
while last year
12:55
craziest uh fish story there got gotta
12:57
pull the king out of there that was fun
12:59
i can't wait to do that again and now
13:03
things are starting to change a little
13:04
bit because we're in the month of
13:05
september
13:06
and we've got rivers wide open for
13:08
salmon we've got kings in the rivers
13:10
we've got silvers in the rivers we've
13:11
got pinks in the rivers the rivers are
13:12
full of salmon
13:14
and that you start to get your hunting
13:15
seasons your archery is going to open
13:17
for deer later in the month for elk
13:19
depending on where you're at and uh you
13:22
start to get
13:22
uh coastal salmon out there in the forks
13:25
area and
13:26
down south along the coast you start to
13:28
get those big coastal kings coming in
13:31
uh into the rivers there that is
13:34
probably one of my absolute
13:35
favorite uh fishing seasons of the
13:38
entire year
13:39
get those bobber downs and float in
13:42
those eggs
13:43
get some nice eggs put them right in
13:45
front of a big 30 pound king salmon
13:48
and it's party time out on the coast all
13:50
right later on you're gonna have the
13:51
muzzleloader season opening up for deer
13:53
and next week next month for elf let's
13:56
go there
13:58
all right out of the coast month of
13:59
october you're gonna have coastal salmon
14:01
a wide open king silvers you name it and
14:04
uh your muzzleloader elk seasons are
14:05
gonna open you've got deer
14:07
general deer season opening you've got
14:09
river coho uh really
14:11
throughout middle september and well in
14:14
october you're to have
14:15
just puted sound river coho going nuts
14:18
just about everywhere and then of course
14:21
winter crab
14:22
usually opens up as well i i think the
14:23
last week of september
14:25
first two weeks of october the most
14:27
congested recreation counters you got
14:29
fishing hunting crabbing so much to be
14:32
done they're not enough days to do it
14:35
if you're looking to take some time off
14:36
take those weeks off go out and just
14:38
fill your freezer go nuts have a blast
14:41
you really can't beat it and uh you know
14:44
can't forget about squid you know uh
14:47
squidding in 2020 uh was good
14:50
early on in the fall uh even though
14:53
people weren't talking about it as much
14:55
well
14:55
you can you might be able to get into
14:57
the squid starting in october
14:59
maybe even earlier in 2021 if it
15:01
continues to be good
15:02
and then you're gonna have some chum
15:04
coming in uh in the salt
15:06
some of the puget town rivers hood canal
15:09
uh
15:09
chum is an absolute blast numbers have
15:12
been down a little bit hopefully we get
15:13
better returns
15:14
and uh get back to some chum fun because
15:16
that is a blast
15:19
all right getting close to the end
15:20
thanks for sticking with me we're in
15:21
november
15:22
we've got general elk season we got chum
15:25
happening
15:26
we got winter crabbing probably port of
15:27
everett hood canal gonna be your best
15:29
bets for that
15:30
we got squid near the seattle front
15:32
waterfront tacoma waterfront
15:34
now you got your late hunting seasons
15:36
these late hunting seasons
15:38
are the ones that do the most uh have
15:41
the most success
15:42
on blacktail deer um i got real
15:45
close in 2020 on this not quite but i'm
15:48
looking to
15:49
apply some of those lessons learned do
15:51
better late hunting season
15:52
is primo weather's worst not as many
15:55
people out there
15:56
and uh you can put the smackdown on some
15:59
deer
15:59
or some elk depending on what game
16:01
management unit you're looking at
16:03
all right finishing off december 2021
16:07
we still got crab open we still got
16:09
squid open
16:10
and we got last chance hunting last
16:13
chance to put a big game animal in your
16:14
freezer
16:15
and we're coming back to steelhead again
16:18
we've come full circle
16:19
we got steelhead coming in uh hatchery
16:21
steelhead out on the coast
16:23
some of puget sound rivers and uh we are
16:26
getting rock and rolling
16:27
and thinking about 2022 again
16:30
all right thanks for sticking with me
16:31
this far and taking a look at my
16:33
recreation calendar what are you most
16:36
excited about
16:37
in 2021 hunting fishing shellfish
16:40
harvesting drop
16:41
your favorite season into the comments
16:43
on this video
16:44
please like this video help promote it
16:47
subscribe to my channel
16:48
i'm gonna be covering this stuff all
16:50
2021
16:52
uh and giving you just everything you
16:55
need to know
16:56
uh hopefully to have a great 2021
16:57
recreating in the pacific northwest
17:00
that is the pacific northwest best life
17:03
have an awesome year happy new year
17:04
everyone take care
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