North of Falcon and 2019 Salmon Forecasts

NWSportsmanmag.com covered the North of Falcon Salmon forecast reveal with a great article outlining what to expect. You never know exactly what to expect, but based on some of the macro trends we’ve been following, the forecast isn’t a huge surprise. I’m personally excited about a few of these forecasts

Most exciting is the projected return of 2 million coho to the Columbia, Coast, and Puget Sound.

While the coast and Puget Sound are up modestly, which is awesome because last year’s coho return in puget sound was really good, the Columbia gets a 6x increase in projected returning coho.

Now…if you are a resident of Pugetropolis, you may be thinking “Why do I care about what’s going on 2 hours south?”.

Also, because of the projected Chinook return which is still recovering, accessing these fish on the main stem Columbia River may be challenging.

One of the Columbia River tribs I will be paying close attention to is the Cowlitz this fall. Typically these bumper crop returns of silvers translate to lights-out fishing on the Cowlitz. There’s also usually a generous bag limit on that river, so get your Columbia River endorsement when license renewal time comes, because it could be epic.

In general, the coho forecast in Puget Sound also has me excited, because much of the positive increase in projected returns is in the mid to south sound: Nisqually, Puyallup, and Green River systems.

The Nisqually coho run has not been healthy and hasn’t even had a season open of late. The Puyallup last year was stuffed with coho, a projected repeat of that has me pretty excited.

Chinook forecasts for puget sound look like we will get about what we had last year, which was certainly good fishing for a lot of folks.

The other big headline is that with 2019 being an odd year, the pink forecast is just above 600k, which is one of the lowest projected returns going back to 1959.

It’s still 100k more projected than what actually came back in 2017, which was an incredibly sparse return.

Kyle’s bold prediction for 2019: We will get far more pinks back than what’s on forecast. I just think that the Pink’s tend to surprise people with how quickly their population booms when conditions are good.

Conditions have been good since 2017 with other stocks rebounding from the warm ocean conditions, I think the Pink return will surprise people. Check out my primer on Puget Sound Salmon Fishing for some ideas on preparing for the 2019 season.

Is it summer salmon season yet?