PNW BestLife – Page 12 of 17 – A site dedicated to promoting sustainable outdoor harvest recreation in the PNW: Fishing, Hunting and Foraging

Westport Bottom Fishing March 2020

March 27, 2024March 26, 2020 by Kyle

Things seem to be changing quickly in terms of recreational opportunities as the state shuts down.

The city of Westport recently shut down all hotels, vacation rentals, and ways for non-residents to stay in an effort to keep people away and stop the spread.

This whole virus mess will pass. When it does, making a trip to Westport for bottom fishing is something you should strongly consider. This whole virus mess will pass. When it does, making a trip to Westport for bottom fishing is something you should strongly consider.

Orting Foothills Trail Biking

March 27, 2024February 24, 2020 by Kyle

The Foothills Trail runs parallel to the Carbon River for a stretch near the town of Orting

Okay, so maybe you can’t quite convince your family to join you on an epic quest for winter steelhead or blackmouth, but recreating outside together is an essential part of experiencing the PNW Best Life.

Last week, we were finally rewarded with a nice stretch of sun, and that pattern looks to repeat for most of this week as well. All bets are off after that! So why not dust off the ole bike and get the family out riding (or walking) on the awesome Foothills Trail near Orting, WA?

Marine Area 9 Blackmouth Fishing February, 2020

March 27, 2024February 13, 2020 by Kyle

blackmouth release of sub legal — Release of sub legal blackmouth

Marine Area 9 opened up on February 1st for fishing for and retention of a single hatchery chinook 22″ and larger (blackmouth). There were some initial positive reports and lots of “shaker city” kind of reports.

I couldn’t help myself for too long before I had to go out and check things out.

Hood Canal Crabbing January 2020

March 27, 2024January 29, 2020 by Kyle

Hood canal crabbing red rocks and dungies — Hood canal crabbing for Red rocks and Dungies

I’ve wanted to get this post up about our Hood Canal Crabbing trip quickly since winter crabbing is closing at the end of this week, but I’ve been waylaid by a virus (probably corona?) that knocked me out the last 3-4 days.

We were only on the water for about 4-5 hours but experienced decent success with keeper crabs. Most of them were Red Rock, but we still got some nice big Dungeness crab sprinkled in the mix.

Marine Area 10 Blackmouth Fishing January, 2020

March 27, 2024January 24, 2020 by Kyle

blackmouth keeper netted — Blackmouth keeper in the net

After all the snow, ice, and wind events we’ve had in the Puget Sound area lately, I finally made it out to fish for Blackmouth in Puget Sound. I had heard some recent good reports in Marine Area 10, so we decided to target fishing near Kingston. Marine Area 10 has been open since the start of the year and has just started to produce Blackmouth.

Steelhead Float Fishing Washington coast, January 2020

March 25, 2024January 19, 2020 by Kyle

I finally made it out for a fishing trip after a dry spell of almost 5 weeks! The goal of this trip? Float fishing for steelhead on the Washington coast! In this post, I describe all the details that made this a successful steelhead fishing trip.

Fishing Hooks for Salmon

March 25, 2024January 15, 2020 by Kyle

Selecting the right fishing hook for salmon may be one of the most important tackle choices you make if you want to hook and land lots of fish. There are a number of considerations to make when deciding on hooks to purchase such as: Size, durability, and cost.

2019 Utah Elk Hunting

March 25, 2024January 5, 2020 by Kyle

Standing on one of the highest ridges in the area looking for Elk in Utah

Hunting for elk in Utah during winter is an amazing experience whether you get to fill your elk tag or not.

On this Utah elk trip, we ended up with a whole lot of tag soup, but this was largely a factor of the deck not being stacked in our favor.

I’m not always as excited to write about trips that didn’t result in punching tags or fish. However, any hunting trip where you experience the kinds of backcountry views we had, where you learn a lot that can be applied to the next season, and where you stay safe and warm (mostly), is a great trip.

2020 Puget Sound Salmon Seasons

March 25, 2024December 23, 2019 by Kyle

Sekiu caught king — King caught off of Sekiu

2020 Salmon seasons have been released as the North of Falcon process concludes. While the biggest headline and disappointment is the loss of most of the winter blackmouth season in 2020-2021, it may only be a one year setback. Summer chinook seasons have a slightly higher quota. Everything kicks off on June 1st with the opening of the Marine Area 10 coho season.

My final update to this post is a link to the 2021 Puget sound salmon season post just released.