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Fishing
Reports, Current and Historical  Figuring
out when and where to fish for salmon is one of the most asked questions
for beginning salmon anglers. For many years, WDFW has provided weekly
summaries of our dockside sampling for all marine areas and some rivers
on the internet. Current year summaries are great for determining if you
need to run out and fish right now. But even these reports are a few days
to a week old. Remember, its better to make the reports rather than chasing
them. Historical summaries are better for future planning. You can look
at 2 or 3 years worth of summaries and determine when is the best general
time to fish an area. You can then plan your trips around those traditional
peak times. Although you might look at when the most fish are caught to
determine peak times, remember that more fish are going to be caught when
more anglers are out fishing. So you might also calculate the catch per
angler (divide the number of fish caught by the number of anglers or trips)
to see if there are good times to fish before or after the crowds arrive.
Fishing reports
are broken into broad geographic regions.
Ocean
For Marine
Areas 1 - 4, including Illwaco, Westport, LaPush and Neah Bay, actual
catch estimates are provided. Buoy 10 reports are not included here. See
the current and historical Ocean Salmon Reports at: Ocean
Sport Salmon Reports. Unfortunately, the historical reports are
listed by “statistical weeks” rather than calendar dates.
For reference, statistical weeks can generally be categorized as: statistical
weeks 19-22 are May, statistical weeks 23-26 are June, statistical weeks
27-31 are July, statistical weeks 32-35 are August, and statistical weeks
36-39 are September.
Willapa
Bay and Grays Harbor
For Marine
Areas 2-1 (Willapa Bay), 2-2 (Grays Harbor) and the Chehalis River see
the Coastal Fishing Reports at: Coastal
Fishing Reports.
Puget
Sound (Sekiu to the San Juan Islands and down to Olympia)
Puget Sound fishing reports are broken into 4 sub-regions: South
(S), Central (C), North (N), and Peninsula (P). South (S) includes areas
like Olympia and Tacoma, Central (C) includes areas like Seattle, and
Everett, North (N) includes areas like Whidbey Island, Mount Vernon, Bellingham,
and the San Juan Islands, and Peninsula (P) includes Port Townsend, Port
Angeles, and Sekiu. Puget Sound salmon fishing reports can be found at:
Puget Sound Fishing Reports.
Buoy
10, Columbia River and Southwest Washington Rivers
Buoy 10
salmon fishing reports are provided during August and September, when
the fishery is open, in the Southwest Washington Fishing Reports and can
be found here: Southwest Washington
Fishing Reports. Salmon fishing reports for southwest Washington
Rivers, such as the Columbia, Grays, Elochoman, Cowlitz, Lewis, Kalama,
Washougal, Wind, and Klickitat rivers, and Drano Lake can also be found
at: Southwest Washington Fishing
Reports. |
