Washington Fishing Blog
From local lakes to coastal tides, explore where to fish, what’s biting, and what’s new. Our blog is always up to date with the latest guides and stories.
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Washington Fishing
Washington Fishing
Puget Sound Lingcod season starts May 1st, 2025
The 2025 Puget Sound Lingcod season opens on May 1st! As the spring season comes around, anglers across the Puget Sound region start to get really excited about one of our first substantial fishing seasons of the year. Whether you’re located in South Puget Sound, or on the northern edges of the San Juan Islands near the Canadian border, this is a fishery you absolutely need to experience.
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Our Guide to Washington's 2025 Halibut Season
One of our most popular fisheries in Washington’s marine waters is Halibut. The 2025 season is looking good, with generous open ocean opportunities on the Washington Coast and an early season kickoff in Puget Sound, Strait of Juan de Fuca, San Juan Islands and Sekiu. We’ve broken down the seasons by area, and hope it helps you break down the dates to plan your Halibut fishing trips.
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Marine Area 10 & 11 Blackmouth Season Begins April 2, 2025
We are really excited for the recently announced early Chinook season in Puget Sound! While this has traditionally been deemed Winter Blackmouth, but with the season pushed into April, we are going to have to change up the branding as this has become a true spring fishery.
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Skagit and Sauk River Steelhead Fishing opens Feb 1, 2025
This world class catch & release Wild Steelhead fishery is a great chance to land a true trophy. Anyone looking to put together a list of the top Wild Steelhead destinations on the West Coast would definitely include the Skagit and Sauk Rivers. The Skagit is the largest river in the Puget Sound region by far. The Sauk being its largest tributary, is a big glacial river known for its superior Steelhead genetics. The story of these river’s Steelhead comeback gives us all hope and excitement for the future of Wild Steelhead, and the dream of catching and releasing big trophies. While we have only recently been gifted with the chance to target these fish here, we have recently been seeing some good forecast returns and fishing opportunities. 2025 is looking to match last year for the forecast, and if they do come back in those numbers it is going to be a great season! Skagit & Sauk River Steelhead Season for 2025 These rivers have a minimum forecast return for Steelhead that determines whether or not we will have a catch and release fishing season each year. This year we expect to see many more return, and at a forecast of 7,019, fishing on sections of these rivers will be open to fishing 7 days a week from February 1, 2025 to April 15, 2025. Catch and release only for Wild Steelhead Any Wild Steelhead you catch needs to be carefully released, and the rule is you can’t fully remove the fish from the water. Up to 2 hatchery Steelhead can be kept, however it is unlikely that you’ll see them in the Skagit or Sauk since there is not hatchery program in this watershed. Selective Gear Rules are in effect, which means only artificial lures and flies with single-point barbless hooks (you can still use multiple hooks if you’re rig requires it, up to 3). No bait, no scent and all nets need to be knotless. Night closure is also in effect. Where is fishing open on the Sauk and Skagit Rivers? Fishing on the Skagit River is open from the Dalles Bridge (Concrete) upstream to the Marblemount Bridge. The Sauk River is open from the mouth upstream to the Darrington Bridge (Sauk Prairie Road). Fishing up here is highly monitored to make sure that overfishing doesn’t occur, so expect to see creel checkers and state surveyors out and about. While the season is expected to last through April 15, it’s always good practice to check the emergency rules prior to a trip to make sure there aren’t any changes. Skagit River emergency rules and Sauk River emergency rules. Fishing on the Skagit & Sauk Rivers The Skagit and Sauk are a great pair of rivers that provides some fishing opportunities regardless of what the weather conditions have been. The Skagit, being a larger river whose flows are dam controlled, fishes well through and after larger rain events. It is a clearer river above the Sauk most of the time, and below it is heavily influenced by the Sauk’s glacial nature. The Sauk is a bit smaller and will fish best when we see occasional rain events and cold temperatures in the mountains. Fishing on the Sauk River Both rivers offer good access to fishing spots via bank and boat. The Sauk River has Highway 530 and Concrete-Sauk Valley Road as the main access roads to multiple gravel bars. Because each spot usually only holds an angler or two, I’ll refrain from listing specific places, but feel free to search for public access points, you will find plenty! Boaters access the river via a boat launch at the Darrington Mill and Hippie Bar, some float all the way down into the Skagit and take out downriver. Fishing on the Skagit River Get around the Skagit River via Highway 20 and Concrete-Sauk Valley Road. Sweeping gravel bars above and below the Sauk River mouth provide good fishing access. Rockport State Park is a popular place for boaters and bank anglers alike. The Skagit has a unique rule that allows for motorized boats, but prohibits people from fishing while the boat is under power, hence you will see jet boats equipped with oars, as well as the usual mix of rafts and drift boats. Seattle Fishing Co. can help you get geared up There are a bunch of great techniques that will work on the Skagit and Sauk Rivers, one of the most important factors is water conditions and whether you are fishing from a boat or bank. High water gear In high water conditions, if the water is a little colored up, consider drift fishing a large pink work like a BnR Holey Worm, if you are fishing from a boat this would be the perfect time to tie on one of our custom Yakima Bait Mag Lip 3.5 plugs or a tried and true Luhr Jensen Kwikfish K11X rigged with a single point Gamakatsu Big River Bait 1/0 open eye siwash hook with the barb pinched. When conditions are perfect When the water levels are moderate with a little bit of visability, boat anglers may want to downsize to a Brad's Wiggler or Hot Shot 30 plug, of course rigged with a single point hooks as mentioned above. Bobber-dogging with a float and BnR Holey Worm, BnR Soft Bead, or a hand-tied yarnie made with Glo Bug Yarn would be a good bet. Bank anglers will continue to throw pink worms but will also switch to float fishing with a jig like the Aerojig Rabbit, Beau Mac Pro Series or Mustad Addicted Jig. Swinging Little Cleo Spoons also becomes viable as water visability improves. Low flows and clear water During those occasional periods of winter chill when the snow level is low and precipitation is minimal, even these big rivers can see the faucet turn off and drop into a low and clear flow that makes Steelhead fishing more of a finesse game. Small jigs like Aerojig Hackle, Yakima Bait Maxi Jigs and BnR Soft Beads can all be fished under a float and produce when the larger profiled lures don't. This is also a phenomenal opportunity to hone in your spinner game. Size 4 Steelhead Slammer spinners and Blue Fox Vibrax spinners will catch fish in clear water when big spoons and plugs won't. Have a great season everyone! It's really exciting to see such a historically important fishery continue, it's important that we all act as stewards of the resource and treat these wild fish with care when we catch and release them. Hope you all find the one you're looking for this season, as always if you need any guidance or gear, please reach out!
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Fishing for Puget Sound’s Chinook Salmon
One of the region’s most anticipated and popular fisheries is the summer fishing season for Chinook Salmon in Puget Sound. Each marine area within Central Puget Sound has unique opening dates, season quotas and regulations, often changing from year to year in an effort to give anglers as many fishing days as possible while protecting our populations of Wild Chinook. Jump to: Places - Seasons - Gear - Discovery Places Admiralty Inlet & Possession Bar Chinook Admiralty Inlet is considered the northernmost waterway in Puget Sound, as it connects Central and South Puget Sound to the Strait of Juan De Fuca and the Pacific. Every salmon that migrates into Puget Sound swims past famed Chinook fishing spots such as Point Wilson and Mid Channel Bank near Port Townsend, as well as Craven Rock off Marrowstone Island. During the early days of the summer fishing season, these areas are the most popular in all of Puget Sound, often due to the high catch rates as Chinook Salmon are pulled in with big tidal currents. Admiralty Inlet is noticeably narrower than Central Puget Sound to the south, where we find more great fishing spots. Marinas and boat launched in Everett, Edmonds and Seattle provide easy access to the area. Here we have Possession Bar on the southern edge of Whidbey Island, a massive underwater bank that is several miles across, hosting a dozen great salmon fishing places alone. Across the water to the west of Possession is Point No Point, located on the northern end of the Kitsap Peninsula, and a famed place for small boat salmon mooching and shore fishing. Admiralty Inlet and the areas around South Whidbey Island and North Kitsap Peninsula are all managed under Marine Area 9 seasons and regulations. Seattle, Kingston and Bainbridge Island Chinook Salmon fishing remains remarkably good close to the city of Seattle. This area hosts some of the most famous Chinook Salmon fishing spots in all of Washington State, many of which are within site of the Seattle skyline. Major marinas in Edmonds, Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, Bainbridge Island and Kingston are the starting point for most salmon fishing trips. You’ll find that early in the summer season most of the action happens near the town of Kingston and to the south on Jeff Head, a massive underwater bank similar to Possession Bar. As the summer progresses and the majority of Chinook return from their ocean pastures, areas further to the south become worth fishing. Bainbridge Island has a number of great fishing spots, such as Point Monroe, Yeomalt Point, Skiff Point and Tyee Shoals. In August, Chinook will be found throughout Puget Sound, and in this area, the eastern shore also holds some good fishing for salmon making their way back to Seattle’s Lake Washington ship canal and Duwamish River. Good fishing can be found at the Edmonds Oil Docks, Richmond Beach, Boeing Creek, Meadow Point and West Point. A special Chinook Salmon fishery opens in Seattle’s Elliott Bay during the heat of the summer, giving us a chance to catch Chinook Salmon in front of Downtown Seattle. Central Puget Sound including Kingston, Seattle and Bainbridge Island are managed under Marine Area 10 seasons and regulations, with special fishing zones in Sinclair Inlet, Shilshole Bay and Elliott Bay. Tacoma and Vashon Island Chinook The areas around Vashon Island and Tacoma offer some great fishing, many of our favorite Chinook Salmon fishing spots are located next to the forested bluffs of South Puget Sound with Mount Rainier as the backdrop. Chinook Salmon migrating back to the Puyallup River, Nisqually River and to hatchery operations further south all stage and feed in this area. Major marinas and launches at Des Moines, Redondo, Tacoma and Quartermaster Harbor are busy places on early summer mornings, as boats idle out to the fishing grounds in the pre-dawn hours. Chinook fishing occurs at Vashon Island’s Dolphin Point, Point Beales, Restoration Point and Dalco Point. On the eastern shores of Puget Sound, fishing can be good at Burien’s Three Tree Point, Federal Way’s Redondo area and Brown’s Point. Tacoma hosts some of the most famous salmon fishing spots in the region, areas such as the Clay Banks, Slag Pile, Point Defiance all become crowded with boats during Chinook openers. Jump over to Gig Harbor and fish the flats right in front of the harbor entrance to find Chinook feeding on sand lance and schools of herring. Vashon Island, Gig Harbor and Vashon Island are managed under Marine Area 11 seasons and regulations, with special fishing zones at Tacoma’s inner Commencement Bay. Deep South Puget Sound Chinook Past the Tacoma Narrows Bridge lay the final reaches of Puget Sound, often referred to as Deep South Puget Sound. This area sees large returns of Chinook to hatchery complexes at Nisqually River, Deschutes River among others. Chinook Salmon will stop off at feed in a few areas once they transit under the bridge, including Point Fosdick on the Gig Harbor side and Fox Island’s Point Gibson. By late summer, most Chinook have made their way into the area, and can be found along Nisqually Reach as well. All of Puget Sound south of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge is managed under Marine Area 13 seasons and regulations. Seasons Marine Areas 9, 10, 11 Chinook Salmon Seasons Puget Sound’s fishing seasons for Chinook Salmon has one of the highest participation rates and therefore one of the most carefully managed in the state. Puget Sound Wild Chinook are listed as a Threatened Species under the Endangered Species Act, therefore seasons are carefully crafted to give us a chance to harvest as many Hatchery reared Chinook as we can while minimizing the impact on Wild Chinook. Marine Area 9, 10 and 11 each has specific Chinook harvest and catch guidelines in place to help manage the fishery. Often, in season management will determine whether an emergency closure is necessary to keep that balance. Our recommendation is to plan your fishing trips as best as you can once the seasons are announced, check for emergency rule changes before your tripe, and prepare to be flexible for sudden closures and reopeners. Marine Area 13 Chinook Fishing Seasons Historically, Marine Area 13 has had less fishing pressure and a more liberal season than the other Puget Sound marine areas, but it is still subject to in-season management. With all of these areas, it’s a good idea to check the WDFW News Releases and Emergency Fishing Rules just prior to your trip. Gear Trolling is a popular tactic for Puget Sound Chinook In the Puget Sound region, nearly all new fishing boats come equipped with electric downriggers for salmon trolling. Downrigger trolling is the default technique for salmon trolling. It allows the boat to deploy gear at depths to 250’ and control the depth with ease. For the most part, salmon flashers are used as the main attractor for trolling, then a leader of 33” to 48” is used to space out the flasher from the lure. Popular Chinook Salmon trolling lures are trolling spoons, trolling flies, anchovy or herring in a bait helmet, and plastic hoochie skirts. If you’re looking to avoid fishing with the added drag of a flasher on your line, a choked herring can be all that’s needed to catch Chinook, but the most popular non-flasher Chinook lure in Puget Sound is the Tomic Plug. Mooching for Chinook is a time-honored tradition One of the most common food sources for Chinook Salmon is the Pacific Herring. So it only seems fitting that one of the oldest methods to fish for Chinook happens to be a cut-plug herring, fished with a sinker and dropped down to the depths and retrieved back to the surface. It doesn’t take much salmon mooching tackle to fully utilize this technique, and while downrigger trolling has taken center stage in the salmon game, there is still a large contingent of Puget Sound salmon anglers that exclusively use this hands-on technique. Jigging brings the action on both the pier and boats Metal jigs are a great lure choice for Puget Sound Chinook, and considered to be a great alternative method when trolling and mooching are out of the question. The truth about trolling is that it’s a phenomenal technique and very effective. However many people don’t have downriggers on their boats, thus can’t be truly effective to get to the depths where most Chinook are found (deeper than 50’ in most areas, sometimes as deep as 200’ or more). Mooching can be a great option, but if Puget Sound’s notorious Dogfish have moved into your fishing area, those cut plug herring won’t last long. Vertical jigging with metal jigs such as Puget Pounders or P-Line Laser Minnows can be just the ticket! Send the jigs right down to the bottom or wherever you’re marking bait and give that rod tip a swift pop-up, lifting the jig, then allow it to flutter back down. The strike on a metal jig is unreal. Public fishing piers around Puget Sound offer a really good chance at catching big Chinook. Metal jigs from 1-1/2 ounces to 3 ounces seem to be the best option for distance casting and getting down deep enough to have a shot. We have a full list of great lures for pier fishing and a post about Puget Sound public fishing piers to help you explore your options. Exploring and learning to fish Puget Sound’s Chinook Salmon spots One thing that may not be obvious to a newcomer are the subtle differences in each of our fishing spots. Each popular fishing spot in Puget Sound usually occurs because of an underwater ridge, bank or bar that collects sealife based on tidal currents. Salmon are highly migratory. Baitfish like Herring are moved around by currents, and the salmon’s never-ending task it to follow the bait and keep feeding. It’s a never ending game of cat and mouse, while the bait is obliviously being pushed around by the currents, salmon are constantly on the search for bait, and salmon anglers are constantly on the search for salmon. Each area tends to hold salmon in different areas at different stages in the tide, and as a matter of fact, salmon with concentrate in different parts of an area not only depending on the stage of that tide, but also the strength of the currents, which vary greatly in the Pacific Northwest from day to day. Strong currents will sweep baitfish into concentrations, and as the tide softens and ultimately reverses, the “bite” can die in an instant and move to a new area. Anglers that have spent a lifetime fishing in Puget Sound learn something new everyday, and that is one of the reasons that it is such an interesting place to fish. I hope you found this article helpful, we at Seattle Fishing Company put a lot of pride into helping people have a successful time on the water. If you need help with gear selection, please shoot us an email or a phone call!
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Our guide to the 2024 Washington Salmon Fishing Seasons - Marine Areas
Washington is known for its rugged coastline and vast expanses of ocean, inlets and bays, salmon fishing happens to be the main event in pretty much every corner of the state, and the 2024 salmon fishing season is shaping up to be a great one! Washington's salmon season setting process is wrapping up and we have a great idea of what is in store for the waters of the Pacific Ocean, Strait, Puget Sound, San Juan Islands and Columbia River.
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Whidbey Island's Beaches - Washington's Best Places to Salmon Fish From Shore
Whidbey Island is Washington's largest island, located in the center of Puget Sound and an absolute magnet for beach anglers. Follow along with us as we circle the island and lay out the best places on Whidbey Island to fish for salmon from shore.
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Puget Sound, Washington - Best Public Piers for Salmon Fishing
Seattle is blessed to have a few really great public fishing spots where anglers can catch salmon without the use of a boat, we catch salmon with surprising regularity from our local piers. Grab a few of our favorite pier fishing lures and head out to any of these awesome salmon fishing spots.
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