Small Sample
Washington Salmon and Steelhead timing in the Saltwater Areas and Rivers Statewide
by: Josh Zarling
You may be sitting in your living room thinking, it is late June and I want to catch a steelhead or salmon. Where should I go to give myself the best chance to get the strong pull of an anadromous fish? All you need to do is look up June in this calendar and figure out what your options might be. The goal of this calendar is to help expert and beginner fisherman know where to fish, when to fish, and what their odds are based on the numbers. The more information you have, the more informed your decision before putting unnecessary miles on your car. If the fish are not there, your chances of catching them is not great. The numbers and averages are based upon Washington Department of Fish and Game Catch Card numbers only. Catch and release fish are not counted. Each month breaks the numbers into the following categories: Chinook (Saltwater), Chum (Saltwater), Coho (Saltwater), Pink (Saltwater), Sockeye (Saltwater), Chinook (Rivers), Chum (Rivers), Coho (Rivers), Pink (Rivers), Sockeye (Rivers), and Summer and Winter run Steelhead (Rivers). Each category has a list of saltwater areas or rivers with the catch numbers from the last 5 years (2000 – 1996), the average catch numbers from multiple years, and peak months of each run of fish. For fisheries that are closed for a particular year, the number is 0. The 1996 Catch Report Card did not include salmon in the rivers that year.
3.March
·PEAK= Peak of the Run for Specific Species
·(#)= WDFW Catch Card Totals Per Year (2000/1999/1998/1997/1996)
Saltwater:
Cutthroat Trout: Puget Sound and Hood Canal
Chinook (Saltwater):
Area 7: San Juan Islands PEAK
(867/438/437/709/564/)
Area 8.1 Deception Pass/Hope Island PEAK
(236/164/75/37/107/)
Area 8.2: Port Susan/Port Gardner PEAK
(964/211/170/293/353/)
Area 9: Admiralty Inlet PEAK
(942/950/666/605/1,096/)
Area 10: Seattle/Bremerton
(410/194/482/337/252/)
Area 11: Tacoma/Vashon Island PEAK
(366/409/258/262/386/)
Area 12: Hood Canal
(91/374/56/107/30/)
Rivers:
Winter Steelhead:
Excellent Producers:
Bogachiel River
(306/214/197/49/430/)
Chehalis River
(255/58/94/119/61/)
Cowlitz River
(436/402/124/231/443/)
Grande Ronde River PEAK
(1,420/810/504/865/718/)
Hoh River PEAK
(567/313/247/25/223/)
Kalama River (Below Hatchery Falls)
(151/44/16/7/12/)
Lewis River-East Fork
(34/58/36/19/4/)
Queets River PEAK
(54/217/15/6/4/)
Quinault River-Lower
(40/326/191/313/110/)
Skookumchuck River
(117/227/90/290/415/)
Skykomish River
(10/107/38/39/65/)
Sol Duc River PEAK
(380/356/284/16/460/)
Touchet River PEAK
(361/60/16/127/151/)
Walla Walla River
(137/10/35/53/85/)
Wynoochee River PEAK
(724/934/297/369/145/)