Barb sent this out on Willapa and frankly similiar effort in Grays Harbor or the coast in general would be a great thing to happen!

Hello Everyone,

It’s that time of year again when WDFW south coast marine fisheries staff for Willapa Bay will be providing in-season weekly updates regarding recreational and commercial fisheries, hatchery broodstock, and spawning ground surveys as we move through the fall salmon season. If you have any questions or comments regarding any of the information provided through these emails for the 2025 salmon season, please reply to this email and/or contact Barbara McClellan at #360-249-1213.

Recreational Marine Area Fishery

The Willapa Bay recreational marine fishery opened on June 21, 2025, under Ocean Area 2 rules. Our recreational creel monitoring began on opening day and included the Tokeland boat launch and marina. We had a better start to the 2025 salmon fishing season compared to last year during the same timeframe in July, particularly for coho fishing, and we saw effort peak the week of July 21st then drop back down the last week of July. This may be due to several factors including a push of salmon into Willapa Bay that week or better fishable tides (high tide in the early morning hours). There were only a few days in July when high water occurred first thing in the morning (the most favored tide for Willapa Bay marine recreational). A midday high tide may have contributed to less fish biting given the warm weather conditions, which may have also discouraged some anglers, but many of the interviews that were conducted by staff in the early weeks of the fishery were crabbing inside Willapa Bay. Staff reported 15 Chinook salmon (10 unmarked, 5 AD-clipped) and 85 Ad-clipped coho landed between June and July. If you are interested in any data collected by the Ocean Sampling Program for Ocean Areas 1- 4, you can find those data on our website at Ocean sport salmon quota report | Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife

August 1st signified a change in regulations from Ocean Area 2 rules to Willapa Bay specific rules. The regulations for 2025 starting August 1 are the same as the 2024 salmon season including the Willapa Bay Control Zone that is once again open to salmon fishing August 1 and September 30. During August and September, staff will monitor dockside locations that include both the Tokeland boat launch and marina, and the South Bend boat launch two days per strata (strata 1: Monday – Thursday; strata 2: Friday – Sunday). Staff saw an increase in effort the first full week of August with the highest effort reported on Sunday, August 10th. From August 1 – 10, there were several days (August 1-3) with an early morning high tide, the most favorable tide for Willapa Bay, however, there were small tide changes between low and high tides. Some minus low water tides occurred Aug 6 – 13 with smaller tide changes. There were 21 hatchery Chinook salmon and two coho estimated to have been caught in the first weeks from August 1 – 10. (See attachment: 2025 WB Marine Area Recreational Data & Catch Estimate Summary Draft 08.15.2025.pdf).

For this week, August 11 - 17, early morning fishable tides started Wednesday, Aug 13 and will run through this Sunday, Aug 17 with smaller tidal exchanges. Some minus low water tides will occur starting Monday, Aug 18 and will continue through the week.

Spawning Ground Surveys

Staff started weekly stream surveys on August 5 below the weir in Nemah and Naselle rivers. Staff have observed just over 100 live Chinook staging in both systems. There were also two live jacks and 4 carcasses found in Naselle River. At this point, we have not observed any spawning or redds in either of these river sections. Historically, Chinook salmon begin spawning in Willapa Bay rivers the middle of September.

Hatchery Chinook Rack Returns

Naselle River Hatchery
To-date, 9 adult and 0 jack hatchery Chinook salmon have volunteered into the attraction channel and recruited into the hatchery. This is significantly lower than last year at this time. There has also been one unmarked, male Chinook salmon that has volunteered into the hatchery at this point, and this fish was planted upstream above the hatchery. There have been no Chinook salmon mortalities reported in the Naselle Hatchery to-date. These data will be updated in the next weekly in-season email.

Nemah and Forks Creek hatcheries
To-date, no Chinook salmon have recruited into Nemah Hatchery or Forks Creek Hatchery at this point.

Commercial Fishery

The commercial fishery in Willapa Bay was scheduled to open this week on August 13 and August 16 at the south end of the bay using tangle net gear in Areas 2N, 2M, and 2R. An update from this opener will be provided in next week’s weekly update email.

As always, in-season data is preliminary and subject to change.
All data provided through these weekly email updates for the months of August and September will be posted to the Willapa Bay Marine Area 2.1 Recreational Creel Monitoring page of our website listed below.

If you have any comments or questions specific to the information provided in these emails, please submit your comments to WillapaBay@dfw.wa.gov.

Additionally, if you know of anyone who might be interested in receiving these in-season update emails or any other information staff send out regarding Willapa Bay, please forward this email and have them reply to WillapaBay@dfw.wa.gov stating they would like to be added to our email distribution list.

Thank you and Fish On! ><(((&#9702;> ><(((&#9702;>
Barbara McClellan


Online reference links you may be interested in:
Willapa Bay Marine Area 2.1 Recreational Creel Monitoring:
Willapa Bay Recreational Salmon Reports | Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife

Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor (non-treaty) Commercial Salmon fisheries (Regulations and landed catch):
Commercial Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor Gillnet Salmon Fishery | Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife