UPDATE TIME!

Hello Everyone,
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
Since our first update of the season last week, we had a significant increase in effort and catch from August 11 – 17, 2025. The highest effort (in terms of vessels), number of anglers, and catch were all reported on the same day, Sunday, August 17, 2025. At the end of last week, there was an early morning high tide (most favorable for this fishery) that started mid-week and lasted through the weekend, however, there were small tidal exchanges between low and high tides for those same days. There have been some minus low water tides with larger tidal exchanges between low and high water starting this week on Tuesday, Aug 19. There were 83 hatchery Chinook salmon reported by staff caught in this statistical week 33 from August 11 – 17 as well as three hatchery coho retained. There was also one unmarked (UM), natural origin (NOR) Chinook retained (illegal in the fishery since regulations changed on August 1), and 13 UM Chinook encountered then released from the fishery documented through angler interviews either at the Tokeland or South Bend docks. Currently, this marine recreational fishery has accrued a total of eight NOR Chinook impacts, or 24.3% of the preseason expected natural origin Chinook impacts for the season. (See attachment: 2025 WB Marine Area Recreational Data & Catch Estimate Summary Draft 08.21.2025.pdf).

For the rest of this week, the early morning minus low water tide with larger tidal exchanges will continue through the weekend into early next week. These are not the most favorable tides in the Willapa Bay marine area to catch salmon especially with the weather forecasted to be warmer through the weekend as well. Angler effort is expected to increase over the next two weekends through Labor Day, Sept 1st , however, as the tide series becomes more favorable for salmon fishing in Willapa Bay marine area.

Spawning Ground Surveys
Staff started weekly stream surveys on August 5th below the weir in Nemah and Naselle rivers. As of yesterday, August 20th, staff have observed approximately 443 live Chinook staging in the Naselle River and just over 1200 live Chinook staging in the Nemah River. These counts are likely a bit conservative as fish are in dense groups in the deeper holes in these sections to stay cool until they are ready to move farther upstream to the hatchery. At this point, staff have not observed any spawning or redds in either of these river sections but have recovered two dead Chinook carcasses in the Nemah River below the weir. Historically, Chinook salmon begin spawning in Willapa Bay rivers the middle of September.

Hatchery Chinook Rack Returns

Naselle River Hatchery
The Naselle Hatchery weir was put in place on July 28 and the trap box was open and available for fish to volunteer in the attraction channel the following day. To-date, there have been 348 adult and five jack hatchery Chinook salmon that have volunteered into the attraction channel and recruited into the hatchery. This is more than we had last year at this same time. There have also been three unmarked, male Chinook salmon volunteer into the hatchery and only two Chinook mortalities (both male) to-date reported in the Naselle Hatchery from August 1 – 20, 2025. These data will be updated in the next weekly in-season email. (See attachment: Naselle Hatchery Adult CHK Summary 08.21.2025.pdf)

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 had two 12-hour salmon openers last week on August 13 and August 16 in the south bay using tangle net gear in Areas 2N, 2M, and 2R. There were 14 landings in Area 2M and 9 landings in Area 2N combined for the two days of fishing. This is consistent with previous years. There were 884 Chinook and nine coho landed from the fishery combined for these two days of salmon fishing last week. This is more Chinook than the 2024 season at this same time but this catch is approximately 41.3% lower than 2025 preseason hatchery Chinook estimates for the week. The fleet accrued a total of 61 local, natural origin (NOR) Chinook impacts for the week, which is 20.4% of the total preseason NOR Chinook estimated impacts after the first week of salmon fishing.

This week, there are three 12-hour openers scheduled, Aug 18, Aug 20, and Aug 23, in commercial areas 2N and 2R using tangle net gear. 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! ><((((*>
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

Ocean Sampling Program for Ocean Areas 1- 4: Ocean sport salmon quota report | Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife