THE LATEST REPORT

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 last update, effort and catch in the Willapa Bay marine recreational salmon fishery decreased last week from Sept 1 - 7, 2025 compared to the previous week. The highest effort (in terms of vessels), number of anglers, and Chinook catch were reported on Monday, September 1st (Labor Day). Staff have started see more coho caught in this marine fishery than previous weeks. In just the last two weeks, since August 25th, there have been 122 coho landed either in Tokeland or South Bend and were observed by staff.

Last week, Sept 1 – 7, there were 39 hatchery Chinook salmon and 56 coho caught and observed by staff in this statistical week 36. There were no unmarked, natural origin (NOR) Chinook retained during this same timeframe since they are illegal in this fishery starting August 1, 2025. However, there were 16 NOR Chinook encountered and released from this fishery documented through angler interviews either at the Tokeland or South Bend docks. Currently, this marine recreational fishery has accrued a total of 23 NOR Chinook impacts, or 70.5% of the preseason expected natural origin Chinook impacts for the season. (See attachment: 2025 WB Marine Area Recreational Data & Catch Estimate Summary Draft 09.11.2025.pdf).

This past weekend has some favorable salmon fishing tides for the marine area recreational fishery in Willapa Bay, but as we move into the second half of September, angler effort is expected to significantly decline in the northern area of Willapa harbor for the marine area recreational fishery. Anglers will likely start to move upstream into freshwater as fish move into those areas. The marine recreational salmon creel monitoring program in the northern area of Willapa Bay will end at the end of the month.

Spawning Ground Surveys

As of this week, staff have observed approximately 2800 live Chinook staging in the Nemah River and approximately 900 live Chinook staging in the Naselle River. At this point, there have been 29 dead Chinook recovered (12 in Nemah River and 17 in Naselle River), and staff have not observed any spawning or redds in the Naselle River below the weir. However, staff have observed 1 Chinook redd found in the North Nemah River this week. Staff have not found any spawning or redds in the Willapa River system at this point. Since historically Chinook salmon begin spawning in Willapa Bay rivers the middle of September, we will continue to find Chinook redds throughout Willapa Bay as we continue to move forward through the month.

Hatchery Chinook Rack Returns

Naselle River Hatchery
To-date, 1492 adult and 45 jack hatchery Chinook salmon have volunteered into the attraction channel and recruited into the hatchery. Of the 1492 adults, 1453 were hatchery origin and 39 were natural origin Chinook. This is 155% more hatchery Chinook currently in the Naselle Hatchery compared to where we were last year at this same time. Of the 39 natural origin Chinook, 37 were placed upstream above the hatchery. There has been a total of 60 Chinook mortalities (26 hatchery males, 32 hatchery females, 2 natural females) reported in the Naselle Hatchery from August 1 – Sept 11, 2025. (See attachment: Naselle Hatchery Adult CHK Summary 09.11.2024.pdf)

Nemah Hatchery
To-date, 100 adult Chinook have volunteered into the hatchery and are now on-hand in the pond.

Forks Creek Hatchery
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 has three 12-hour salmon openers this week on September 8th and 10th in the south bay using tangle net gear in Areas 2N, 2R and 2M then tomorrow Sept 12th, areas 2N, 2R and 2T will be open to salmon fishing. This will be the first day of salmon fishing for Area 2T this season. There have been 3192 hatchery Chinook and 1220 coho landed from the fishery combined to-date. The fleet has accrued a total of 145 local, natural origin (NOR) Chinook impacts to-date since the fishery started on August 13th, or approximately 48.5% of the total preseason, local NOR Chinook estimated impacts available for the season for the commercial fishery in Willapa Bay for 2025.

The fishery will reopen to salmon fishing on Sept 14th (Sunday), and Area 2U will open next week and fish three 12-hour days. The fishery will also switch to small mesh gear starting Sunday, Sept 14th for the remainder of the season. 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