The latest from R-6 on Willapa Fisheries.


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 significantly decreased last week from Sept 8 – 14, 2025 compared to the previous week. This decrease was expected given we are in the middle of September. The highest effort (in terms of vessels), number of anglers, and the highest coho catch were reported on Wednesday, Sept 10th. Staff have seen more coho caught in this marine fishery than Chinook at this time. In just the last two weeks, since September 1st, there have been 87 coho landed either in Tokeland or South Bend and were observed by staff.

Last week, Sept 8 - 14, there were only four hatchery Chinook salmon and 31 coho caught and observed by staff in this statistical week 37. There were no unmarked, natural origin (NOR) Chinook retained during this same timeframe since they are illegal in this fishery starting August 1, 2025, and there was only one 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 24 NOR Chinook impacts, or 71.2% of the preseason expected natural origin Chinook impacts for the season. (See attachment: 2025 WB Marine Area Recreational Data & Catch Estimate Summary Draft 09.18.2025.pdf).

As we move into the second half of September, angler effort is expected to continue to decline in the northern area of Willapa harbor for the marine area recreational fishery. Anglers will 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 September.

Spawning Ground Surveys

As of this week, staff have observed approximately 2800 live Chinook staging in the Nemah River, approximately 1700 live Chinook staging in the Naselle River, and about a dozen live Chinook have been observed in the Willapa River below Trap Creek and Lower South Fork Willapa River. There have also been 11 live coho observed and one dead steelhead recovered in the Naselle River, but no coho observed in Nemah or Willapa rivers. At this point, there have been 55 dead Chinook recovered (37 in Nemah River, 18 in Naselle River, 0 in Willapa River). Staff have not observed any new redds in the Naselle River below the weir. However, staff have observed 2 new Chinook redds 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, 1892 adult and 45 jack hatchery Chinook salmon have volunteered into the attraction channel and recruited into the hatchery. Of the 1892 adults, 1853 were hatchery origin and 39 were natural origin Chinook. This is 714 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 adult (26 hatchery males, 32 hatchery females, 2 natural females) and 5 jack Chinook mortalities reported in the Naselle Hatchery from August 1 – Sept 15, 2025. Chinook spawning is likely to begin at Naselle Hatchery the last week of September. (See attachment: Naselle Hatchery Adult CHK Summary 09.18.2025.pdf)

Nemah Hatchery
To-date, 400 adult Chinook have volunteered into the hatchery and are now on-hand in the pond. Chinook spawning is likely to begin at the Nemah Hatchery early next week.

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 opened in the north bay commercial salmon fishing areas 2T and 2U this week along with the south bay commercial areas that have been open to salmon fishing since mid-August. As we move into the second half of September, each commercial area has a different number of days scheduled for each week.

There have been 3,911 hatchery Chinook, 11,794 coho, and 3 chum landed from the fishery combined to-date. The fleet has accrued a total of 203 local, natural origin (NOR) Chinook impacts to-date since the fishery started on August 13th, or approximately 67.5% of the total preseason, local NOR Chinook estimated impacts available for the season for the commercial fishery in Willapa Bay for 2025.

Due to lower NOR Chinook impacts accrued to-date compared to preseason estimates and the early run timing of coho, the Department modified the commercial fishery for Area 2U today, Sept 18th, via emergency regulation. This modification opens Area 2U to commercial salmon fishing using small mesh gillnet gear. The Department is actively monitoring each day in the commercial fishery and analyzing data as it comes in. 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