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

8/16/2025

Barb does a great job with this Willapa news letter, wish I could say the same for the Chehalis/Humptulips part of the Region 6, just doesn't seem to get done.....grrrrrrr

You do recognize the additional kidneys that must filter any GH communications. For better or for worse (and one can see both) Willapa shows us what WDFW is capable of on their own.

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

Latest on Willapa:

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 has increased from August 18 – 24, 2025. The highest effort (in terms of vessels) and number of anglers were reported on Saturday, August 23rd, but the highest catch last week was reported on Sunday, August 24th. Last week, there were minus low water tides early in the morning with smaller tidal changes early in the week. The minus low water tides continued throughout the week, but the tidal changes increased by the end of the week, which likely moved fish around the bay. There were 97 hatchery Chinook salmon and 19 hatchery coho reported by staff caught in this statistical week 34 for August 18 – 24. There were no unmarked, natural origin Chinook retained during this same timeframe since they are illegal in this fishery starting August 1, 2025, however, there were 27 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 17 NOR Chinook impacts, or 50.7% of the preseason expected natural origin Chinook impacts for the season. As of yesterday, August 27th, this weekend will be the best tides for fishing salmon in the Willapa Bay marine area for the month, and these tides will continue through Monday, Sept 1 Labor Day. (See attachment: 2025 WB Marine Area Recreational Data & Catch Estimate Summary Draft 08.28.2025.pdf).

Spawning Ground Surveys
Staff started weekly stream surveys on August 5th below the weir in Nemah and Naselle rivers. As of this week, staff have observed several hundred live Chinook staging in the Naselle River and between 1000 and 2000 live Chinook staging in the Nemah River. These counts are likely conservative as fish are in dense groups in the deeper holes to stay cool or piled on top of each other in front of both weirs. As this point, staff have not observed any spawning or redds in either of these rivers sections but have recovered several 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
Salmon have been able to volunteer into the attraction channel since July 29 once the weir was put in place in the river. To-date, there have been 613 adult and 16 jack hatchery Chinook salmon volunteer into the attraction channel and recruit into the hatchery. That is 72% more hatchery Chinook salmon into the facility than last year at this same time. There have also been 19 unmarked (10 male, 8 female, and 1 female mortality) Chinook salmon volunteer into the hatchery reported to-date in the Naselle Hatchery from August 1 – 27, 2025. The 18 unmarked Chinook have been planted upstream above the hatchery. These data will be updated in the next weekly in-season email. (See attachment: Naselle Hatchery Adult CHK Summary 08.28.2025.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 three 12-hour salmon openers last week on August 18, 20, and 23 in the south bay using tangle net gear in Areas 2N and 2R. There were 517 hatchery Chinook and 2 coho landed from the fishery combined for these three days of salmon fishing last week. This catch is approximately 47.7% of the preseason hatchery Chinook estimates expected for the week. The fleet has accrued a total of 87 local, natural origin (NOR) Chinook impacts so far since starting salmon two week ago. This is approximately 29.0% of the total preseason NOR Chinook estimated impacts available for the season for the commercial fishery in Willapa Bay for 2025.

This week, there are two 12-hour openers scheduled, August 26 and 30 in commercial areas 2N, 2R and 2M (Aug 30 only) using tangle net gear in the south bay. 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

Barb's latest Willapa update.

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 from August 25 – 31, 2025 compared to the previous week. The highest effort (in terms of vessels) and number of anglers were reported on Sunday, August 31st, but the highest hatchery Chinook catch last week was reported on Saturday, August 30th. Starting on August 28th, the tide cycle for the Willapa Bay marine recreational fishery was ideal for catching salmon with early morning high tides and smaller tidal exchanges. This tide series lasted through Monday, Sept 1st.

There were 88 hatchery Chinook salmon and 66 coho observed by staff and caught in this statistical week 35 for August 25 - 31. 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 15 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 20 NOR Chinook impacts, or 61.1% of the preseason expected natural origin Chinook impacts for the season. (See attachment: 2025 WB Marine Area Recreational Data & Catch Estimate Summary Draft 09.04.2025.pdf).

This week and through the weekend, there will be some minus tides at low water that includes larger tidal exchanges. These are not favorable fishing tides for the marine area recreational fishery in Willapa Bay. As we move more into September, angler effort is expected to decline in the northern area of Willapa harbor for the marine area recreational fishery, and anglers will likely start to move upstream into freshwater as fish move into those areas.

Spawning Ground Surveys

As of this week, staff have observed almost 2100 live Chinook staging in the Nemah River and approximately 750 live Chinook staging in the Naselle River. At this point, there have been 12 dead Chinook recovered (7 in Nemah River and 5 in Naselle River), but staff have not observed any spawning or redds in either of these rivers below the weirs. Staff have now started stream surveys in the Lower South Fork Willapa River and upstream of the weir on the North Nemah River. Historically, Chinook salmon begin spawning in Willapa Bay rivers the middle of September.

Hatchery Chinook Rack Returns

Naselle River Hatchery
To-date, 936 adult and 32 jack hatchery Chinook salmon have volunteered into the attraction channel and recruited into the hatchery. Of the 936 adults, 901 were hatchery origin and 35 were natural origin Chinook. This is 248% more hatchery Chinook currently in the Naselle Hatchery compared to where we were last year at this same time. Of the 35 natural origin Chinook, 33 were placed upstream above the hatchery. There has been a total of 44 Chinook mortalities (20 hatchery males, 24 hatchery females, 2 natural females) reported in the Naselle Hatchery from August 1 – Sept 3, 2025. (See attachment: Naselle Hatchery Adult CHK Summary 09.04.2024.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 26th and 30th in the south bay using tangle net gear in Areas 2N, 2R and 2M (only open on Aug 30th). There were 886 hatchery Chinook and 56 coho landed from the fishery combined for these two days of salmon fishing last week. To-date, the fishery is approximately 59.9% of the preseason hatchery Chinook estimate expected for the season. The fleet has accrued a total of 117 local, natural origin (NOR) Chinook impacts to-date since the fishery started on August 13th, or approximately 39.0% of the total preseason, local NOR Chinook estimated impacts available for the season for the commercial fishery in Willapa Bay for 2025.

This week, the Willapa Bay commercial fishery is closed to salmon fishing for the entire week. The fishery will reopen to salmon fishing on Sept 8th, 10th, and 12th next week using tangle net gear in the south bay areas 2N, 2M, and 2R. Area 2T (near Tokeland) will open on Sept 12th for one day next week. 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

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

the daily world posted that the Willipa is Hot in river and out in the bay/ ocean

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

How do those rec. effort and catch numbers compare to back in the 90's. I haven't fished there since.

Those coho are finicky, they're off harstine Island already too.

This mornings Budd Inlet report confirms that some are at Hartstine and one or two may have reached Burfoot. Either late or absent.