I generally fish the central sound (9 & 8-2) and have noticed an absence of fin clipped salmon in our catches. Any of you salmon chasers noticed the same thing in your area? Have heard rumors that most were released down south. Anyone have any info on this?

From what I have heard all Hatchery Blackmouth(netpen) will be clipped within the next two years. This is great news for Puget Sound Blackmouth fisherman, the season should be open Nov.-April in the future. As for the current stocks in Puget Sound, very few are clipped and the ones that are clipped have tags.

I have noticed that a much greater % of the shakers and barely legal blackmouth are clipped compared to the larger fish. Of course, that is easily explained by timing of when they started fin clipping on a larger scale.