2018 Puget Sound seasons are out

For some reason, WDFW hasn't yet posted a spread sheet that shows the actual 2018 seasons in 4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10. There is just a notice that the regs are out. Johns Sporting Goods posted a spreadsheet on his Facebook page. My wife printed out the spreadsheet for me but I am not a Facebook user so I cant post a link.

I am more than a little surprised. The seasons are more generous than I expected, better than last year actually.








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BARCHASER


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Petty Officer

https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/northfalcon/2018/finalized_fisheries.html#coastal

Fish on...

Todd

Glad to see the Skagit catches a break this year with a Coho season!

So, does that mean AK and CA laid off the fish a bit?

What happened to Ron Warren’s mighty plan to reopen the Skokomish fishery?



"We cannot — and pretty strong words — go another year without fishing in the Skokomish River," Warren told members of the Kitsap fishing club.

Interesting seasons on the sound.
If you have a boat, you can actually use it in MA 9 through September.

After all the doom and gloom, blob and low returns in 2015, we get better seasons then last year.

With all the talk about how bad of shape the Stilly is in, you can harvest wild fish in 8-1 and 8-2 but not in MA 9. Seems odd?????
I know chinook are the main concern on the Stilly, but it isn’t like the coho numbers come close to the Snohomish.

Regardless, I’ll be pounding the MA 9 beaches through September.
SF

Two good friends run out of the Bay Area ( Sausalito) for salmon and their normal party boat season runs early April till late October but their season was posted a day or two ago. This year they fish June 17th through Oct. 2 Chinook daily limit ( Wild or Hatchery) release all Coho. SE numbers are down as I always fish late May or early June and it was sketchy as some areas are closed to the North in SE area but Sitka area is still 1 Chinook a day and 3 for the year which IMO is reasonable! ADFG has a really nice abstract regarding their reasoning behind this decision on their website.

I hope the Stilly stays open for cutthroat this year.

Brent -
Word out of NOF is a mixed bag on the Stillaguamish cutthroat/game fish.

The main stem will be closed in June and July but remains open August through January. However the North Fork will be closed July first through October 15.

Curt

Thank you for the info, Curt. That is good news about the main Stilly but kind of a bummer about the N Fork. I guess I will take what I can get and hope for better next year.

SEAK has total Chinook closures to protect inside waters (their own fish). The outside waters are open as usual under the Pacific Salmon Treaty rules for the AABM )Aggregate Abundance Based Management) fishery.

I hear CA will not announce their regs until June; their Northern BC AABM fishery typically opens around June 20th. Many areas of southern Vancouver Island (Victoria/Sooke) are looking at a total fishing closure to protect the Southern Resident Killers Whales; the thinking is that the sonar pings for fishing boats can interfere with the whales pings, so no fishing for anything. They are also protecting Fraser river Chinook runs.
Check this out:
http://wildfishconservancy.org/images/news/CaughtFarFromHome2011journalchart.jpg

Most Puget Sound fish are caught in southern BC; that's about as far north as most of them migrate, so restrictions in Southern BC SHOULD really help our fish. These areas probably catch 150-200K Chinook per year.

Also note that of all Chinook caught in SEAK, only 3% originate from their rivers.

What---no mention of MA11 ?????? Does that mean no retention, or same as 2017??? Anybody know??

https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/northfalcon/2018/2018_puget_sound_rec_chinook_coho_seasons.pdf

Anyone that is surprised that RW didn't keep a promise on the skok hasn't been paying attention. He's been not fulfilling promises for well over a decade now and its been obvious if you were paying attention to salmon management in region 6. Now that he has a bigger role, expect more/bigger promises to be broken.