Buoy 10 Columbia salmon season highlights a great month of fishing

Anglers are reeling in chinook salmon off the coast, pulling up pots full of crab in Puget Sound, and casting for trout in alpine lakes on both sides of the Cascades.  Summer fisheries are in full swing, and anglers can look forward to even more great fishing opportunities in the days ahead. 

A prime example is the Buoy 10 salmon fishery, which opens Aug. 1 at the mouth of the Columbia River. A big run of 664,900 fall chinook is expected to return to the big river this year, and fishery managers predict that anglers will catch approximately 12,500 of them between Buoy 10 and Rocky Point, 16 miles upriver.

 WDFW Weekender:

Page 1 : Buoy 10 Columbia salmon season highlights a great month of fishing
Page 2 : North Puget Sound
Page 3 : South Sound/Olympic Peninsula
Page 4 : Southwest Washington
Page 5 : Eastern Washington
Page 6 : Northcentral Washington

This News is a service of:
       

“Buoy 10 is a very popular fishery, drawing tens of thousands of anglers every year,” said Joe Hymer, a fish biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).  “Fishing tends to start out slow, then accelerates quickly and builds through the rest of August.”

Bank anglers planning to fish at Buoy 10 should be aware that access to much of the North Jetty will be closed, due to a major project being conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reinforce beaches eroded by winter storms. “The North jetty provides the only real bank access to that fishery, so things could get a little crowded,” Hymer said.

The chinook fishery closes Aug. 31 at Buoy 10, but anglers can continue to keep hatchery-reared coho salmon in that area through the end of the year.  Upriver from Rocky Point, fishing opportunities for both species continue late into the year on the mainstem Columbia River and many of its tributaries.

Rather crack some crab? Fisheries for Dungeness crab are open throughout August in most areas of Puget Sound – the exception being Marine Area 7-North near the Canadian border, which opens Aug. 11. Specific regulations for each area are described in WDFW’s Fishing in Washington rules pamphlet and on the department’s website (http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/shelfish/crab/).

Meanwhile, general hunting seasons for black bear open Aug. 1 in many areas of the state, and hunters are gearing up for early hunts for deer and elk in September. Also opening in September are hunting seasons for forest grouse, dove and Canada geese.

For more information about fishing, hunting and wildlife viewing opportunities coming up in the weeks ahead, see the regional reports below:

Page 1 : Buoy 10 Columbia salmon season highlights a great month of fishing
Page 2 : North Puget Sound
Page 3 : South Sound/Olympic Peninsula
Page 4 : Southwest Washington
Page 5 : Eastern Washington
Page 6 : Northcentral Washington