salmon season in the pacific coast region is in full swing
 

let me start off by saying i have not hit the ocean lately but reports are based off washington department of fish and wildlife and friends of mine
chinook salmon are doing very well  thus far, but season has been limited to sunday-thursday to help delay the inevitable quota closure as to keep the numbers ripe,as for the cohos coming in all coho salmon being caught are small right now but when more start hitting there natal rivers or estuaries they should fatten up i  am inclined to remind ya'll west coast fisherman in washington that of region 2 of washington u are not allowed to keep unclipped(wild) coho and to be released unharmed.
as for rivers the cowlitz river the goin is slow few steelhead are being caught and even a couple kings are making there way up to the barrier the numbers arent to strong just yet as the salmon counts on the bonneville dam arent totally in yet but the columbia river estimates there are 475,00 kings for return this year so keep your chins up hopefully wdfw and biologist are correct with there numbers and we will be eating that tasty treat for dinner at our kitchen tables.
the chehalis river:steelhead numbers are exactly what i call good right now for grays harborites but some are still trickling in from the coast with waters low right now the steelhead arent making there way far enough up fast enough.myself have caught only two this season and soon enough bait restriction will be on and single point barbless hook is already in affect to keep from catching early run chinook and coho
humptulips: few early kings are slowley making there way into the hump a few are being caught by accident by steelhead fisherman coho are not in yet that i can tell

I HOPE THIS HELPS A LITTLE
travis dally

It is clearly obvious that Washington State has done an outstanding job with thier Hatchery programs for the past 3--4 years.
As an employee for ADF&G, in S.E. Alaska, I can say that we had a near record year on Chinooks this year, and it was clearly obvious from the cwt head recovery program, that 80% of these Chinook were from Washington streams or hatchery programs. Also, over 60% of our Coho cwt heads recovered, had no tags, which leads us to believe that these fish were also from Oregon and Wash., being as to how neither state tags thier adipose clipped cohos!
Good goin' Washington State!!!
Allen

With all of the money we spend on the Salmon fishery it is nice to think something is being done write.

Let us know what your big fish are weighing please

Most of the Chinooks that went past us were 3 and 4 year olds. The average wieght of the 3 yr. fish was 16--18 lbs, and the 4 yr. olds runnin' 24--26 lbs. I'm sure that by the time they get to Washington, that they will probably have added 4-6 lbs.  The largest chinook that I seen this year was a 8 yr. old fish that wieghed 64lbs. 8 oz.
Allen

Our fall run here on Lk Michigan is also in full swing. We have very little natural recruitment due to conditions in the rivers and almost all our coho and chinook are hatchery fish. Here in the midwest the salmon were introduced in the 60s to help control the alewife population after the lamprey invasion killed off the bulk of the lake trout.

AWESOME I grew up fishing northern Lake Michigan and Huron, my biggest from LM was 32.5 and from Huron 29. I could not imagine fighting a 60+ lber do they fight like the smaller ones and run like crazy or are they more to the bottom type of fight. I catch most of my fish out in the lake but enjoy the pier fishing as well.

Yup, they fight just like the lil' ones, only harder! The largest that I have ever caught was a smidgen over 48 lbs, and he did a fair bit of airial acrobatics before we got him into the boat!
Allen