09-23 REELLIFE digital - Flipbook - Page 26
Puget Sound Coho
By Jason Brooks
So far this year, salmon fishing
has been a tidal wave of highs
and lows. The highs are good
returns of fish, but the lows
are emergency closures and
restricted fisheries trying to
conserve endangered listed
stocks that call Puget Sound
rivers their birthplace. With all the
runs and resident fish, each one
must be managed in a way to
maximize wild returns as well as
hatchery brood stock and harvest.
Keeping an eye on emergency
regulations and looming closures,
there is one bright spot this
September, which is that most
chinook runs to Puget Sound
have reached their peak and that
means biologist and anglers alike
can focus on coho.
Coho salmon are found in Puget
Sound year-round with resident
silvers living in the waters most of
their lives.
26 | NWFISHING.net
Then there are the ocean-going
fish, ones that migrate out to the
Pacific, feed for a few years, and
then return to the Sound and
its rivers. September and into
October is a time when you can
catch either of these strains of fish,
and both will be substantial in
size. Resident coho fishing started
back in June when Marine Area
10 opened, and the fishing was
good right from the start. As July
came and went, and then August
approached, the coho just kept
showing up. By the end of August,
the pinks and coho made up the
bulk of the fisheries, especially
in popular Marine Areas such as
Area 9, which closed to chinook
fishing after a few days of angling
but remained open for coho and
pinks.
Area 11 was a major
disappointment for anglers,
and not because of a lack of fish
but instead due to emergency
closures, first occurring in June
when there was an early opener
and had a lot of chinook being
caught, and then in August, with
a shoreline-only pink fishery. The
worst part was that the Puyallup
River is expected to get back
20,499 coho this year, along
with the huge run of pinks and
a good run of chinook. All those
coho could not be touched in
the middle of summer, but this
makes for good river fishing.
Now that September is among us,
it is time to focus on coho and not
let our summer salmon fisheries,
or lack of, get the best of us. So
far, there are fisheries planned in
the Puget Sound area for coho
for a long time to come, including
a “new” fishery in Marine Area
5 where coho are projected to
have a season clear into October,
but again, keep an eye on the
emergency rules.