November
Blackmouth fishing will be the primary marine opportunity with most Puget Sound areas open, although chum salmon fishing will also be good in some areas. Marine Areas 9, 10 , 11, and 12 are good bets for blackmouth. Look for good chum fishing in Marine Areas 9, 10, 11, and 13. Late season coho can be found in the Chehalis, Satsop, and Humptulips rivers. Chum fishing will be good in the Skagit, Skykomish, and Skokomish rivers. Two marine terminal areas to try for chum include Kennedy Creek and Hoodsport Hatchery.

 

Four areas of Puget Sound reopen
Nov. 1 for late-season crab fishing

OLYMPIA – Four marine areas of Puget Sound will reopen to recreational crab fishing Nov. 1, based on summer catch assessments by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) that show more crab are available for harvest.

Starting Nov. 1 at sunrise, marine areas 6 (eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca), 9 (Admiralty Inlet), 10 (Seattle/Bremerton) and 12 (Hood Canal) will reopen for sport crabbing seven days a week through Jan. 2, 2009.

Crab fishing will also remain open seven days a week through Jan. 2 in marine areas 4 (Neah Bay), 5 (Sekiu), and 13 (south Puget Sound), where the fishery has continued uninterrupted since June 18.

Sport crabbing will not reopen this year in Marine Area 7 (San Juan Islands), marine areas 8-1 and 8-2 east of Whidbey Island and Marine Area 11 (Tacoma/Vashon Island), where the summer catch reached the annual quota, said Rich Childers, WDFW shellfish policy coordinator.

“Our goal is to give crabbers as much opportunity to fish as possible, while remaining within the catch quotas,” Childers said. “Catch assessments for the summer season helped us determine which areas we could open for a late-season fishery.”

This is the second year that summer crab catch reports were required after Labor Day, with fall/winter reports due Jan. 2-15. The two-stage reporting system is designed to give fishery managers more accurate information about the recreational crab catch during the course of the season, Childers said.