Guide
Ocean fishing seasons, explained
Checked September 16, 2026 against the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and NOAA Fisheries.
The fishing tile on the board says whether Chinook, coho, halibut and bottomfish are open in the ocean off your town, worked out from the season the Department of Fish and Wildlife set and every rule since, and it says CHECK when it cannot be sure. This page explains where each rule is actually published, how to read one yourself, and which Marine Area your town fishes, from Neah Bay to the Columbia.
The pamphlet is not the last word. In the department’s own words: “Rules found in the Sport Fishing Rules pamphlet are in effect unless otherwise noted” in its emergency rules. Ocean salmon and halibut are fished against quotas and guidelines, and a season printed in June can be closed, reopened and closed again by September. Read the newest emergency rule for your Marine Area on the day you go.
Three fisheries, three clocks
| Fishery | How often it changes | Where the department says so |
|---|---|---|
| Ocean salmon | Week to week in season. | The emergency fishing and shellfishing rules, one rule per change, each naming its Marine Area. The tile reads these. |
| Pacific halibut | A season set for the year in each area, which “may close before September 30 if the quota is taken.” | The halibut pages for the Columbia River (Marine Area 1) and the South Coast (Marine Area 2), with changes posted as emergency rules. The tile reads those too. |
| Bottomfish rockfish, lingcod, cabezon, flatfish | Set for the year, and seldom changed during it. | The same two pages, and any rule the department posts. The tile reads the season from them; the year’s rules are below. |
What OPEN, CLOSED and CHECK mean on the tile
- OPEN and CLOSED are worked out, not copied. They start from the season the department set for the year and apply every emergency rule since, on the dates each one gives, and each one links to where it came from. Halibut and hatchery coho always add “or until the quota is caught”.
- CATCH & RELEASE is not CLOSED. When the salmon season is open but one kind must be let go — “Release Chinook”, or all salmon except coho — the tile says CATCH & RELEASE for that kind, in amber. You may fish for it; you may not keep it. CLOSED means the water is shut to that fishing outright.
- CHECK means the board could not be sure. A rule worded in a way it has not seen before, part of an area closed while the rest is open (a nearshore closure, for example), a year whose seasons nobody has read yet, or the department’s list not read for six hours. A Willapa Bay town whose two Marine Areas disagree also says CHECK. It is never a guess in either direction. Read the rule it links to.
- The word is our reading. The rule is the department’s, and it is the rule you are held to.
Every fish on the tile
Chinook, coho and halibut move with the department’s emergency rules, which is what most of this guide is about. The tile gives a word for ten more where your Marine Area has a season for them, each read from the department’s own tables (read September 27, 2026), and each links to its page:
| Fish | Where the word comes from | What changes it |
|---|---|---|
| Pink salmon Chum salmon Sockeye salmon | The salmon table for your Marine Area in the 2026–27 sport fishing rules: a fish the table says to release is CATCH & RELEASE, an open window that does not name it is OPEN inside the salmon limit. | A salmon emergency rule for the area turns them CHECK with Chinook and coho. When Chinook and coho are both closed, the water is closed to salmon and all five say CLOSED. |
| Lingcod Rockfish Cabezon Surfperch Smelt Albacore & tuna | The same rules, one table per Marine Area. Albacore is an ocean fish and appears only on the coast. | An emergency rule that names the fish turns it CHECK until a person reads the rule; otherwise the season as adopted. |
| Shrimp | The department’s shrimp seasons page, which opens Puget Sound by area on named days. | That page is edited in place and carries no date, so the tile keeps a fingerprint of its Puget Sound section: any change turns every shrimp row CHECK until a person reads it. |
A fish the tile does not list for your town is one your area has no season for, or one it has no reading for; it is not a closure.
How to read an emergency rule
Each rule is laid out in labelled parts, and they are worth reading in order:
- Action says what changed, in one line: “Closes Chinook retention and possession onboard a vessel.”
- Effective date says when. It is not the date the rule was posted; the Marine Area 2 Chinook closure was posted August 17, 2026 and took effect August 22.
- Location says which water. A rule can carve out part of an area: the September 1 rule for Marine Area 1 set different days for a nearshore closure area “within approximately 3 miles of shore” than for the rest of the area.
- Rules gives the limits that apply while it is in force.
- Additional information is not small print. Under it, this year’s Marine Area 2 rules also opened “Grays Harbor Control Zone and that portion of Grays Harbor (Area 2-2) west of the Buoy 13 line” under the same rules as Area 2.
Search for the whole name. “Area 1” also finds Marine Areas 10, 11, 12 and 13, which are inside Puget Sound and Hood Canal. The tile matches “Marine Area 1” and “Marine Area 2” as whole names for the same reason.
Why the tile remembers old rules
The department’s list “shows all emergency rules currently in effect.” When a rule expires, it leaves the list, and with it the record of what changed. So the tile keeps this year’s rules for your area once it has seen them, and marks any that are “no longer on WDFW’s list.” Those are history, not rules. To see what was in force on a past date, the department has an advanced search on the same page.
Which Marine Area your town fishes
| Marine Area | The department’s description | Towns on the board |
|---|---|---|
| Marine Area 1 Ilwaco | “from Buoy 10 at the Columbia River mouth north to Leadbetter Point at the north end of Long Beach,” and in the ocean south to the state line | Chinook, Ilwaco, Seaview, Long Beach, Ocean Park |
| Marine Area 2 Westport–Ocean Shores | “from Leadbetter Point at the north end of Long Beach north to the Queets River” | North Cove, Tokeland, Grayland, Westport, Cosmopolis, Aberdeen, Hoquiam, Ocean Shores, Ocean City, Copalis Beach, Pacific Beach, Moclips, Taholah |
| Marine Area 3 La Push | the Queets River north to Cape Alava | Kalaloch, La Push, Forks |
| Marine Area 4 Neah Bay | Cape Alava north to the Canadian border and east to the Sekiu River, split at the Bonilla–Tatoosh line | Neah Bay |
| Marine Area 5 Sekiu and Pillar Point | the Sekiu River east to the Low Point, in the Strait of Juan de Fuca | Sekiu, Clallam Bay |
| Marine Area 6 East Juan de Fuca Strait | the Low Point east to Partridge Point and Point Wilson, in the Strait of Juan de Fuca | Joyce, Port Angeles, Sequim |
| Marine Area 9 Admiralty Inlet | the Point Wilson–Partridge Point line south to the Hood Canal bridge and the Edmonds–Kingston line | Port Townsend, Port Hadlock, Edmonds, Hansville |
| Marine Area 7 San Juan Islands | “all marine waters north of the Trial Island line described under Area 6 to the United States–Canada boundary” — the islands, Rosario, Bellingham Bay and the Strait of Georgia to the line | Point Roberts, Blaine, Birch Bay, Ferndale, Eastsound, Roche Harbor, Orcas, Friday Harbor, Lopez Island |
| Bellingham Bay and Padilla Bay | “Waters of Bellingham and Padilla bays south and east of a line from Sandy Pt. to the northern most point of Lone Tree Island, easterly to the northeast point of Sinclair Island,” then to Clark Point and from Yellow Bluff on Guemes to the ferry dock east of Shannon Point. Part of Area 7 with a salmon season of its own: Chinook may be kept August 1 to September 30. | Bellingham, Edison |
| Bellingham Bay and Marine Area 7 | Guemes Channel is inside WDFW’s Bellingham Bay line and the islands are not, and boats from here fish both. The tile gives both, and says which is which. | Anacortes, Guemes Island |
| Hale Pass and Marine Area 7 | Hale Pass, “between a line drawn from Sandy Point to Point Migley and a line drawn from Point Francis to Point Carter,” is the ferry side of Lummi Island and has its own season (Chinook kept in September); the island’s west shore is the open Area 7. | Lummi Island |
| Marine Area 8-1 Deception Pass, Hope Island and Skagit Bay | “from West Point to Reservation Head eastward through Deception Pass, including all waters of Swinomish Slough and Skagit Bay”, and Saratoga Passage north and west of the East Point–Camano Island light line | Mount Vernon, La Conner, Oak Harbor, Freeland |
| Marine Area 8-2 Possession Sound and Port Susan — WDFW’s “Ports Susan and Gardner” | Saratoga Passage south of the Camano line, Port Susan, Possession Sound and Port Gardner — south Whidbey’s water and Camano’s east shore. Salmon August 1 to September 25, Chinook and chum released. | Langley, Clinton, Stanwood, Tulalip, Marysville, Everett, Mukilteo |
| Marine Area 8-1 and Marine Area 9 | Coupeville sits on Penn Cove, which is 8-1, and its ferry crosses Admiralty Inlet, which is 9. The tile gives both, and says which is which. | Coupeville |
| Marine Area 8-1 and Marine Area 8-2 | Camano’s west shore is Saratoga Passage above the line, which is 8-1; its east shore is Port Susan, which is 8-2. | Camano Island |
| Marine Area 10 Seattle–Bremerton | the Edmonds–Kingston line south to a line from the north end of Vashon Island to Southworth and Point Defiance — the Sound off Shoreline and Seattle, and the whole east shore of the Kitsap peninsula. Salmon June 1 to November 15 with Chinook released except for three days in late July, closed November 16 to March 30, and a Wednesday-to-Saturday Chinook fishery in April. | Shoreline, Poulsbo, Suquamish, Silverdale, Bainbridge Island, Bremerton, Port Orchard |
| Elliott Bay and Marine Area 10 | Elliott Bay — “east of a line from West Point to Alki Point”, split again at the Duwamish Head–Pier 91 line — has a salmon season of its own inside Area 10: shut through July and August (the inner bay opens for Chinook July 31 to noon on August 3) and open with the area from September. Seattle and West Seattle sit on it, and the tile gives the bay first and the area second. | Seattle, West Seattle |
| Marine Area 11 Tacoma–Vashon Island | the Vashon north-end line south to the Tacoma Narrows bridge — East Passage off Burien, Des Moines and Federal Way, Commencement Bay and the Narrows off Tacoma and Gig Harbor, and Colvos Passage behind Vashon. Hatchery Chinook may be kept June 1 to 30 and July 23 to September 30; closed July 1 to 22 and November 16 to March 30. Four piers are open all year on their own rule: Des Moines, Redondo, Les Davis on Ruston Way and the Point Defiance boathouse dock. Closed to halibut. | Burien, Des Moines, Federal Way, Browns Point, Gig Harbor |
| Commencement Bay and Marine Area 11 | Commencement Bay has a salmon season of its own inside Area 11, and WDFW’s line is not the mouth of the bay a local would draw: it is “waters east of a line bearing 215° true from the Cliff House Restaurant on north shore through Sperry Ocean Dock”, nearly two miles inside the headland, which is why Browns Point is not in it. The bay is shut June 1 to July 31 while the rest of the area is open in June, opens August 1 with two salmon a day and no Chinook sub-limit, releases Chinook from October 1 and closes on November 1 — a fortnight before the area does. Chinook retention can close early on quota. The tile gives the bay first and the area second. | Tacoma |
| Marine Area 11 and Marine Area 10 | Vashon’s north tip is on the Area 10 line and the rest of the island, both passages and Quartermaster Harbor, is 11. Southworth sits on the same line: Yukon Harbor and the water off its dock are 11, and 10 begins just north. The tile gives both. | Vashon, Southworth |
| Marine Area 10 and Marine Area 9 | The Edmonds–Kingston ferry line is the Area 9/10 boundary and Kingston sits on it: south of the dock is 10, north of it is 9. The tile gives both. | Kingston |
| Marine Area 12 Hood Canal, north of Ayock Point | “all waters south of the Hood Canal Bridge,” cut in two at Ayock Point. Seabeck is north of the point, like Quilcene and Brinnon across the canal. | Quilcene, Brinnon, Seabeck |
| Hood Canal south of Ayock Point | the other half of Area 12, and the half that fishes differently: a hatchery Chinook may be kept here from July 1 to September 30, which it never may north of the point, and the south opens July 1 while the north is shut for the month. Four salmon a day; chum, sockeye and wild Chinook released, Chinook released from October 1 and coho from November 1, and the canal closes November 30 until July. Off the Hoodsport hatchery there is no minimum size and a night closure; the Skokomish mouth area is fished from a boat or float only; the Skokomish and Dewatto river mouths are shut through September. Every bottomfish is closed south of the point — the Dabob Bay flounder exception is north of it. | Lilliwaup, Hoodsport, Union, Belfair |
| Marine Area 13 South Puget Sound | “all waters south of northernmost Tacoma Narrows bridge”, in WDFW’s own capitals. Salmon is open every day of the year here, which is true of no other area on this board; the only thing that changes is the Chinook minimum, 20 inches July 1 to September 30 and 22 inches the rest of the year, two salmon a day, with chum, wild coho and wild Chinook all released. Halibut and rockfish are closed outright. The closures here are places rather than dates: Saltar’s Point at Steilacoom is shut to all fishing and shellfish, Titlow Beach and Z’s Reef off Fox Island are shut to harvest, Toliva Shoal is closed to fin fish within 500 yards of the buoy from June 16 to April 30, and the Fox Island public pier allows no more than one Chinook of its two. | University Place, Steilacoom, DuPont, Fox Island, Anderson Island, Longbranch, Boston Harbor, Steamboat Island, Johnson Point, Allyn, Grapeview, Harstine Island, Shelton |
| Budd Inlet and Marine Area 13 | Budd Inlet has a season of its own inside Area 13, south of a line true west from the KGY radio tower: the same year-round fishery, with a night closure and an anti-snagging rule from July 1 to October 31 that the open area does not carry. The few hundred metres between the railroad line and the Fourth Avenue bridge are shut July through October, and everything south of the Fourth Avenue bridge is closed to fishing all year — which is Tumwater’s water, where the Sound ends. The tile gives the inlet first and the area second. | Olympia, Tumwater |
| Both | Willapa Bay reaches the ocean over the Willapa bar, in Marine Area 2; the peninsula’s ocean shore south of Leadbetter Point is Marine Area 1. | Nahcotta, Oysterville, Bay Center, South Bend, Raymond, Naselle |
| Both, at the Queets River | The Queets River is the line between Marine Area 2 and Marine Area 3, and the village sits on it. | Queets |
Marine Area 5 is the Strait, not the ocean, and its seasons are set in the sport fishing rules pamphlet rather than by ocean rule: July is open on odd-numbered days only, Chinook must be released from August 1, and wild coho may be kept from September 25. Sekiu and Clallam Bay read those.
Marine Area 6 is the east Strait, and the rules change inside it. Joyce, Port Angeles and Sequim read it. The department’s 2026–27 season opens it on July 1 with two salmon a day, and Chinook are released — except west of the north–south line through the “2” buoy off the tip of Ediz Hook, where a marked Chinook of 22 inches or more may be kept until August 16. From August 16 Chinook are released everywhere in the area; from September 25 any coho may be kept; and the area shuts to salmon on October 16. Two pieces of water are closed outright: Port Angeles Harbour west of the line from Ediz Hook to the old Rayonier dock, to salmon angling, and the water south of the Angeles Point–Observatory Point line, to angling altogether. Discovery Bay above the utility lines closes to all fishing for the late-September opening.
Marine Area 9 shuts six weeks before its neighbour. Port Townsend and Port Hadlock read Admiralty Inlet. Its 2026–27 season opens on July 16 with two salmon a day and a marked Chinook of 22 inches or more; unmarked Chinook, unmarked coho and chum are released. From August 1 Chinook are released; from September 19 any coho may be kept; and on October 1 the area closes to salmon altogether — while Area 6, on the other side of Point Wilson, stays open to October 15. One line of latitude, a fortnight of difference, which is the shape this tile exists for.
Marine Area 12 is two fisheries with one number, and Ayock Point is the line. Quilcene and Brinnon are both north of it. South of the point a hatchery Chinook may be kept through September; north of it, which is all of this board’s water, Chinook are released every day of the year. North of Ayock the area is shut to salmon through July, opens on August 1 with no minimum size and four salmon a day — Chinook, chum and sockeye released — keeps coho to October 31, releases coho from November 1 while chum may still be kept, and closes on November 30. Tarboo Bay, at the top of Dabob Bay, runs on its own clock and shuts on September 16. The Dosewallips, Duckabush and Hamma Hamma mouths are closed to salmon from July 1 through September 30, and a river mouth here means “all waters within channels created by exposed tidelands”.
Marine Area 7 is the whole of the north Sound, and Bellingham Bay runs on its own clock inside it. The area opens to salmon for three days in the middle of July with one marked Chinook allowed, shuts again to the end of the month, and opens on August 1 with Chinook released; wild coho may be kept from September 1 and the area closes on October 1. Bellingham Bay — the water inside the Sandy Point–Lone Tree Island line — is closed through July and then open August 1 to September 30 with Chinook keepable at 22 inches and three salmon a day, which is the opposite of the rest of the area on Chinook, so the tile says check for Chinook from August and names which water is which. Hale Pass, between Lummi Island and the mainland, opens a month after the bay. Lummi Bay and the Lummi Reservation are closed to non-Indian fishing all year, and so is Samish Bay. Halibut is the Puget Sound season, Areas 5 to 10, on the same dates as Area 6 and Area 9; rockfish are closed and lingcod is May 1 to June 15, one a day, in water shallower than 120 feet.
Marine Area 8-1 is Skagit Bay and the Swinomish Channel, and it keeps no Chinook. La Conner’s water and the Skagit River’s mouth below Mount Vernon are in it; Guemes Channel, Padilla Bay and Samish Bay are Area 7, the islands’ area. Salmon is August 1 to October 11, two a day, Chinook and chum released, so the tile shows Chinook closed all year here and coho as the season. Halibut is the Puget Sound season; rockfish are closed; lingcod is May 1 to June 15, one a day, 26 to 36 inches.
The canal is closed to almost all bottomfish, and to halibut all year. Lingcod, rockfish, cabezon, surfperch, Pacific cod, pollock, hake and wolf-eel are all closed in Marine Area 12, as are herring, anchovy, sardine, sand lance, smelt and mackerel. The exception is flounder, sole and sanddabs, open year-round north of a true east line from the mouth of Turner Creek to the Toandos Peninsula, in water shallower than 120 feet, fifteen a day, with a descending device required aboard. The Puget Sound halibut season covers Marine Areas 5 to 10 and does not reach the canal. Because one word cannot be true of both halves, the tile says check for bottomfish here and names which is which.
Neah Bay closed early in 2026. The department’s rule of August 21 shut Marine Area 4 to salmon from August 24 through September 30 because the area “is expected to reach its coho quota by the end of the day Sunday, Aug. 23”. La Push, one area south, stayed open to September 30. That is the shape this tile exists for: one area shut and its neighbour open, decided in a week.
The tile is about the ocean. Willapa Bay (Marine Area 2-1), Grays Harbor (Marine Area 2-2) and the Columbia River inside Buoy 10 have seasons of their own, which are not on the tile. A town on the harbor or the bay is shown the ocean area its boats run to.
Halibut
Marine Areas 1 and 2 each have their own halibut season and quota. In both, the department’s pages say there is “a one-fish daily catch limit and no minimum size restriction,” “a six fish annual bag limit,” and that anglers must record their catch on a WDFW catch record card. The dates are set for the year but close early when the quota is taken, so the tile shows the newest halibut rule for your area rather than a date of ours.
NOAA Fisheries runs a Pacific halibut hotline, 800-662-9825, for in-season actions.
Bottomfish in 2026, as the department published it
These are the 2026 rules from the Columbia River and South Coast pages, which say the same for both Marine Areas except where noted. They are this year’s and will be replaced by next year’s. They are here because they seldom move during a year; the pages themselves are still the rule.
| What | The 2026 rule |
|---|---|
| Season | “The second Saturday in March through the third Saturday in October, which is March 14 through October 17, 2026.” |
| All bottomfish | 9 a day in all, within the limits below. On top of the 9, in the department’s words, “five additional flatfish species (excluding Pacific halibut) can be retained.” |
| Rockfish | 7 a day, no minimum size. No more than 5 canary rockfish. Yelloweye may not be kept. Copper, quillback and vermilion rockfish may not be possessed in May, June and July. |
| Lingcod | 2 a day, no minimum size. Where lingcod may be taken depends on depth, month and Marine Area; the restrictions are on each area’s page. |
| Cabezon | 1 a day, no minimum size. |
Bottomfish inside the Strait and the Sound
Marine Areas 5 to 9 are a different set of rules from the ocean’s, read from each area’s 2026–27 table. Bottomfish is open all year there, 15 a day in all, and the tile says OPEN all year; what changes through the year is which of them may be kept, and the tile’s note says that for the day.
| What | The 2026–27 rule |
|---|---|
| Where | No deeper than 120 feet in Areas 7, 8-1 and 9, and east of Dungeness Spit in Area 6. In Area 5, and in Area 6 west of the spit, inside the department’s Bottomfish Closure line. |
| Lingcod | May 1 to June 15 only. One a day, 26 to 36 inches. |
| Cabezon | May 1 to November 30. One a day, 18 inches or more. |
| Rockfish | Closed in Areas 6, 7, 8-1 and 9. In Area 5, black and blue/deacon rockfish May 1 to September 30: the first 3 caught west of Slip Point, the first 1 east of it. |
| Pacific cod, pollock, hake | Two of each in Areas 5, 6 and 7. May not be kept in Areas 8-1 and 9. |
Hood Canal is the exception: closed to every bottomfish except flounder, sole and sanddabs in the top of Dabob Bay, which is why its tile says CHECK and says which half is which.
Crab is on the shellfish tile
Whether crab and clams are safe to eat is the Department of Health’s reading, and it is on the board’s shellfish tile. The shellfish guide explains why a safe beach and an open season are two different permissions.
Before you go
- Read the newest emergency rule for your Marine Area on the day, all the way to Additional information.
- For halibut, check your area’s halibut page and the newest halibut rule, or call the NOAA Fisheries hotline, 800-662-9825.
- For bottomfish, read the lingcod restrictions for your area before you fish deep.
- Before crossing a bar, check the bar report; the bar guide explains what it means.
Sources
- Department of Fish and Wildlife, emergency fishing and shellfishing rules — the pamphlet sentence, the list of rules in effect, and the 2026 Marine Area 1 and 2 rules quoted here
- Department of Fish and Wildlife, Columbia River halibut and bottomfish — Marine Area 1’s halibut limits and 2026 bottomfish rules
- Department of Fish and Wildlife, South Coast halibut and bottomfish — Marine Area 2’s
- Marine Area 1 – Ilwaco and Marine Area 2 – Westport-Ocean Shores — the area descriptions
- NOAA Fisheries Pacific halibut hotline, 800-662-9825