Where and when to fish for Summer Chinook in Puget Sound

Below are a set of graphs I like to make that show a CPUE over a time series for the usual fishery dates for Chinook in the Sound. CPUE stands for Catch Per Unit of Effort and usually calculated as the sum of fish landed per day per area divided by the sum of anglers per area per day. It can be effectively interpreted as the average probability an angler will catch and retain a Chinook for a given day in a given area. These graphs contain CPUE for the last 16 years smoothed with a loess (local regression not the mean). They should, and from mine and some other fishermen's experience, give an indication of how good fishing is in a time period for a given area. It'd be a good idea to fish an area in a time near it's given peak.

Edit: Forgot MA11

Interesting! I now understand why it takes me 10 outings to catch a salmon! 

Below are a set of graphs I like to make that show a CPUE over a time series for the usual fishery dates for Chinook in the Sound. CPUE stands for Catch Per Unit of Effort and usually calculated as the sum of fish landed per day per area divided by the sum of anglers per area per day. It can be effectively interpreted as the average probability an angler will catch and retain a Chinook for a given day in a given area. These graphs contain CPUE for the last 16 years smoothed with a loess (local regression not the mean). They should, and from mine and some other fishermen's experience, give an indication of how good fishing is in a time period for a given area. It'd be a good idea to fish an area in a time near it's given peak.

Thanks, workhard! 

Super psyched that my "backyard" (MA10) is opening up in another week. Would be amazing if my first salmon turns out to be a Chinook!

Nice graphs, thank you!

Totally awesome. Thanks!

This lines up with my experience in recent years. Based in West Seattle, work right near the Locks so GG, West Point, LP and Dolphin local spots. You get fired up in July, mid July, but even late July is not really game time. A few days into Aug for the next week (and/or until closures) is prime time.

As it happens, my kids are visiting grandparents in NH Aug 4-11, and my wife is going to Mazama most of that week. I’ll be taking a couple of midweek days off and either on the water or watching the smoker while I work on house projects.

I was out Fri, Sat, Sun this weekend. Marked lots of fish, caught some blackmouth, small coho and shakers, but mainly out to get fitness and work the kinks out. Trolled and jigged through lots of marks, but didn’t see any nets flying beyond the smalls we had. Just checked the Locks at lunch, a few fish but still no sign of chinook. Understanding that all of the “data” I am teeing up here is from a very limited sample, but workhard’s charts here corroborate to prime time in the marine areas. Make sure you are ready, I think they will be slamming the door shut pretty quickly in chinook seasons this year!

Great info - any insights into why the A09 graph is a steady downtrend in comparison to the rest (albiet with a higher starting percentage than most areas as well)?

Great info - any insights into why the A09 graph is a steady downtrend in comparison to the rest (albiet with a higher starting percentage than most areas as well)?

Maybe WDFW is opening the fishery on what would be the peak ~ July 16 most years? It could be an effort thing as well since CPUE calculated here has Chinook as the numerator and anglers as the denominator - maybe as the weather gets better more anglers enter the fishery with the same amount of available fish? Maybe more anglers are on the water because of the Coho fishery? The short answer is I really don't know.

This lines up with my experience in recent years. Based in West Seattle, work right near the Locks so GG, West Point, LP and Dolphin local spots. You get fired up in July, mid July, but even late July is not really game time. A few days into Aug for the next week (and/or until closures) is prime time.

More good info!  I am going to be out there like every other day until I hook up or drown hehehe. In fact I think I'm going to head out to GG on the 25th since the weather's supposed to be nice and I want to get familiar with the area.

...Make sure you are ready, I think they will be slamming the door shut pretty quickly in chinook seasons this year!

My dad used to work for WDFW and just told me the exact same thing. Even with me fishing every other day, I think the odds of me catching a King are pretty remote since I don't have any salmon fishing experience whatsoever. I'd be happy just to catch a few pinks and silvers this summer but who knows - I could get lucky! 

We should meet up for a dawn patrol in August 
I don't have any major plans anytime soon (unless I find a job - lol).

My dad used to work for WDFW and just told me the exact same thing. Even with me fishing every other day, I think the odds of me catching a King are pretty remote since I don't have any salmon fishing experience whatsoever. I'd be happy just to catch a few pinks and silvers this summer but who knows - I could get lucky! 

I get 35 miles to the gallon with a kayak on top of my car. You have incredible range with a kayak, I fish multiple areas in the same day often. Hell today I drove 40minutes, fished for two hours and was back at my desk by 9am. You can easily fish the Puget Sound and the Columbia in the same day if you wanted to. Oregon? Easy. BC? Cake. Fish your home water when it's open, then go exploring man. Theres Chinook off John's river and the Humptulips when almost all the Puget Sound Fisheries are winding down. There's Coho in the Naselle into January. There is a ton of opportunity out there to catch fish man.

Hey workhard, 

It doesn't look like we'll have much of a tidal flow on Thurs.  at PNP.  I'm going to try to catch some of the early morning ebb (I'm only 10 miles away).  Any tips for for these kind of mild tidal changes? 

kaz

Hey workhard, 

It doesn't look like we'll have much of a tidal flow on Thurs.  at PNP.  I'm going to try to catch some of the early morning ebb (I'm only 10 miles away).  Any tips for for these kind of mild tidal changes? 

kaz

Cover water, troll.

For some reason I can't message.  Caught one small King at 4:30am,  after that only sharks. 

I might try one more early morning at PNP.  After that I'm not sure. 


Later in the season,  I'm going to try MA13.  I'm looking at the east end of the Hale Passage and maybe Fox Island. 


Your Summer Chinook-catch records were excellent.

I found out where they were not yesterday. 7 hrs in the kayak and I'm taking today off!

I found out where they were not yesterday. 7 hrs in the kayak and I'm taking today off!

Yeah I did ~12 hours for a shaker in 9. The fish are at possession bar which might be impossible to fish at in a kayak. After a lot of experimenting I was able to get a diver to work at near 100ft, so that's a decent consolation prize.