Things Not Looking Good For Winter Blackmouth Fishing In Marine Area 8-1, 8-2 And 9 For This Winters Blackmouth Fishery

Just got back from a four hour meeting with the Puget Sound Salmon Advisory Board and WDFW concerning our upcoming winter blackmouth season. To be quite frank things are not looking good for a long season. The same problem with Chinook impacts is going to occur in 8-1, 8-2 and 9 that occured in Marine Area 10. (Which caused the closures). Though things are not finalized it looks like Marine Area 9 will be CLOSED for Chinook and Coho effective November 1st. However, there will be a proposed Chum fishery in November. Then we will get a Chinook retention fishery starting on the 24th of November through the end of the month. This would allow some fishing for the Thanksgiving Holiday. That is unless the impacts on Chinook are too high which will cause an early closure.

In Marine Areas 8-1 and 8-2 Chinook will open as stated on November 1st. Coho, however will be CLOSED in these areas. Chinook will remain open until the impacts on that fishery can be determined. Which in reality don't expect that the fishery will remain open for very long.

I would look for the notice from WDFW in the next couple of days. I will post it once we receive it. Sorry to bring bad news, but we knew it was coming.

By having these closures now it should relate to having time on the water after the first of the year. We will just have to wait and see what the angling impacts on Chinook are to see what we are going to get after the first of the year.