NOF 2026

Stonedfish

Stonedfish

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The picture is a link.
SF

 
Tallguy said:
Seems generally better than last year. More wild coho predicted. Not sure what the limiting stocks will do, they seem better ish generally.
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I just hope the coho come into the beaches better than last year. It was a struggle last year, at least for me.
SF
 
Anyone know why the chinook yearling forecast dropped off a cliff for the snohomish system? Floods or drought? Something else?
 
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Ya I think the coho run was substantially smaller than the last few years. Coho on the snoho were done by December. 2024 I was finding them into late december. A decade ago, i cought them semi regularly well into february.
 
Looks like Neah Bay should be on fire for coho. Another spot I enjoyed fishing further down the Strait will probably be meh with lower local runs.... but one never knows.
 
Chris Bellows said:
Looks like Neah Bay should be on fire for coho. Another spot I enjoyed fishing further down the Strait will probably be meh with lower local runs.... but one never knows.
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Amazing. When I left WA for FL I was certain that fishery was on its way to permanent closure and then that strange persistent negative PDO thing happened. Enjoy the good times at Neah. Man I really miss it.
 
Just a reminder that NOF #1 starts tomorrow morning at 9:00. If you’d like to attend, listen or participate online, you can pre-register via the link below.
SF

wdfw.wa.gov

North of Falcon meeting #1

Meeting recordingsMain presentationCommercial breakout meetingRecreational breakout meeting
wdfw.wa.gov wdfw.wa.gov
 
Forecasts seem better around the board this year for coho, but looking at the proposed seasons, it doesn’t look like that will lead to more opportunity.

Haven’t been able to make any of the meetings this year but I wonder what the logic is.
 
The logic is wild chinook runs are still too poor to fish for. Targeting coho has a ton of overlap with targeting chinook. If mouth breathers could stop bonking kings out of season we may have had a longer leash.
 
johnnyboy said:
Forecasts seem better around the board this year for coho, but looking at the proposed seasons, it doesn’t look like that will lead to more opportunity.

Haven’t been able to make any of the meetings this year but I wonder what the logic is
Click to expand...
As also it comes down meeting the allowable Southern United States (Sus) exploitation rates (ERs).

If you review the 3rd link provided StonedFish you will find additional recreational opportunities above last year's fisheries (slide 11) to be modeled, slides 12 (chinook) and 13 (coho) show the SUS ERs for key stocks. For Chinook SUS ERs reductions needed are 21% of Nooksack springs, 16% for Stillaguamish. Meeting those 2 will likely take care of the Snohomish problem. Suspect that much of added impacts for Stillaguamish Chinook is the ocean treaty troll fishery and it is unclear where the additional impacts are coming from but suspect much of it is coming from in-river fisheries. Regardless some tweaking will like to be needed in marine recreational fisheries.

Once again Snohomish coho are a problem (how far has the mighty fallen?) with about a 4% reduction needed. This will likely fall on the shoulders of the recreational fisheries; either reduction in non-selective coho fishery or the in-river fishery or more likely from both.

WW is right the Skagit coho return/fishery could be exceptional. The forecast is a recent record. It will be interesting to see how the in season update (ISU) goes and whether the recreational fishery can come close to catch the potential recreational share.

If you strong desire in the shaping of the fisheries of interest, you have less than a week to engage in the process with your thoughts.

Curt
 
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