Headlines

Record flooding across parts of Western Washington dealt some WDFW facilities a blow, with significant damage reported to a fishway and a pair of boat ramps, while some coho smolts at a hatchery self-released early after their rearing pond was overtopped by high water, but the big concern is for how it affected wild salmon…

Oregon salmon managers make official what last week’s Willamette River spring Chinook forecast reveal foretold: With fewer than 34,000 hatchery fish expected, the two-rod endorsement won’t be allowed.

ODFW reports on the December 12 meeting of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission, which set 2026 groundfish limits, heard about Columbia hook issues, and saw two new members in action for the first time.

Befittingly, it’s a sticky-sharp topic, but Oregon salmon and steelhead fishery managers plan to broach the subject of barbed hooks on the Columbia with their counterparts in Washington over the coming year.

It will be awhile before the record floodwaters from this week’s back to back atmospheric rivers fully drain away across the North Sound and elsewhere in Washington and the true extent of damage to homes, farms, businesses, towns, roads and other infrastructure is known.

Just two days after Washington state wildlife overseers turned down his “critical” request last month for wolves for a voter-mandated reintroduction effort, the former director of Colorado Parks & Wildlife sent a last-ditch plea to the Colville Tribes.

The good news? With removal of four dams on the Klamath River completed in 2024, thousands of Chinook have wasted little time making their way back into Southern Oregon waters. The not-so-good news? So too have poachers. Or at least two, anyway.

Columbia salmon managers are forecasting 147,300 above-Bonneville-bound spring Chinook in 2026, similar to last season’s actual return that bested the prediction by over 30,000 fish and allowed for angling in May and June on the lower river.

Crabbers who harvested Dungies in Puget Sound’s Eastern Straits, San Juans and Admiralty Inlet will receive an invite to complete an anonymous online survey about their 2025 catches starting tomorrow, a WDFW project “to understand catch patterns in smaller parts of these areas so we can make well-informed management decisions about the fishery.”

Oregon Coast Chinook do not warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act. So says the National Marine Fisheries Service in a notice published on the Federal Register today. The feds had been petitioned to list two populations – Oregon Coast and Southern Oregon and Northern California Coastal Chinook – but a lengthy analysis by a…

Oregon’s Fish and Wildlife Commission is meeting late next week to hear a briefing on Columbia River barbless hook regs and decide on a 2026-long 4-rockfish bag (or a shorter 5-fish season?) and 3-lingcod limit, among other items.

The impact of sea lion and seal predation on listed Northwest salmon and steelhead stocks was the subject of a US House subcommittee hearing, which saw testimony from tribal leaders and the American Sportfishing Association.

It seems like the idea’s been around long enough to just about qualify for old-growth status, but a bill to designate select public woods and waters on the Olympic Peninsula as wilderness or wild and scenic again advanced after a US Senate subcommittee hearing this week.

With as many as 70 percent of Yakima River salmon and steelhead smolts reportedly dying as they migrate down the lower 40 miles of this Eastern Washington stream, federal and tribal officials are teaming up to figure out how to improve their survival.

Washington wildlife managers plan to start a new study to figure out what’s ailing wapiti in the mountainous southeast corner of the state, this one focusing on the health of cow elk.

The 2025-26 Washington Coast winter steelhead season has been announced.

Anybody who’s ever been around a Northwest stream in fall can tell when the salmon are in just by the stench of washed-up, decomposing fish, but a new study shows that the presence of genetic material from ones still swimming upstream to the spawning grounds is detectable in the air as well.

Less than two weeks after striking out on a request for Washington wolves to help fuel his state’s voter-mandated reintroduction effort, Jeff Davis has “stepped down” as the director of Colorado Parks and Wildlife and is taking another role in state government there.

John Keizer, Tom Nelson, Paul Kim, Tommy Donlin and other expert anglers will lead fishing seminars at the January 30-February 7, 2026, Seattle Boat Show, organizers announced today.

WDFW reports a new confirmation of chronic wasting disease in a buck harvested in the same area where the always-fatal deer family disease was confirmed in three whitetails last year.

“We solved this case thanks to the tenacity of Officer McOmber and the contact he made with Pratt,” said WDFW Police Captain Dan Chadwick. “This is just another example of our officers’ commitment to thorough investigations. In this case the officer spent months working the investigation, putting all the pieces together, which ultimately concluded in…

Fresh fall stockers. Free fishing. Both are on tap next week as WDFW and ODFW provide anglers late-season opportunities to get outdoors and on the water. Below are press releases from both agencies outlining Washington’s Black Friday releases and Oregon’s post-Thanksgiving Free Fishing days. Get outside on Black Friday with statewide trout fishing opportunities The Washington Department of…

NWTF volunteers and WDFW teamed up to enhance wildlife habitat on the Yakima Valley’s Sunnyside Wildlife Area – where they also spotted 60 to 60 of the big upland birds, “an encouraging reminder of the value of this work.”

WDFW provides more details on its new digital licensing app for fishermen and hunters to carry on their phones and which will launch for the 2026 license year, which begins April 1.

The Oregon Senate has confirmed the two state Fish and Wildlife Commission appointees forwarded last month by Governor Tina Kotek.

Colorado will have to look for wolves elsewhere for its voter-mandated reintroduction after the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission voted 8-1 that it couldn’t approve the request for up to 15 wolves right now.

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission on Saturday morning will discuss a request to supply up to 15 wolves to Colorado for year three of that state’s voter-mandated reintroduction program.

Washington hunters and anglers will soon be able to begin storing their licenses and tags as well as reporting their catches and kills on their smartphone, just like Oregon sportsmen have for several years.

It’s official, there will be no January 1 sturgeon retention openers on the Bonneville and The Dalles Pools next year.

Here’s a list of lakes and ponds across Washington being stocked with rainbow trout to 3 pounds and 17 inches for fishing over the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Early November 2025 coho, fall Chinook and steelhead catch stats from select Southwest Washington tributaries.

Boats galore, deals on fishing and hunting gear, antler displays and competitions – there’s a lot to like when the greater Northwest’s 2026 boat and sportsman show season kicks off in January. Here’s a schedule of events, venues and links for more information:

Staffers who work on Columbia Gorge sturgeon management are recommending not opening the Bonneville and The Dalles Pools for retention until later this coming winter rather than the usual New Years Day start of keeper season seen in recent years.

With support from federal Wildlife Restoration Act funds, ODFW recently undertook a major renovation to make the shotgun range at EE Wilson Wildlife Area near Corvallis and Albany more accessible, spacious and welcoming.

Oregon State Police fish and wildlife troopers are investigating two cases of wastage involving at least six deer in recent weeks.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service says it’s no longer necessary to come up with a national recovery plan for gray wolves in the western two-thirds of Washington and Oregon and much of the rest of the Lower 48 because the species’ ESA listing “is no longer appropriate” thanks to how successful their recovery has…