Northwest Fishing Reports

Shoreline fishing for hatchery coho and pinks only at the moment, but can a guy motor his boat to a shoreline and get out and fish from the beach to get away from the crowds? Has anyone called WDFW and asked? I don't see anything in the regs or emergency rules that says you can't.

If you aren't sitting in your boat when you cast, of course you can use it to find better shore access.

Fishing from the shoreline out of your boat is legal. The hard part is convincing the warden you were shore fishing when you boat back to the launch with salmon... better bring a go-pro for proof!

You would think it would be the other way around, the game warden better bring his go pro to prove I caught salmon from the boat. Innocent until proven guilty right? But I see what you mean.

If anyone else was wondering, here is what I got back from WDFW...
By definition, shoreline fishing means you can only fish while standing on shore or a pier or jetty but not within a floating device (i.e., boat). to your question, if you can use a boat to travel to a beach, fish, then return home. The answer is yes only if you do not fish on your way home (by definition, fishing means crabbing, fishing for flounder or cutthroat too) as if you do stop and fish you are in possession of an illegal catch for that area because you are fishing with a boat; consider your boat as solely a mode of transportation like a car. The rule is under our emergency regulations page online:

That's good info to have since it might not be spelled out in the regs like that.
Thanks for the update!

I've got 2 families reserved at fort Flagler park for this coming week. We collectively decided to keep our reservations after hearing the salmon closure. We'll do some crabbing (god willing) and ???? What else should I pack for? Any other interesting fish to fish for in the area? Were camping in rv's and pulling a 16ft boat. Thanks

I would bring a casting rod and some buzzbombs for sure for pinks. They should be starting to show any day.

Gonna have to do some googling, Ive never buzz-bombed from shore... I have been wanting to knock the shine off of my pink buzz bombs. Thanks for the input.

Ma 6 is just a short run past pt Wilson you can fish Coho there from a boat just no kings

We were out motoring around looking in 9 this weekend and saw very few pinkies jumping. Friday I was out in 8-2 in front of the house and saw 0 jumpers. Usually a bunch of them by now.