Salmon Season

Salmon Fishing

The first written reference to Salmon in the Pacific Northwest is from the Spanish Captain Manuel Quimper who bought berries and salmon, “of a hundred pounds weight” off the mouth of the Elwha River in July of 1790. These would have been King or Chinook Salmon. People have been coming to the Olympic Peninsula ever. 

The Spring Chinook is called the “First Salmon” since it is the first species to make the yearly spawning run up our rivers. Every tribe of Native Americans throughout the range of the salmon share a common tradition of “The First Salmon Ceremony” 

On April 19, 1805 the Lewis and Clark Expedition described a “First Salmon Ceremony at the Dalles on the Columbia River where, “The whole village was rejoicing today over having caught a single salmon. This was a sign of more fish to come in four or five days.”

It is believed that salmon are immortal spiritual beings that come from a big house in the bottom of the ocean and sacrifice their bodies for the benefit of man. Then the spirit of the salmon can return to their ocean house. It was important that the first salmon be treated properly. The meat should be shared. The heart and bones of the first salmon should be returned to the river and under no conditions should a dog get a piece of it.

In May of 1847 the Artist Paul Kane visited the Olympic Peninsula as part of The Hudson Bay Company effort to document Native American Cultures. Kane described a fish weir on the Dungeness River located about a mile above the mouth where fish were speared in a basket trap. 

In 1852 James Swan described using nets made of spruce roots that were six hundred feet Dungeness River long and sixteen feet deep to beach seine chinook salmon on the shores of Shoalwater Bay. Sometimes a hundred salmon were caught in one haul. Swan described a smokehouse full of these Chinook that averaged 65 pounds with the and sixteen largest being 80.

These days the Spring Chinook tend to run a lot smaller but they are still as old Judge Swan described them, “Without a doubt, the finest salmon in the world and, been taken so near the ocean, has it's fine flavor in perfection.”

The Spring Chinook is a very fat fish.  They swim upriver as early as February or March in our rivers do not spawn until August or September and survive the whole time on their body fat. 

The summer Chinook and Coho run up our rivers as the name implies, in the summer. Due to the uncertainty of the salmon fishing regulations, we never know if we can fish for them until something is announced. 

Fall salmon are the largest and most abundant salmon we fish for. The limits for hatchery Coho can allow up to four fish in certain rivers. Usually, you are only allowed one wild salmon but you never know until the season is announced.