Northwest Fishing Reports

I DO have access to a boat but would rather fish from shore. i want to try my hand at rock fish, cod, etc etc. i mainly do salmon fishing in rivers and trout fishing. Anyone have any advice they can give? i live in edmonds and the closer the better, but i dont mind driving if i have time

Hi Dennis! I don't think you're getting an answer because the answer ain't good. Unfortunetly, rockfish and pacific cod populations have sharply declined in Puget Sound. There is no rockfish or pacific cod retention in Puget Sound proper. You have to drive to get at them, and I think you're closest best bet in the state would be the jetty at Westport on the coast, which is a weekend trip. However, I am very unfamilar with northeast Puget Sound, so there might some good areas I don't know about for other fish like flounder, surfperch, lingcod, and greenling.

I don't know the regs, but how about Deception Pass area?

Lingcod can be had from the edmonds pier, although it is tough and I mean TOUGH fishing. By boat best bets would be Possession bar, or the SE Tip of Hat Island for lings. Only bottomfish really worth keeping are lings and cabezon, and the lings have a tight slot from 26 to 36 inches. No size limit on cabs, 2 per person per day. Good luck.

I have to echo Matt's statement. Just open up your regs. and look at what is open for retention in terms of bottom fish, for the area you are looking at. You will see that most species are closed. It's not like anybody can tell you to give it a try over at so and so beach. Right now you are lucky because of the SKINNY 6 week window on Ling Cod in a lot of Puget S. but take that out of the equation and it's mostly flounder and bull head.

You said youdon't mind a drive... I would look into the videos section on the website. Look for the video that was posted by Fish Or Man, recently on fishing from the Westport jetty. I would say if you don't have a boat,,, it doesn't get much better than that. I look forward to a trip out there one day.

I'm curious as to why you'd rather fish from shore? There is much better fishing to be had via boat on the sound than off the shore... Most of the piers and shore fishing spots get pretty hammered so there aren't really a lot of fish taken from the salt on the piers.

Edmonds Pier (since you are located in Edmonds) would be your best bet....

Shilsho Pier at Golden Gardens in Ballard.. although with out being able to retain rockfish any more there is not a lot to fish for there.. you can catch ratfish and dogfish from that pier as the sun goes down, but those fish are nasty IMO.

Mukilteo beach by the ferry can be good for Salmon when the Silvers are returning or real good for pinks on the odd years.

those are a couple of my shore spots i used to hit and produce.