Area 9 Opening Delayed
Attention Washington Area 9 anglers: the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife has announced a delay in opening Marine Area 9 (Admiralty Inlet) until as late as March, from its previously set January 16 opening.
According to the WDFW, “preliminary estimates and fishery projections indicate that reopening January 16 would lead to an early closure of Area 9 by reaching the allowable limit of total chinook encounters earlier than the April 15 closure date. Delaying the opening to mid-February or early March will allow the state time to monitor the sub-legal to legal-sized proportion of chinook and determine a reopening date that will give anglers opportunity later into the spring.”
The department went on to state that they would “continue to evaluate the ratio of legal to sublegal-size chinook to help minimize the risk of anglers encountering sub-legal chinook and maximize fishing opportunity for the mark-selective chinook fishery in Area 9.”
On the Salmon University Facebook page, reaction to the announcement was uniformely negative, with many commenters questioning the WDFW’s reasoning for the delayed opening.
Edmonds Public Fishing Pier is unaffected by this rule change and specific regulations can be found in the Washington Sport Fishing Rules pamphlet.
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