Fishing report for Sept. 29

▪ The South Sound’s winter crabbing season opens Oct. 1.

▪ The fall salmon season is underway on the Columbia, with more than 1.7 million salmon expected to return to the river.

▪ Mineral Lake closes Wednesdays, but trout still biting in other local lakes.

SALT WATER

SOUTH SOUND: The winter crabbing season opens at 8 a.m. Thursday and continues until Dec. 31. That includes the waters off Tacoma and Olympia. The Point Defiance Boathouse Marina reports coho salmon fishing continues to be good tight to shore. The staff recommends trying near the kelp beds in water as shallow as 5 feet.

HOOD CANAL: The winter crabbing season begins Thursday.

NORTH SOUND: There will be no winter crabbing season in Marine Area 10 (Seattle/Bremerton), but most of the rest of the North Sound and Strait of Juan de Fuca will open Thursday. Anglers also have been landing coho.

RIVERS

CARBON: Anglers are having some success, says Daniel Bravo of Auburn Sports and Marine.

COLUMBIA: More than 1.7 million coho and chinook salmon are expected to return to the river this fall, according to the latest report from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. The river is open from Buoy 10 upstream to the Oregon-Washington border above McNary Dam. White sturgeon fishing in that same area is now limited to catch-and-release. Walleye fishing has been good near Troutdale.

COWLITZ: Anglers have been catching chinook, coho, steelhead and cutthroat trout. Wild chinook must be released. Last week Tacoma Power recovered 203 summer-run steelhead, 17 spring chinook adults, one jack, 1,040 fall chinook adults, 95 jacks, 137 coho adults, 75 jacks and 12 cutthroat trout.

CISPUS: Tacoma Power last week released 17 chinook adults and eight coho adults near the mouth of Yellow Jacket Creek.

GREEN: Trolling on the lower river is yielding some coho.

TILTON: Tacoma Power last week released 465 fall chinook adults, 63 jacks, with 111 coho adults, 72 jacks and one cutthroat at Morton’s Gust Backstrom Park.

LEWIS: State reports say boat anglers are catching some fall chinook, and bank anglers are mostly catching steelhead.

PUYALLUP: Action has been slow lately, Bravo said.

YAKIMA: From Sept. 1-27, state biologists estimate 736 anglers fished for salmon, harvesting 269 adult fall chinook and 10 jacks. They averaged eight hours of fishing per chinook. “The fishery should continue to improve over the next two weeks,” state biologist Paul Hoffarth said.

LAKES

BRADLEY: This small Puyallup lake was stocked with 800 rainbow trout Sept. 14.

MINERAL: Wednesday is the last day to fish.

TANWAX: PowerBait is still working to land trout, according to Rainbow Resort staff.

WASHINGTON: Anglers are catching coho, according to Auburn Sports and Marine.

POTHOLES: Walleye and bass finishing have been good lately.

LELAND: Last week this Jefferson County lake was stocked with 2,000 rainbow trout.

This story was originally published September 29, 2015 at 6:36 AM with the headline "Fishing report for Sept. 29."