Fishing report for Sept. 18

▪ Trout fishing improves at area lakes.

▪ Local river salmon fishing slowed by low water, again.

▪ Ocean salmon fishing slowed by weather.

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission is meeting in Spokane on Friday (Sept. 18) and Saturday. On the agenda is a briefing on proposed fishing regulation changes. Staff from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife is recommending 50 proposals move forward for additional public comments. You can see the proposals at wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/rule_proposals.

LAKES

MAYFIELD: Anglers have had success trolling for trout. Try using an orange or green Wedding Ring, tipped with a piece of night crawler, pulled behind a Luhr Jensen Ford Fender lake troll setup.

MINERAL: People are catching some limits of trout. Most are using worms, green marshmallow or Power Eggs. Fishing across the lake from the resort has been best for brown trout, bouncing worms off the bottom.

MUNN: Fishing is good, especially if you’re looking for crappie or bluegill. Trout fishing is slow, likely because of the warm water temperatures.

SPANAWAY: Brown trout have been feeding on insects at the surface. Trolling a worm near the surface should be successful. Fishing from the dock has been slow.

TANWAX: Trout fishing is finally starting to pick up. People this week were catching fish, some weighing 1 1/2 pounds, using worms and rainbow-colored PowerBait. Crappie and perch fishing is still going strong.

RIVERS

CARBON: Anglers are catching a mix of coho and pink salmon.

NISQUALLY: Pink salmon action has been slow. Some people are reporting having success with pink corkies and yarn.

PUYALLUP: Wednesday’s rain was not enough to raise the river level to normal levels. Flows are still below 1,000 cubic feet per second. As a result, fishing remains slow. Those fish being caught, however, are still bright.

OLYMPIC COAST: Plenty of rain has allowed the state to reopen many of the area’s rivers. The upper reaches of the Sol Duc, Bogachiel, Calawah, Dickey and Clearwater rivers reopened Thursday. Also Thursday, the state removed the selective gear restriction and is allowing chinook retention on the lower Hoh from the DNR Oxbow Campground to the Olympic National Park boundary near the river mouth. Anglers are catching plenty of cutthroat trout, as well as hatchery and wild summer-run steelhead.

YAKIMA: The pressure has been light, but fishing for rainbow and cutthroat trout has been very good.

SALT WATER

ILWACO: The action has slowed some for the week that ended Sunday, with the average catch dropping to one salmon per person. The coho catch fell more than 1,000 fish to 1,954.

NORTH SOUND: Anglers have been averaging about one-half coho per person, based on creel samples at the Everett Public Ramp. That is good news because the 22nd Everett Coho Derby is taking place Saturday and Sunday. First prize is $10,000.

SOUTH SOUND: People are catching a few blackmouth off the clay banks and coho along the Gig Harbor shoreline. People trolling off the mouth of the Puyallup are hooking pink salmon. The Point Defiance Marina is holding a swap meet 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Oct. 3.

WESTPORT: The average catch rate for the week that ended Sunday was 1.55 salmon per person. Fishing was slow early this week but improved with the weather. Most boats are heading northwest from the harbor.

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 3:27 AM with the headline "Fishing report for Sept. 18."