Summer Chinook Season Kicks off July 17th in Puget Sound & San Juan Islands

Puget Sound’s biggest salmon opener kicks off on July 17th with Hatchery Chinook retention happening all over. The Sound will be buzzing with fishing boats all on the search for one of our most prized catches of the year. Here’s a quick post to get you up to speed and geared up for the 2025 Puget Sound Summer Chinook Season. We also wrote a more thorough piece on finding and fishing for Puget Sound Chinook Salmon here.

For a look at our full line of gear, check out our Saltwater Salmon page.

Central Puget Sound Summer Chinook 2025 Season

Fishing in Central Puget Sound has already kicked off, with an early Chinook season in Tacoma and Resident Coho Fishing in Seattle. In Marine Area 10 and 11, Hatchery Chinook retention opens July 17-19, with additional dates scheduled later after catch data is reviewed. Daily limit is 2 salmon (one can be a Hatchery Chinook over 22”), release Wild Chinook, Chum. Check out Emergency Rules for additional dates: Marine Area 10 Emergency Rules or Marine Area 11 Emergency Rules.

Prime spots in Marine Area 10 are Jeff Head, Kingston, Richmond Beach and the Oil Docks. If you’re planning on fishing Marine Area 11 for the opener, you’ll find Clay Banks, Slag Pile, Point Defiance to be good around Tacoma. Dalco off South Vashon holds fish, as do the flats in front of Gig Harbor. Fishing on the east side of Vashon Island can be good, check out Dolphin Point, Point Robinson, Point Beales. The east shore of Puget Sound has Three Tree Point and Redondo, which aren’t necessarily destination fishing spots, but the locals that have a good handle on it catch a few nice Chinook.

Shilshole Bay is closed for the Chinook season, but Seattle’s East Elliott Bay is opening later on August 1-4 (lines up at noon on the last day), for a daily limit of 2 salmon, both marked and unmarked Chinook retention over 22”, wild and hatchery coho, chum (unlikely), sockeye (even more unlikely) and pinks (very likely). Add on a bonus 2 Pink Salmon to the limit and it’s worth scheduling a day there.

Admiralty Inlet Summer Chinook 2025 Season

Marine Area 9 has some of the hottest salmon fishing in the state come mid-July. Depending on the tides, the bite may be insane at Mid Channel Bank near Port Townsend, Possession Bar, Point No Point, or Pilot Point. It’s centrally located, so the fleet will be large, but the opener usually coincides with some of the best Chinook fishing imaginable in the outer reaches of Central Puget Sound.

Admiralty Inlet, from Port Townsend down to Edmonds will be open July 17-19, with additional dates scheduled later after catch data is reviewed. Daily limit is 2 salmon (one can be a Hatchery Chinook over 22”), release Wild Chinook, Wild Coho, Chum. Check out Emergency Rules for additional dates: Marine Area 9 Emergency Rules.

San Juan Islands Summer Chinook 2025 Season

The iconic San Juan Islands will be open for a 3-day season, July 17-19. Daily limit is 2 salmon (one can be a Hatchery Chinook over 22”), release Wild Chinook, Wild Coho, Chum, Sockeye. A bonus limit of 2 extra Pink Salmon is also in play. Check out Emergency Rules for any additional dates, although it is most likely the season truly is only 3 days for Chinook here: Marine Area 7 Emergency Rules.

The archipelago is a complex maze of channels, passageways and coves, with large islands and reefs creating some of the regions most interesting conditions to find salmon, big currents concentrate bait and salmon for brief periods at different times each day. For someone looking for a challenge, with the big payoff of catching trophy Chinook in one of the most beautiful parts of the country, the San Juan Islands Chinook fishery is hard to beat. If only the season wasn’t so brief!

Fishing spots here are well guarded secrets, but there are many! West Cypress Island, Eagle Bluff, Tide Point, Reef Point, Thatcher Pass, Orcas Island’s Girl Scout Camp, Limekiln Point, and the list goes on and on.

Keep an eye out for closures in some parts of eastern Marine Area 7, plus a mid-August Chinook opener in the Bellingham Bay area.

Seattle Fishing Co. has the gear you need for Puget Sound Chinook

Our passion is saltwater salmon fishing, and we’ve curated a great selection of rods, reels and tackle. Check out our Saltwater Salmon Page.

Here are a few of our favorite products that we use to catch Puget Sound Chinook

Pro-Troll Lighted 11” Flashers quickly became one of the more popular trolling boards in our local waters after they came out. The patented water-activated flashing light sends out an added layer of attraction, besides the fact that these glow and moon jelly taped flashers have some really fish-catching patterns.

Gibbs Highliner Flashers are a personal favorite. These boards come in a number of great patterns and are high quality. We catch a lot of fish using these.

Silver Horde Kingfisher Spoons and Luhr Jensen Coyote Spoons are the most popular trolling spoons that we have in our line-up. A salmon trolling staple.

Silver Horde Coho Killers Spoons and Luhr Jensen Koho King Spoons are thin profile trolling spoons that perfectly imitate Candlefish, a huge food source for Chinook in Puget Sound.

McOmies Custom Spoons have some great finishes and the mini hoochie rigged above the hook makes for a unique swimming action.

Gold Star Yamashita Hoochie Trolling Rigs are hand-tied in house and come in the best colors for Puget Sound with twinkle skirts, fluorocarbon leader material and tandem 4/0 Lazer Sharp Hooks.

Ace Hi Flies & Grand Slam Bucktails are tried-and-true classic salmon trolling flies and catch tons of salmon.

Stacking Bodies Flies are locally made by a company that is veteran owned, great looking trolling flies with a lot of flash and some really good looking colors. Our favorite new saltwater lure of 2025.

Tomic Plugs in 4” to 6” are classics in the Sound. We love fishing these without a flasher, and the battle is amazing. If you’re fishing in heavy current, this is it.

Exploring and learning to fish for Puget Sound Chinook Salmon

Over the years, I’ve spent more and more time fishing close to home on Puget Sound. The Chinook fisheries we have around here are high quality and convenient to so many people living in the Seattle area, and if you own or have access to a boat, you really do need to experience it first hand. Novice anglers fear not, as this fishery is high-reward but also pretty straightforward. You need to read our post Fishing for Puget Sound’s Chinook Salmon, which goes even more in-depth than this season highlight post.

Chinook migration times differ from year to year. A few years ago, it seemed like the Chinook fishing was absolutely red-hot at the entrance near Port Townsend… Mid Channel Bank, and the Central Sound was tougher fishing. The next year, it seemed like 80% of the Chinook had moved past Admiralty Inlet and Central Puget Sound by the time it opened and Tacoma had the most incredible morning bites in anyone’s memory. Salmon are predictable in some ways and unpredictable in other ways. 

The fishing gear changes slightly from year to year, with new products or new finishes on old favorites, but essentially it stays the same. The tide series is always a little different from year to year, but you know that the fish will be where they are supposed to be… West Possession Bar on a flood, Tin Shed on the ebb, Point No Point on a hard ebb, Pilot Point on a flood, MidvChannel on an ebb. South Jeff on an ebb, North Jeff on a flood, Inner Kingston on an ebb, Outer Kingston on a flood, and the rest of the areas each have their own moments. Hopefully, if you are new to fishing around here you read through to the end... because this last paragraph alone will save you ten years of fishing in the right place at the wrong time. Shoot us an email if you need any help, or pick up a pack of hooks from our online shop if you found this helpful. Best of luck out on the water this season!