Fishing in Washington

Smallmouth bass fishing on the Columbia River.

If angling variety is the deciding factor, then Washington ranks very highly with other states in the U.S. The Evergreen State’s list of significant sportfish includes 23 freshwater, 20 saltwater, and 8 anadromous species. Some of these, in fact, have been successfully transplanted to form important fisheries elsewhere. Rainbow trout, for example, flourished in Washington lakes and streams for thousands of years before people transported them to the far corners of the earth. The Skamania steelhead that delights Great Lakes anglers is a Washington native. Chinook and coho salmon from Washington waters have been used to help establish thriving sportfisheries elsewhere as well.

Washington’s angling opportunities, on the other hand, have been greatly enhanced by the introduction of several fish species from other parts of the country and the world. Shad were brought from New England in the 1870s and 1880s, largemouth bass came from Ohio and elsewhere a few years later, and smallmouth bass were imported to Washington from various places around the turn of the twentieth century. No one seems to know exactly where Washington’s walleye population came from, or when, but anglers have been catching them from the Columbia River since the early 1970s.

As for places to fish, the possibilities are many and varied. As if more than 150 miles of Pacific Ocean coastline weren’t enough for saltwater anglers, the 80-mile-long Strait of Juan de Fuca and the inland waterways of Puget Sound offer both marine fishing variety and protection from all but the worst of Northwest storms. Chinook, coho, and pink salmon are among the primary targets of Washington’s saltwater fishing fleet, but the possibilities also include Pacific halibut to 100 pounds, ill-tempered lingcod, and many species of rockfish, flounder, sole, and saltwater perch.

Freshwater fishing is virtually unlimited in this state, which has roughly 5,100 lowland lakes and reservoirs, 2,800 high-country lakes, 140 rivers, and more than 1,600 creeks. Rainbow and cutthroat trout inhabit most of these lakes and streams, and a majority of the rivers are home to the big sea-run rainbow trout called steelhead. Anglers searching for warmwater fish don’t have to look far, as largemouth and smallmouth bass, walleye, black crappie, yellow perch, brown bullhead, and other species inhabit hundreds of Washington lakes and reservoirs.