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Fishing Update for February 2025 - Steelhead, Blackmouth, March Opportunities and Fish Politics
Mar 1, 2025
I have a few things to say on many topics, so bear with me as I jump around in this video talking about Steelhead, Blackmouth seasons, March opportunities that are coming up and of course Fish Politics updates.
It's North of Falcon season and I've got a new way to collaborate: The PNWBestLife discord server, here's the invite to get started: https://discord.gg/gEgUV3eCr4
Here's the smelt page I promised you as well: https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/smelt#current
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0:00
what's up everybody p&w bestlife here
0:02
bringing you an end of February going
0:05
into March update on what's going on for
0:09
fishing and of course we got to talk a
0:11
little bit of fish politics because it's
0:14
Thursday evening for me as I'm making
0:16
this video and tomorrow is the north of
0:19
Falcon forecast kickoff meeting who's
0:23
excited for that I mean come on I'm
0:24
going to actually be there in person in
0:26
Olympia tomorrow and hopefully be
0:28
bringing you all kinds of good
0:30
information and tidbits about what's
0:32
happening in the season setting process
0:34
for
0:36
2025 hopefully we have an incredible
0:39
year lots of good salmon Returns the
0:41
ocean conditions have been pretty good
0:44
so we have reason for optimism and it's
0:47
an odd year so that means there's pink
0:48
salmon returning anyways more on that in
0:50
a minute I have a lot to say about a few
0:53
topics this video is going to be kind of
0:56
all over the place scatter shot trying
0:57
to cover a bunch of different things
1:00
hopefully make you more prepared to go
1:02
into March and have a great month ahead
1:05
let's start out with steel head right so
1:07
steel head Coastal river is about to
1:09
close couple days you're probably not
1:11
going to do anything with the
1:12
information that I give you assuming I
1:14
can get this video done tonight it might
1:16
even be closed by the time I post it the
1:19
steel Head fishing has been very hit or
1:22
miss right we had that long cold stretch
1:25
was really difficult for the fishing
1:27
when there should have been more fish
1:28
appearing especially on systems like the
1:31
Skookumchuck the only thing more
1:32
disappointing than the Skookumchuck
1:34
steel at season this so far this year
1:36
was the Mariners of the last few years
1:39
but it's awesome that they're you know
1:41
they're getting back at it maybe maybe
1:42
there's reason for optimism again I
1:45
however did have a successful steel head
1:49
week uh where I each time I went out I
1:52
got some steel head including one of my
1:54
best steel head to date which was
1:56
incredible and of course for March you
1:58
still have Southwest Washington
2:00
which you know you've been able to use
2:02
bait and all that stuff there the whole
2:04
time anyway so it's not over for you
2:07
steel headers March is still potentially
2:09
an incredible month on a lot of
2:12
different river systems all right moving
2:14
on to say a little bit about fish
2:16
politics a month ago I posted a video
2:19
about just asking for Urgent action to
2:22
engage with the website how for wildlife
2:25
in response to the ruckle house report
2:27
and the the uh looming reality that the
2:30
legislature session was was going to
2:34
make some moves that were definitely
2:36
going to hurt our hunting and angling
2:38
consumptive rights and a bunch of you
2:41
responded in fact as the video was being
2:45
uh was was released and was was
2:48
spreading and you all were responding to
2:50
it how for how for wildlife actually saw
2:53
a spike in their data indicating that uh
2:56
you you know their the messages were
2:58
going out to leg legislators and we made
3:02
a difference right the the the bill that
3:05
was proposed to eliminate the commission
3:07
and and replaced it with a cabinet
3:09
position was killed in committee the two
3:13
appointments that were trying to be
3:14
confirmed were both denied the the
3:17
Insley last minute appointments and so
3:21
and there are more serious reform
3:23
efforts underway and under discussion in
3:25
the legislature you know again I'll say
3:28
it I'll keep saying it Washington state
3:30
has become the Battleground state for
3:33
wildlife management and these different
3:34
activist group who are trying to upend a
3:37
centry of successful Wildlife and Fish
3:39
management by taking away consumptive
3:42
rights of of all of us so we'll see
3:45
we'll keep we'll keep on it we're going
3:46
to keep uh you know putting stuff out
3:49
there and as there's an as there's an
3:51
opportunity to take action definitely be
3:53
putting that in front of you again but
3:56
when it comes to fish politics we
3:57
definitely got to highlight North the
3:59
falcon including a new way to
4:02
collaborate so I launched a Discord
4:04
server specific to p&w bestlife if you
4:07
don't know what Discord server is you
4:09
can Google it real quick but the link in
4:10
the description is the invite that will
4:13
get you into the server and it's just a
4:16
collaboration app it's a collaboration
4:17
platform so it's very easy it's very
4:20
simple and streamline it's not clunky
4:23
and crappy like teams or something like
4:25
that it's really an effective tool and
4:28
I'm going to be posting a bunch of stuff
4:30
in the north of Falcon public Channel as
4:32
we're going through all this my insights
4:34
and Analysis on on the the big uh uh
4:38
data set that is salmon forecast and so
4:41
you you'll see it there first before
4:42
there's any video or or Pages made on on
4:45
any topic so as well that's a great
4:47
place to to sound off and have your
4:49
voice be heard as you're going through
4:51
the process as well additionally I was
4:55
able to get on did an additional
4:58
Advisory Group this time in addition to
5:00
the pet toown recreational fishing
5:02
enhancement group I'm also on the Puget
5:04
toown sport fishing Advisory Group which
5:07
that's the one that works with wfw on
5:10
season setting and definitely works more
5:12
closely on north of Falcon so I'm
5:13
excited about that opportunity we have
5:16
kind of a new management regime for
5:18
Puget sown uh and Washington State
5:20
manage salmon and steel head management
5:22
that I'm excited to work more closely
5:23
with you'll hear a lot more from me on
5:26
those topics as we get further along in
5:28
the process but let's let talk about
5:30
March what are the recreational
5:31
opportunities in March while we're
5:34
waiting for all the salmon steel head
5:36
management stuff to get figured out a
5:38
couple obvious ones right I mean Razer
5:39
clamming is still going to be viable I'm
5:41
looking forward to doing that hopefully
5:43
here soon getting low on razor clams in
5:46
the freezer it's time to get out still
5:48
Head fishing in Southwest Washington I'm
5:50
going to keep I'm going to keep showing
5:52
up and doing a little bit of that here
5:54
and there uh it's only going to get
5:56
better and some of those rivers are
5:57
finally with this this this spiking
5:59
water are finally starting to get uh a
6:02
bump in fish returning and that's going
6:03
to be great for for the month so and of
6:05
course by the end of the month will be
6:07
Springer fishing like all the other you
6:09
know wackos on the Columbia River and
6:11
and braving you know probably bad
6:14
weather and grinding and spinning
6:16
Herring to try try to get one bite in
6:19
over 10 hours or whatever it is
6:21
hopefully it's better than that this
6:22
year but uh definitely will be out there
6:23
doing that but additionally a few other
6:25
things a bunch of beaches several
6:27
beaches and some that I'm looking mostly
6:29
at open on March 1st for for uh
6:33
oysters clams and muscles you know you
6:37
got look at the health advisory and the
6:38
wfw season but I'm I'm excited about
6:41
that I'm definitely going to do that
6:42
that's like a favorite every time late
6:45
winter early spring that's that's
6:47
something we do and then you got to look
6:48
at the the the smell fishing right this
6:50
year is different wfw has a more
6:53
flexible potentially longer smelt
6:55
fishing season I may even go down to the
6:58
cets and you know mix up mix it up
7:00
between plunking and uh and smelt dip
7:03
netting depending you know on the days
7:05
that that it's open but keep an eye on
7:08
the wfw web page put it in the
7:09
description for you there and and you
7:11
can keep tabs on on the status right so
7:14
hopefully we get a good U commercial
7:17
ketchup smell and that turns into a
7:18
recreational season that opens up soon
7:20
all right we also got to talk about
7:21
Blackmouth fishing many of you probably
7:24
expected it to open in March from Marine
7:26
area 10 and 11 it's been delayed till
7:29
April 2 second this is primarily to have
7:32
a chance at bigger fish have a chance at
7:34
better weather have a chance at a longer
7:37
season because there's more stuff going
7:39
on in April it's not like the only game
7:41
in town and everyone's rushing to get
7:43
down there and do it because it's the
7:44
only thing there is to do there's a lot
7:45
to do still so you know it's hopefully
7:50
we get make the most of our time in the
7:51
water hopefully we won't encounter a lot
7:54
of unmarked fish or sublegal or whatever
7:57
but that is going to be happening
8:00
April 2nd for marine area 10 and 11 at
8:02
least that's what I know right now
8:03
always check your emergency
8:05
regulations then we'll get Marine area
8:07
five you know sort of middle of the
8:09
month there which would be awesome
8:11
because you could go out there and you
8:12
could hit some some bottom fish and some
8:14
salmon and some halit and all all that
8:16
kind of fun
8:18
stuff there's there he is there he is
8:20
lastly and probably the one I'm most
8:22
excited about is very soon I think it's
8:26
the second Saturday in March you're
8:28
going to have the ocean opener for
8:30
Rockfish linon and a bunch of different
8:33
areas we need weather to cooperate right
8:36
we need some some good ocean days uh to
8:39
to be able to get out there and do that
8:40
but but that'll happen sometimes and I
8:43
like to go over the bar Westport bar and
8:45
get out fish some of those Rock piles up
8:47
north of that and you know the there's a
8:51
lot of time there's big Lings on those
8:53
Rock piles especially early on before
8:54
they get wiped out by uh by the fleet so
8:58
you know it it's there's not a ton of
9:00
people out there doing it but it can be
9:02
great great opportunity to load up the
9:05
boat with white fish and last last here
9:07
before I sign off and my next video will
9:10
probably be about north of Falcon I
9:11
launched a new section of my YouTube
9:14
channel a members only section where I'm
9:16
going to put detailed howtos there not
9:20
caring about the algorithm and keeping
9:22
your attention the whole time I don't
9:24
know how good I ever did that anyways
9:26
but my passion is putting out good
9:28
information that helps you have more
9:31
success out in the water or in the woods
9:32
or whatever you're doing and this
9:34
members only section is going to be
9:36
devoted just to that putting the best
9:38
how-to information out there and more
9:41
access to sort of a back and forth
9:43
dialogue and answering your questions
9:46
all of that a few of you have already
9:47
signed up I appreciate that so much
9:49
that's just like motivation to keep
9:51
going and motivation to keep putting out
9:54
some some content that hopefully by the
9:55
end of the year that'll be loaded with
9:58
some awesome how-tos and we'll have a
10:00
good Community there that will also use
10:02
the Discord Channel as an opportunity to
10:04
collaborate more so definitely try to
10:06
sign up take take advantage of both
10:08
those opportunities uh one of my next
10:10
how-to videos will probably be a
10:12
detailed breakdown on black mouth
10:14
success Marine are 10 11 it's something
10:17
that me and my crew have been able to do
10:19
quite well the last few years and
10:21
definitely will'll be sharing that and
10:23
much more detailed how to on the members
10:26
only section all right signing off here
10:27
hopefully I'll see you out there and you
10:30
know keep at it let's collaborate jump
10:32
on the Discord server let's chat about
10:34
north of falcon look for my videos and
10:36
content related to that it's coming soon
10:38
and hopefully we have a great uh you
10:41
know Samy forecast and lots of
10:43
opportunity to to put some fish in the
10:45
boat so we'll see you out there take
10:47
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