Washington has all five Pacific salmon plus both runs of steelhead, and something entering fresh water in every month of the year. The Olympic Peninsula rivers, the Skagit and the Columbia tributaries all run on different clocks.
Seasons, limits and licence rules are set by your state agency.
Each bar below spans January to December, with today marked, and draws the quoted sentence underneath it. Where an agency describes a run by season rather than by month, the card carries the sentence without a bar.
Fish bound for spawning gravel hundreds of miles inland leave the ocean first, because they have the furthest to swim.
The migration from the ocean to their spawning grounds begins in April through July, with peak migration occurring in May.
The middle run, overlapping both the spring and fall fish on the same rivers.
Traveling back to their spawning grounds occurs from June to August.
The most abundant Chinook run on the coast, and the one that spawns closest to salt water.
The journey to spawning grounds begins in late July, peaking in September, and ends in December.
Coho time their move on water, not on the calendar. They gather off a river mouth and go up when it rains.
Returning coho often gather at the mouths of streams and wait for the water flow to rise, such as after a rain storm, before heading upstream.
Pinks live exactly two years, so Washington gets them in odd numbered years and not at all in even ones.
Most pink salmon in Washington State return during odd numbered years, usually to the lower reaches of rivers from July to September.
The last salmon of the year into fresh water, and the reason the Skagit fills with bald eagles in midwinter. The Park Service bounds this one only by season, so we leave it unbounded here.
Chum salmon have the potential to return in huge numbers to the lower sections of the major rivers to spawn, usually in the summer or late fall.
Mature fish that spawn soon after they arrive. Western Washington rivers are dominated by these.
Winter-run Steelhead return from the ocean at age 4 or 5 years, and travel to their spawning grounds from November to April.
Immature fish that come in early and spend months in the river ripening. Mostly east of the Cascades.
Most summer runs are east of the Cascades, and enter streams in summer to reach the spawning grounds by the following spring.
| River | Water temp | Flow | Measured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skagit Rivernear Mount Vernon | Loading | Loading | |
| Skykomish Rivernear Gold Bar | Loading | Loading | |
| Nooksack Riverat Ferndale | Loading | Loading | |
| Dungeness Rivernear Sequim | Loading | Loading | |
| Bogachiel Rivernear Forks | Loading | Loading | |
| Wenatchee Riverat Monitor | Loading | Loading | |
| Okanogan Riverat Malott | Loading | Loading | |
| Yakima Riverat Kiona | Loading | Loading | |
| Klickitat Rivernear Pitt | Loading | Loading | |
| White Salmon Rivernear Underwood | Loading | Loading |
Source: USGS Water Services (National Water Information System). Instantaneous values service. U.S. Geological Survey data are works of the United States Government and are in the public domain. Gauge list verified 2026-08-24.
The Skagit is the one river here where a federal agency has written down the whole arc: the Park Service says thousands of salmon work their way up it every autumn between August and December. On the Olympic Peninsula the Park Service is more specific still, putting coho into the Sol Duc primarily in late September and early October and Quinault sockeye on the spawning gravel in November and December.
Every autumn between August and December, thousands of salmon work their way up the Skagit River, struggling against the current and leaping high out of the cascading whitewater to reach their spawning beds.
Fish passage counts are published by the programmes that run the counting stations, linked below with what each one reports.
Run windows on this page are quoted from the agency named beside each one. River conditions come from the U.S. Geological Survey and are readings, not forecasts and not fish counts. Fishing seasons, bag limits, gear rules and licence requirements for Washington are set by the agency linked here, and a run window is not an open season. For rules, see Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. National picture: every state with a salmon or steelhead run →
Hero image: “Skagit River, Marblemount to O'Brien-Riggs State Park 07” by Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 4.0