With all the flooding over the last few weeks, many of the rivers across the region have been blown out and coho fishing has taken a back seat for many anglers.
The floods devastated neighbors and areas of the river we love near the Canadian border and even if we have to drive from town to spend time there, the river is our home.
With the 2025 Nooksack River coho season ending on December 31, anglers are closing the books on a year defined less by limits and more by conditions.
Weeks of flooding across Whatcom County kept many rivers blown out for extended periods, pushing coho fishing to the back seat for much of the season. The floods devastated neighborhoods near the Canadian border and reshaped stretches of river many anglers consider home. Even when it takes a drive from town, the Nooksack remains central to life here.
Despite difficult conditions, 2025 delivered strong salmon returns across the region, including coho, chum, and pink salmon. Opportunity, however, was another story. Kings came early during the early season high water and the state kept anglers out of the shallow water to catch them upriver. The sockeye that made it to the forks has to be near a number not seen in decades, though I do not think they keep track. Though I had not ever seen one myself on the Nooksack prior to 2025, I caught them as soon as the forks opened and on the North Fork the day before it closed abruptly to end the season. I saw a very surprised kid catch one on a Dick Nite on the outer edge of a chum and coho holding area. It was a crazy year.
Coho Returns Met Expectations
Despite challenging river conditions, coho were consistently present throughout the system, particularly during fresh pushes following rain events. Angler reports across Whatcom County aligned with hatchery data confirming solid movement.
Preliminary in-season figures from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife indicate a strong coho return in 2025, driven primarily by hatchery-origin fish.
At Kendall Creek Hatchery, more than 15,000 adult and jack coho were recorded by mid-December. Hatchery fish made up the bulk of the return, with a smaller but measurable wild component also documented.
I reviewed my catch record, and anecdotally, I didn’t catch but a handful of hatchery fish. I don’t use bait, keep to hoochie spinners and soft beads under a bobber. Part of the season I love a short Guide Select Pro twitching rod with a Nightmare or Joker, but once the chum showed up you needed to float past log jams or rock walls to find coho with them this season. Which meant bank twitching meant wading through water and moving rather than waiting for running fish to settle into the sandy or rocky drifts with a deep (snag free) pool I could toss my spinner into.
Whatcom Creek’s Limited Role
As in most years, Whatcom Creek contributed only a small portion of overall coho escapement. Returns there remained low relative to the mainstem Nooksack system, reinforcing Kendall Creek’s continued importance to basin-wide coho production.
Access, Effort, and the Reality on the River
For many anglers, the 2025 Nooksack River salmon season was defined not by limits but by missed opportunity. High water reduced effort, particularly for bank anglers and those without the flexibility to fish narrow windows between storms.
A strong return does not automatically translate into a productive fishery when conditions consistently restrict access and visibility.
Looking Ahead to 2026
With the season closing, the takeaway from 2025 is mixed but clear:
- Coho returns were stronger than many recent years
- River conditions sharply limited angler opportunity
- Hatchery production continues to drive fishing opportunity on the Nooksack
Final escapement numbers will be confirmed after the season officially ends, but the pattern is already established. The fish showed up. The water dictated the terms.
Coho Escapement Confirms What Anglers Saw
For anglers, 2025 serves as another reminder that just because the fish are here and our cost to catch them seems to keep going up, you must fish when you can where you can. Closures come without warning and before it is required, which is why WDFW keeps losing lawsuit after lawsuit to wild conservancy groups.
COMMENTARY
Too many hatchery fish are being allowed to reproduce and spawn with wild fish, diluting the gene pool when they close the season too early or sporadically. This is against the law, against ethical practices and frankly, just against all common sense.
Your fishing license costs 38% more now while your Discover Pass costs 50% more so that the state can increase spending on unfunded mandates and pork pushed along by Olympia lobbyists. The result is cuts in services for healthcare, outdoor recreation, infrastructure and more. The floods that came in 2021 did not hurt this year’s run of coho or chum or pinks, but they will use the floods in 2025 to justify closures in the coming years.
The elephant in the room is the dismal steelhead run this year. Steelhead returns are gone due to not only ocean conditions and commercial overfishing and Alaskan trawler fishing, but allowing trout fishing with bait and barbs throughout the year. People treat rainbows the same on the Nooksack as they do Lake Padden and it shows. Go to Vandy or Frog Pond in August and you’ll someone throwing a Bluefox with the treble on with another rod nearby sitting on the bottom with powerbait.
What we are seeing is the Tragedy of the Commons as anglers are overfishing the most precious resource on the river while being completely ignorant to their behavior.
The tribes are not catching them so you can’t (an actual statement made to me on the river), that makes zero sense. The tribes are fighting for the steelhead to be here for future generations yet unborn, that’s the entire overall perspective and baseline of their stewardship.
We didn’t need six fish limits on the Nooksack, we needed an opportunity to fish. The high limits brought out the folks we hate fishing next to on the river from three counties over every single day. Make trout fishing a barbless, fly fishing only affair on the rivers and let master baiters fish the lakes we pay to stock with eaters.
The bottomline is that we must work together to save Nooksack steelhead, retain our collective fishing and access rights, and end wildlife mismanagement due to special interests.
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