Waterlands

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SablefishShoulder season

Bay · Washington

Lang Bay

48.40°N · 122.57°W · Bay · Northern Inland Waters Including The San Juan Islands

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Best score today · 8 AM · Sablefish

78/100Great
Now
513 PM PDT
Best window
3-8 PMHigh slack
Tide now
Flooding8.7 ft ▲

Data from: NOAA CO-OPS + NDBC + ECMWF + Open-Meteo Marine · Waterlands engine

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24-hour conditions · rolling from now

Conditions · 3 PM · now

Time3PNOW
Score51Good
Tide8.7 ft ▲Flooding
CurrentFlood1.5 kn · toward NNW
Wind4 kn SWgusts 11 · steady
Sea stateCalm0.3 ft · 7 s
Air temp62°Mild
WeatherMostly cloudy68% cloud
Water55°FObserved

Current regulations

What you can keep here today

Marine Area 8-1 (Deception Pass, Hope Island, and Skagit Bay)

IN EFFECT NOW

No rule for Sablefish is on file here yet, so its status is unknown, not closed. Confirm limits with WDFW before you keep a fish.

Species rules here

  • Chinook salmon Catch & release (No retention)
  • Chum salmon Catch & release (No retention)
  • Coho salmon Retention open (2 salmon combined per day)
  • Lingcod Check regulations
  • Pacific halibut Retention open (1 per day)
  • Pink salmon Retention open (2 salmon combined per day)
  • Rockfish Closed (No retention)
  • Sockeye salmon Retention open (2 salmon combined per day)

Seasonality · 52-week view · this week ringed

When Sablefish is best here

Shoulder season for Sablefish · 1 more week at shoulder

Sablefish season by week of the year. Shoulder season for Sablefish · 1 more week at shoulder.
  • Peak
  • Shoulder
  • Off
  • Not here
  • This week

Sablefish in Washington

Spot profile

Lang Bay

Depth
35-70 ftDrop-off
Structure
Bay · Inner · ProtectedBay · drop-off
Season
Shoulder seasonSablefish

NOAA NCEI DEM, sampled Sep 14 on a 3.4 m grid. Depths are feet below NAVD 88, not chart datum (MLLW), so they can differ from a chart by a few feet. Not for navigation.

About this spot

Fishing Lang Bay

Lang Bay is a bay in Northern Inland Waters Including The San Juan Islands, Washington. Depth is 35-70 ft, with a drop-off. Its profile reads bay, inner water and protected.

Waterlands scores 11 species here; the best right now are coho salmon, Chinook salmon and kelp greenling. It is peak season now for coho salmon and Chinook salmon, and shoulder season for kelp greenling, lingcod, surfperch and cabezon. Coho salmon peak from July through September. Chinook salmon peak from July through September. Kelp greenling peak from October through November.

Tackle & technique

Sablefish
Sablefish live on soft bottoms along the continental slope, and sport anglers find adults in 700 to 2,000 feet. Fish a multi-hook deep-drop rig with glow squid skirts and squid or herring on circle hooks, using several pounds of weight and an electric reel. It takes a long run offshore and a calm day to keep the line near vertical, so most trips happen in summer.
Coho salmon
Coho feed in the top 30 to 50 feet along tide rips, kelp edges and bait schools, and often hit within a few feet of the surface. Troll faster than for Chinook, 2 to 4 mph, with a small flasher and hoochie, bucktail fly or herring, or cast spinners and flies from beaches near stream mouths as fish stage in late summer. The hour around a tide change is often the best window.
Chinook salmon
Chinook hold near bait off points, kelp edges and tide rips, usually suspended 20 to 120 feet down and deeper as the sun gets higher. Troll slowly, under 2 mph, with a flasher and herring, hoochie or spoon on a downrigger, or mooch a plug-cut herring at the depth where the sounder shows bait. Winter blackmouth and feeder kings sit within 10 feet of the bottom in 60 to 200 feet.

Nearby spots

Other spots within an easy run

  • Snee-oosh Point

    Cape · 1.1 mi

    76
    Top: Chinook salmonPeak season
    • Chinook salmon 76
    • Coho salmon 76
    • Kelp greenling 66

    4 kt SWH 4:33 PM · 10.7 ftL 10:34 PM · 4.7 ft

  • Flagstaff Point

    Cape · 1.1 mi

    76
    Top: Chinook salmonPeak season
    • Chinook salmon 76
    • Coho salmon 76
    • Kelp greenling 66

    4 kt SWH 4:40 PM · 9.9 ftL 10:55 PM · 4.5 ft

  • Hoypus Point

    Cape · 1.9 mi

    76
    Top: Chinook salmonPeak season
    • Chinook salmon 76
    • Coho salmon 76
    • Kelp greenling 66

    4 kt SWH 4:54 PM · 9.7 ftL 11:07 PM · 4.6 ft

  • Kiket Bay

    Bay · 1.0 mi

    74
    Top: Coho salmonPeak season
    • Coho salmon 74
    • Chinook salmon 72
    • Kelp greenling 65

    4 kt SWH 4:33 PM · 10.7 ftL 10:34 PM · 4.7 ft

Scores and forecasts are for planning only and can be wrong. Conditions on the water change fast; check the marine forecast before you go. Regulations change during the season, so confirm limits and closures with WDFW before you keep a fish.