Salmon is the season least likely to have a date you can look up in advance. On the Pacific the seasons are negotiated each year against run forecasts; on the Great Lakes the fish are stocked and the water is open far longer than most people assume.
State by state
Each block is one rule as the agency writes it, with the calendar band underneath. Where a state runs the same species on two different calendars — inshore against offshore, one peninsula against the other — both are here, because that is exactly the distinction people get wrong.
Washington WDFW
Statewide
No date to look up. Set each spring through the North of Falcon process against that year’s run forecasts.
Salmon seasons here are negotiated, not scheduled. Dates for a given river or marine area can differ from last year by weeks, and in-season closures happen when a run comes in under forecast. Any page that gives you a fixed Washington salmon date is copying an old one.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Oregon ODFW
Ocean salmon, all zones
No date to look up. Finalised in late April by the Pacific Fishery Management Council and the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission, for a "salmon year" that begins on May 16.
ODFW says it plainly: "Ocean salmon regulations are finalized in late-April for the salmon year that starts on May 16 and concludes the following April." Seasons then change in-season on abundance and catch rates, so a date you read in March is a guess and a date you read from last year is wrong. This is also why the state publishes a regulations map rather than a calendar.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Idaho IDFG
Chinook and steelhead seasons
No date to look up. Set each year by the Fish and Game Commission against run forecasts, and closed in-season when the share is caught.
Idaho’s salmon and steelhead fisheries depend on fish that have to climb eight dams to get there, and the seasons are set against the run size each year rather than fixed. They open, close and reopen inside a single season. Any date you read for Idaho salmon that is more than a few weeks old should be checked before you drive.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official Idaho fishing seasons and rules, the designated publisher for IDFG.
Utah Utah DWR
Kokanee salmon, statewide
Anglers may not possess kokanee salmon at any waterbody in the state from September 10 to November 30, to protect them during the spawn. It is the one closure that applies everywhere in Utah, and it lands exactly when the fish turn red and become easy to see and easy to catch.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official Utah fishing guidebook, the designated publisher for Utah DWR.
Alaska ADF&G
Statewide, by region and area
No date to look up. Seasons are set by regulation area and changed in-season by emergency order, which supersedes the published regulations.
ADF&G puts it plainly: "Emergency Orders (EOs) always supersede the published regulations", and tells anglers to "Check for current EOs & News Releases before finalizing your plans." The state is divided into five regions with area-specific rules nested inside each, and a river can close to king salmon mid-run when escapement looks short. A printed Alaska season date is a starting assumption, not a fact.
Read on 2026-09-14 from Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
How to read these dates
A season date is one of four things, and confusing them is how people end up on the water on the wrong day. Some are fixed and will be the same next year. Some are written as a rule — a weekday rather than a date — and we calculate those for 2026 from the regulation instead of copying a figure that goes stale. Some do not exist until the agency announces them, and no amount of searching will produce next season's date early. And some states simply do not close a season for this species, managing it with sizes and limits instead.
On this page 4 of the rules fall into the last two groups, and their calendar band is left empty on purpose. An empty band means nobody has published a date, which is different from the season being shut — and a page that paints both the same colour is telling you something it does not know.
The fish itself
The king: the Pacific's heavyweight, intercepted trolling the ocean feeding lanes or swinging rivers on the spawning run. The activity row in each calendar above comes from our own monthly curve for this species, which is what makes the legal band useful: an opening day in cold water and an opening day in a feeding window are not the same trip. The full treatment — where they hold, what they eat and how to fish for them through the year — is on the chinook salmon page, which is about the fish rather than the paperwork.
Questions
When is salmon season?
It depends entirely on the state: Washington is set each year by the agency, Oregon is set each year by the agency, Idaho is set each year by the agency. There is no national salmon season, and the dates below are the ones each agency publishes.
Can I keep salmon outside the season?
No. Where a season is closed, harvest is closed, and in several states the water stays open for catch-and-release. Sizes and bag limits apply on top of the season and are listed per state above.
Why does this page not give a date for every state?
Because 4 of the rules listed here are not published as dates at all. The agency either sets them each year or regulates the fishery with sizes and limits instead of a calendar. Publishing a made-up window for those would be the easiest thing on this page and the most dishonest.
Compiled and checked by Pablo Ruiz Quintero. Dates move: tell us if one has and it goes in the verification log.