A basin still waiting on a listing decision
The Chehalis carries chum, coho and fall Chinook, and steelhead use the basin too. In 2018 it was the only river basin in Washington where no salmon population was listed as endangered, even though numbers were falling, and in 2023 conservation groups petitioned to list its spring Chinook under the Endangered Species Act. That background explains the shape of the rules: adult Chinook go back almost everywhere, and the season is built around coho, with jacks and a few adults allowed at the bottom of the river.
The river is also a long one to fish. The pamphlet splits it into six pieces between the Highway 101 bridge in Aberdeen and Crim Creek, and the right answer to what is open depends on which bridge you park near.
Aberdeen up to the Keys Road bridge
The bottom two reaches, from the Highway 101 bridge in Aberdeen to the Highway 107 bridge in Montesano and from there to Fuller Bridge on Keys Road, share the same rules, including every channel, slough and connected waterway. The Wynoochee joins near Montesano, and below it the river is increasingly tidal as it widens into Grays Harbor, past the Chehalis River Surge Plain Natural Area Preserve between Montesano and Cosmopolis.
The salmon season opens August 1. Through September 15 the limit is 6 with all adults released, so it is a jack fishery. From September 16 through October 31 it is 6 including no more than 2 adults, and adult Chinook must be released; from November 1 through December 31 it is 6 including 2 adults, releasing all Chinook. From August 1 through November 30 single-point barbless hooks are required and there is a night closure, and a second pole is allowed from August 1 through December 31 with the endorsement.
Fuller Bridge to South Elma: closed to salmon until October
The next reach, Fuller Bridge on Keys Road up to the South Elma Bridge on Wakefield Road, has a gap that catches people. Salmon are open August 1 through September 15, jacks only, with bait prohibited during that window; then salmon fishing is closed from September 16 through 30. It reopens October 1 at 6 including 2 adults with adult Chinook released, and November and December are the same except all Chinook go back.
Upstream, from the South Elma Bridge to the mouth of the Black River, salmon do not open at all until October 1. Single-point barbless hooks are required there from August 1 through November 30.
The Satsop, a lower Chehalis tributary, is closed to all fishing from its mouth to the Bingham Creek Hatchery dam from September 16 through 30 under a WDFW emergency rule. WDFW's reasons were anglers targeting salmon before the October 1 opener and low flows leaving fish more exposed than normal.
Porter, and what low water in September means
USGS 12031000 at Porter sits between South Elma and the Black River, the reach that opens for salmon on October 1. Monthly means since 2010 there are about 380 cfs in August, 490 in September, 1,540 in October, 5,620 in November and 8,740 in December. No shop publishes a range, so the 500 to 5,600 cfs band on this page is the September through November span of those means, the salmon months. On September 24, 2026 Porter read 322 cfs, lower than the September mean, and the upstream gauge at Grand Mound read 237. Until rain brings Porter up toward its October mean, the river will stay low and slow.
Black River to Crim Creek, and the forks
Above the Black River the rules turn toward trout. From the Black River up to Crim Creek, trout are open from the Saturday before Memorial Day through March 31 with cutthroat and wild rainbow released; selective gear rules apply January 1 through March 31, and single-point barbless hooks from August 16 through November 30. Salmon follow the same October 1 through December 31 pattern as the reach below. From Crim Creek upstream, including all the forks, it is selective gear all season and trout close on October 31.
Below the Black River, trout carry a 14-inch minimum for cutthroat and wild rainbow from the Saturday before Memorial Day through October 31, then are release-only from November 1 through March 31. Up near Pe Ell, a flood retention dam has been proposed as part of basin flood control, one more thing that may reshape this upper river in coming years.