Three forks, one flood
The North, Middle and South forks of the Nooksack come together near Deming, and from there the river runs about 75 miles in all to Bellingham Bay, passing Everson and Lynden before it reaches the mouth near Ferndale. The North Fork follows State Route 542 toward Mount Baker; the Middle Fork, about 20 miles long, had the old City of Bellingham diversion dam modified in 2020; the South Fork runs about 50 miles down past Acme. The lower river runs through Nooksack and Lummi Nation country, and those tribes co-manage the salmon.
The December 2025 flood changed the lower river, and WDFW's access notes show it. At the Nugents Corner ramp the river bottom now drops off at the end of the concrete. The other WDFW sites are Ferndale and De Groot, both with ramps and De Groot built to ADA standards, and walk-in access at Harksell, Proctor-Rupke and Hof Bar, which is only a 25-foot strip. Yeager's Sporting Goods on Northwest Avenue in Bellingham is the local tackle stop.
No steelhead season, and the number behind it
There is no winter steelhead season anywhere in the Nooksack system in the 2026-27 pamphlet, and the reason is in the last emergency rule. For the 2025-26 season WDFW forecast only 41 hatchery steelhead against a broodstock goal of 160, closed steelhead fishing for all of December 2025 and then closed all fishing on the river for January 2026. The winter before had a similar rule. The forks carry their own lines too: steelhead are closed on the North Fork above Maple Creek and on the Middle Fork, and wild fish have no open season. If you want Puget Sound steelhead this winter, this is not the river.
Slater Road, the FFA barn and Deming
The standing 2026-27 rules lay out the salmon water by landmarks. From the Lummi Reservation boundary up to a marker 0.65 miles above Slater Road, the river is open only August 1 through October 26, with the anti-snagging rule and a night closure. From August 1 through September 30 the limit is 6 salmon, with no more than 2 each of wild coho, chum and hatchery Chinook, and wild Chinook released; from October 1 through 26 it is 2 each of Chinook, wild coho and chum. From Slater Road up to the FFA barn in Deming the same limits run August 1 through December 31, and from Deming to the forks the season is October 1 through December 31. Hatchery steelhead are closed throughout.
On the forks, the North Fork from the mouth to Highway 9 is closed water; Highway 9 to Maple Creek opens October 1 through November 30 with chum released and 2 wild coho and 2 Chinook allowed. The Middle Fork up to the old diversion dam is selective gear rules, October 1 through December 31. The South Fork from its mouth to Skookum Creek bans internal-combustion motors and allows one single-point hook, October through December, chum released; Skookum Creek to Wanlick Creek is closed, and above Wanlick it is fly fishing only.
The tribal calendar comes first
On this river the permanent rules are a starting point. WDFW's 2026-27 North of Falcon proposals flagged the lower mainstem to close October 27 through December 31, with seasons depending on in-season talks with the tribes, and in 2025 WDFW closed the lower mainstem from October 30 to the end of the year to avoid gear conflicts with the co-managers' chum fishery. The North Fork stayed closed through fall 2025 to protect ESA-listed Chinook spawners.
This year's spring Chinook opener shows how fast it moves. Hatchery spring Chinook opened on the North Fork from Highway 9 to the Kendall Hatchery on May 23, 2 a day, and closed on June 9 when the wild Chinook encounter cap was reached; the North Fork below Maple Creek then stayed closed until October 1, 2026. As of September 24 WDFW listed no emergency rule in effect, but on the Nooksack that can change within a week, so check the WDFW emergency rules page before each trip. 2026 is an even year, so there is no pink run.
Reading Everson
USGS 12211200 at Everson sits below the forks and the Deming reach and above Lynden, so it reads the whole river most anglers fish. No shop publishes a range, so the 1,500 to 5,000 cfs on this page is the band of monthly means from its 2016 to 2025 record across the salmon months: about 1,490 in September, 2,730 in October and 5,220 in November. On September 24, 2026 it read 798 cfs, low even for September; the first fall rain that lifts it toward the October norm is what moves coho upriver.