Closed above Gilligan Creek, as of September 24, 2026
Check the WDFW emergency rules page before anything else on this river, because the pamphlet is rarely the whole story. On September 11, 2026 WDFW posted a rule, in effect from September 14 until further notice, that closes the Skagit to all fishing from Gilligan Creek upstream to the Marblemount Bridge, and the Cascade River from its mouth to the Rockport-Cascade Road bridge. The page summary mentions the Dalles Bridge at Concrete, but the rule text uses Marblemount; go by the rule text. Below Gilligan Creek the river stays open for coho, 2 a day wild or hatchery, with no bait, single-point barbless hooks and a night closure. Dolly Varden and bull trout are closed.
The reasons WDFW gave were low flows and Chinook: by September 11 nearly half the season's allowed Chinook impacts were already used. The frustrating part is the timing. WDFW calls this year's coho forecast the largest wild return in decades, with most of those fish arriving in October, so watch for the upper river to reopen. North Puget Sound's regional office is at 425-775-1311.
Where the winter steelhead season went
The Skagit's catch-and-release wild steelhead fishery came back under a 10-year plan NOAA approved in 2023. It may open only when more than 4,001 wild fish are forecast, and only in two places: the Skagit from the Dalles Bridge at Concrete up to the Marblemount Bridge, and the Sauk from its mouth to the Darrington Bridge. In 2024 it ran February 3 to April 17, Saturday through Wednesday, on a forecast of 5,215. In 2025 it opened February 1, seven days a week, on a forecast of 7,019; when that was cut to 5,151 the season ended early, with April 10 the last day.
For 2026 the forecast was 4,557, enough to fish. It did not open because the Legislature did not fund WDFW's $1.6 million request for Puget Sound monitoring, and WDFW says that eliminates the fishery for the 2026 and 2027 winter-spring seasons. The agency is asking the 2027 Legislature for $4.8 million a biennium. Its own count of what was lost: 9,389 angler trips and $1.97 million spent locally in 2024, 11,122 trips and $2.34 million in 2025. None of the pamphlet's standing rules include a February to April steelhead season; it has only ever opened by emergency rule.
Hatchery Chinook, sockeye and this fall's coho
The 2026 salmon year ran on emergency rules too. Hatchery spring Chinook opened from the Highway 536 Memorial Highway Bridge at Mount Vernon to Gilligan Creek from April 20 to May 15, 2 a day, and from Rockport to the Marblemount Bridge from May 16 to July 15, 4 a day with no more than 2 adults. Sockeye opened from Highway 536 to the Dalles Bridge from June 16 to July 31, 4 a day, with periodic closures for tribal fisheries. Pinks run in odd years, so 2026 had none. Last fall's coho season closed early, on November 19, 2025, when catch guidelines were reached.
The 2026-27 pamphlet's standing coho seasons start August 16 near the mouth, September 1 up to the Dalles Bridge and September 16 above it, generally 4 a day with no more than 2 wild. Guides here fish the big water with spey rods: Emerald Water Anglers in Seattle uses 11.5 to 14-foot 6 to 8-weights and T-10 to T-18 sink tips, with Intruders, General Practitioners, Skagit Minnows and Purple Perils in the box.
Eagles, bull trout and the river above Marblemount
From late October into February, and thickest in January, bald eagles come to the upper Skagit to feed on spawned-out salmon; Wikipedia's account puts the gathering at 600 to 800 birds. The Skagit River Bald Eagle Interpretive Center opens on winter weekends at Howard Miller Steelhead Park in Rockport, a county park open all year about 37 miles east of I-5 on Highway 20. Give roosting birds room when you are on the water.
The Skagit is also native char water. In the pamphlet's lower-river sections, Dolly Varden and bull trout count toward the trout limit with a 20-inch minimum outside the August 16 to October 31 closure, but WDFW's 2026-27 salmon proposals call for releasing bull trout in every salmon season, and all char are closed under the current emergency rule. Above the Marblemount Bridge to the Gorge Powerhouse at Newhalem, selective gear rules apply, internal-combustion motors are banned, and from June 1 to January 31 everything is released except 2 hatchery steelhead. Seattle City Light's Gorge, Diablo and Ross dams sit above Newhalem, and in March 2026 the utility announced a $979 million fish passage settlement.
Launches and the Concrete gauge
WDFW's water access sites give the lower and middle river most of its ramps: Sedro-Woolley, Hamilton, Faber Ferry with two ramps that WDFW calls very flood prone, Pressentin Ferry with no parking, Spud House, and an unimproved launch at the Baker River. Gilligan Creek, Lyman Ferry, Utopia and Young's Bar are walk-in only.
USGS 12194000 near Concrete sits just below the Baker River and the Dalles Bridge, at the bottom of the old catch-and-release steelhead water. No guide publishes a range for it, so the 8,500 to 17,000 cfs on this page is the September through January band of monthly means since 2010: about 8,530 in September, 12,660 in October, 19,360 in November and 17,190 in January. On September 24, 2026 it read about 6,600, below any month's average, which is the low water behind the closure.