With summer fast approaching, millions of Washingtonians are looking forward to another season of fun in the sun. And for those who like to fish, that means angling for salmon off the coast, crabbing in Puget Sound and a variety of other new fishing opportunities around the state.

"Every fishery has its season, and some of our most popular fisheries take place during the summer months," said Jim Scott, assistant director of the Fish Program at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). "For many anglers, the warm weather is just a bonus."

Here is a sampling of some of the new fishing opportunities opening around the state in the next few weeks:

June 16: The Columbia River opens to retention of hatchery steelhead, hatchery jack salmon and sockeye salmon from the Interstate 5 Bridge upstream to the Highway 395 Bridge in Pasco. (See the Southwest Washington regional report below for additional information on the steelhead opening.)
June 18: Crab fishing opens in the western Strait of Juan de Fuca and southern Puget Sound seven days per week.
June 27: Salmon fishing begins along the north coast out of Neah Bay and La Push.
June 28: The south coast opens to salmon fishing out of Ilwaco and Westport.
July 1: Six additional areas of Puget Sound, ranging from the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca to waters off Seattle and Tacoma, open to crab fishing on a Wednesday-through-Saturday schedule. Also starting July 1, anglers can catch and retain their limit of salmon in waters around Seattle and the San Juan Islands, as well as in Hood Canal and the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca. The Columbia River also opens for retention of summer chinook that day.
Meanwhile in eastern Washington, stream flows are beginning to settle out, resulting in better fishing for spring chinook salmon on the Yakima River and improved catch-and-release trout fisheries on the Methow and its tributaries. In addition, alpine lakes are thawing, making them both reachable and fishable. Plus, rising temperatures are improving the bite by smallmouth bass and other warmwater species on the Columbia and Snake rivers and several eastside lakes.

For more information on these and other fisheries around the state, see the regional reports below. For detailed fishing regulations for state waters, see the Fishing in Washington rules pamphlet, available online ( wdfw.wa.gov/fish/regs/fishregs.htm ).