The grounds · 180 ft · banks, ledges and wrecks

Chinook (King) Salmon

Oncorhynchus tshawytscha. Prime water reaches Neah Bay in Pacific Northwest right now (59°F at the surface). Fish it 16–64 ft down — that is where 53–48°F water sits off Neah Bay.

Chinook (King) Salmon identification illustration
LaneThe grounds · 30 fa (180 ft)
Depth it holds66–295 ft
Prime water48–57°F (workable 48–63°F)
Holds in the column16–197 ft down below the surface, over 66–295 ft of water
Judged onsurface temperature (NASA MUR satellite)
Structurenone

The water column off Neah Bay

0 ft89 ft177 ft46 ft of workable water16–62 ft · 53–48°F

The strip is the water itself, coloured by temperature from the surface down to the 177 ft surveyed bottom at that spot — one band per RTOFS model level. The outlined stretch is where Chinook (King) Salmon's temperature band (48–63°F) and the depth it holds actually overlap. That thickness is the number that matters: it is how much water you can work, not just whether the spot is warm enough somewhere. One model cycle, not a weekly archive — this holds still while the surface map scrubs.

How it's fished

Downrigger flasher + spoon near bait balls along current seams and rips.

Region by region — right now

RegionSeasonPrime waterTempFish it atMonths
Pacific Northwest in season reaches Neah Bay 59°F 16–64 ft
J
F
M
A
M
J
California in season reaches San Francisco 60°F 16–187 ft
J
F
M
A
M
"Fish it at" is where this species' temperature band and its holding depth overlap in the water column, from the RTOFS profile (13 levels, 0–300 m) — the depth to actually put a bait, not just the place. "Prime water" is the furthest sampled station on the 30-fathom lane whose surface temperature sits inside this species' band. It is water, not a sighting report.