The Evergreen State Salmonid Slam

Washington State has twelve species/ subspecies of native salmonids. Over the last weekend I caught my the twelfth and final species of native salmonid that I hadn't yet encountered in Washington State

Pacific Salmon

All five species of North American Pacific Salmon are native to Washington State.

Chinook Salmon: Puget Sound

Coho Salmon: Puget Sound

Chum Salmon: Puget Sound

Sockeye Salmon: Olympic Peninsula

Pink Salmon: Puget Sound

Rainbow Trout

Two subspecies of Rainbow/ Redband trout are native to the state of Washington.

Coastal Rainbow Trout: Olympic Peninsula

Columbia Basin Redband: Yakima River watershed

Cutthroat Trout

There are two subspecies of these fish native to Washington.

Coastal Cutthroat: Puget Sound

Westslope Cutthroat: Yakima River watershed

Char

A lot of fish in Washington like to come in twos and as such there are two species of Char native to Washington State, although genetic testing is typically needed to tell them apart. Southern Dolly Varden the rarer of the two are only found in the few isolated stream resident populations above barrier falls.

Bull Trout: Olympic Peninsula

Southern Dolly Varden: Olympic Peninsula

Other Salmonids

The only other salmonid native to Washington are the Mountain Whitefish, a close relative of trout, salmon and char.

Mountain Whitefish: Olympic Peninsula

Unfortunately unlike Wyoming and California, Washington does not have an official program to recognize anglers for catching the state's native salmonids. The next step of my quest in Washington would be to complete the Washington "Anadromous Challenge". In other words to catch all of the native salmonids in their anadromous form. To complete this I still need catch some Coastal Steelhead and Columbia Basin Redband Steelhead and sea-run Bull Trout. I will have to save that one for another time though....