Kelp Greenling Fishing in Friday Harbor, WA

Kelp greenling live here all year, holding tight to rocky bottom and kelp edges in 20 to 60 feet of water throughout the San Juans. We cover six spots that hold them: Cattle Point on San Juan Island, Iceberg Point off Lopez, Kelp Reef in San Juan Channel, Mackaye Harbor on Lopez Island South, Parker Reef, and Spieden Channel along Spieden Island South. Each one gives you the same basic setup, rock and cobble with kelp growing off it, and fish sitting close enough to the structure that you need to put your gear right on top of them.

The season runs May through November, with the strongest fishing from August into November. Late summer brings post-spawn fish onto shallow reefs and pushes juveniles into the nearshore kelp. Through October and November, adult males guard nests on shallow rock, which concentrates fish in water you can reach. Mid-winter is the slow stretch, when fish spread out again before rebuilding through spring.

Current runs the show. Fish the slack. You want dead slack up to about 0.5 knots, which means the window on either side of high or low water. By roughly 2.5 knots the spots are unfishable. Jigging does most of the work, with metal jigs, leadhead jigs and soft plastics, or shrimp dropped to structure. Bottom fishing with cut herring, shrimp, marine worms or clam covers the rest.