Point Defiance (Clay Banks)
47.32°N · 122.54°W
Now 78 · 9 AM PDT
24-Hour Conditions
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Current regulations
In effect nowWhat you can keep at this spot today
- Daily limit
- 1 per day
- Possession
- Not published
- Size
- Minimum 22"
- Annual quota
- Not published
- Other
- Entire Area (excluding Commencement Bay and piers). Open Wednesday–Saturday only; closed Sunday–Tuesday. Min. size 22" (55.9 cm). Daily limit 2 total salmon including no more than 1 Chinook. Release wild Chinook; only hatchery Chinook may be retained.
- Season
- Mar 31 to Apr 30
Source: WDFW · Marine Area 11 · synced today
Seasonality
52-week view · today highlightedWhen Chinook Salmon is best at this spot
Nearby Spots
View all on map →Other productive spots within easy run
Point Defiance (Clay Banks) is a mixed-bottom drop-off along the Tacoma shoreline, where depths run from 40 to 150 feet across a mid-exposure edge that concentrates fish along its contours. Lingcod hold on the structure with a peak from March through June, while rockfish stack up over the same broken bottom from April into September. The salmon runs layer through summer and fall, with Chinook peaking June to September, pink salmon July through September, and coho carrying the season into October. Anglers work the drop-off for lingcod with metal jigs and leadhead jigs paired with swimbaits, or drift whole herring and squid along the depth breaks. For the salmon, trolling cut-plug herring, flashers, and hoochies covers water across the contour, and vertical jigging with leadhead swimbaits and shrimp flies takes rockfish tight to the bottom.
Point Defiance (Clay Banks) is one of the spots we track around Tacoma. See every scored spot in Washington.
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