Bellingham Bay

A window is the hour either side of a tide change. Fish feed on moving water, so the turn itself is the classic bite, and the bigger the swing between one turn and the next, the harder the water pushes through it. A window that also lands on sunrise or sunset scores highest of all — that overlap is the one anglers plan a trip around. Wind then decides whether the window is fishable at all, and rain nudges it.

Only legal hours are considered — one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset — so a turn in the middle of the night is left out entirely, and a window running past the boundary is trimmed to the part you may fish.

Times come from NOAA and Open-Meteo, counts from WDFW. The ranking is ours — it is a read on conditions, not a promise of fish, and it does not account for regulations. Check the rules for the section you are fishing before you go.