Oregon and Washington fishery managers announced Monday the closure of sturgeon retention in the John Day Dam reservoir of the Columbia River effective at the end of the day Saturday.
Central Idaho anglers are enjoying a kokanee bonanza these days thanks to the inadvertent flushing of thousands of fish through Dworshak Dam into the North Fork of the Clearwater River below.
Only a hint of the annual spring chinook salmon run has arrived in the Columbia River but anxious sport fishers are doing their best land some of the precious cargo, already logging an estimated 13,452 angler trips to the lower mainstem through March 6 this year.
Anglers fishing along the north Oregon and Washington coast will see a lower catch quota for chinook salmon this year even though the total number of fish expected to return is higher than in 2010.
The ocean recreational coho and chinook salmon fisheries off the coast of Washington would vary under the ocean fishing options being considered this year by the Pacific Fishery Management Council.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced last week the distribution of more than $749 million in excise tax revenues generated by sportsmen and women to state and territorial fish and wildlife agencies through the Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration and Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration programs.
Fishery managers from Washington and Oregon on Tuesday set a spring chinook fishing season for the Columbia River that is expected to entice nearly 100,000 angler trips this year.
By Bob Esselman, Idaho Department of Fish and Game
Even after years of working on Idaho's rivers and streams, a fisheries project can still amaze me.
Columbia River anglers who fish for salmon and steelhead will not be required to switch to barbless hooks next year, but state fishery managers are asking them to do it voluntarily.
A draft environmental review for a lake trout netting project on Flathead Lake has been delayed but should be released sometime this winter, an official with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes said Thursday.
Anglers hooked large payoffs during this year’s Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Fishery Program, raking in over $1.2 million by catching 173,112 of the voracious salmon eaters.
For Columbia River mainstem anglers, the month of August provides plenty of opportunity.
One of the best returns of fall chinook salmon in several years is expected and the fishing seasons begins Sunday (Aug. 1) for chinook and hatchery coho salmon. And summer steelhead are expected to continue providing good fishing well into September.
The Idaho Fish and Game Commission has adopted a recommended harvest season on fall chinook salmon to open September 1.
It is too soon to say much about upriver summer steelhead counts at Bonneville Dam this year since the return to the Columbia River basin is just starting to build momentum.
CBB Shorts: Ocean Chinook Harvest; Spring Chinook Fishing In Wallowa, Imnaha; Fall Chinook Fishing In Deschutes; $30 Million For Puget Sound; Eastern Oregon Watershed Restoration; Carbon Emissions Impact Fish; Salmon In Hot Water; Potential Water Crisis In West
A record-setting surge of sockeye salmon over Bonneville Dam has given fishery managers the confidence that they can allow anglers to target the species in the Columbia River mainstem without sacrificing upriver escapement goals and impact limits.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife this week approved a temporary rule increasing the combined steelhead/salmon bag limit to total of three fish a day on the Willamette, Clackamas and Sandy rivers, effective June 18 through Oct. 31.
The 2010 upriver spring chinook salmon return to the Columbia River is unlikely to set a modern-day record as was forecast in preseason, but a companion run -- hatchery fish that left lower river estuary "select areas" two or more years ago -- looks like it's already the best ever.
It's time to get hooked on the Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Fishery Program, which kicks off Saturday, May 1, in the lower Columbia and Snake rivers, say promoters of the annual effort to catch predatory fish that zero in on juvenile salmon and steelhead.
Already this year, the sport fishing effort aimed at spring chinook salmon in the lower Columbia River -- 166,027 angler trips -- is the highest since 2002.
Anglers will get another weekend of fishing on the lower Columbia River despite bumping up against an early-season spring chinook salmon catch "guideline" due to a high level of effort and high catch rates.
Despite stormy weather that has roiled the lower Columbia River over the past week or so, anglers continue to haul in large numbers of fish from what is expected to be a record run of upriver spring chinook salmon.
The Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribes are launching a public review process for a controversial lake trout netting proposal for Montana's Flathead Lake, starting with upcoming meetings in Polson, Kalispell and Missoula.
A burst of rainbow trout productivity in the South Fork of the Snake River has prompted state officials to set a cash bounty on the non-native fish species with the aim of reducing the number that interbreed with treasured native Yellowstone cutthroat trout populations.
Wan Teece of Enterprise caught a kokanee weighing 8.23 pounds, measuring 26.25 inches in length with a girth of 16 inches at Wallowa Lake on March 24, breaking the Oregon state record for kokanee and possibly a national record, too.
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