Oregon and Washington fishery managers on Monday exhibited their math skills as they tried to keep a mainstem Columbia River sport fleet afloat and maximize a targeted, commercial spring chinook salmon fishery.
Fisheries officials this week pushed up their estimate of this year's upriver spring chinook salmon return thus allowing sport anglers to fish the lower Columbia River for the prized salmon for at least another four days.
Sport and commercial salmon-fishing seasons set for Washington's waters this summer reflect the continued strength of many chinook and coho salmon stocks from Puget Sound to the Columbia River, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Thursday.
The lower Columbia River's commercial fishing fleet was scheduled to return to the water today to salvage what the fishermen can from a fishing season turned gloomy.
Anglers awaiting the Buoy 10 fishery, which opens Aug. 1, are likely to encounter a near-record return of fall chinook salmon in numbers that will continue to build through August.
Minimum size limits on chinook salmon caught by anglers off the Washington coast will be raised in an effort to prevent an early closure of fast-paced fisheries from Ilwaco to Neah Bay, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Thursday.
Oregon and Washington fishery managers decided Tuesday to open a fishing season on hatchery-bred summer chinook that starts today (June 28) in the lower Columbia River. It marks the first time since 1973 that anglers may target summer chinook -- known historically as "June hogs" because of their large size.
"Sport reward" anglers will need plenty of luck and effort in their pursuit
of northern pikeminnow on the Columbia and Snake rivers this year if they
expect to break records set in 2001 both for fish caught and for cash
bounties collected.
Sport fishers hopeful that their pursuit of spring chinook salmon would stretch into May have been cut short as run estimates are revised downward -- from 333,700 adult returns to 238,000 -- and thus reducing the number of hatchery salmon that can be taken within limits established to protect wild fish.
Salmon anglers along the Pacific coasts of Washington and northern
Oregon this year should be able to take advantage of a strong return of
Columbia River chinook salmon, but must ease off on the harvest of coho
salmon returning to the Columbia as compared to last year.
Oregon and Washington officials are predicting uncommon success for
sport anglers turned loose Wednesday to pursue salmon returning to the
Columbia River.
Many are already zeroing in on coho near Buoy 10 at the river's mouth,
where more than one million hatchery coho are predicted to return along
with nearly 300,000 chinook.
The Bonneville Power Administration this week raised the bounty on
northern pikeminnow with the hope more anglers will be enticed into
targeting predatory fish and, as a result, allow more of their salmon
and steelhead prey to continue their migration toward the Pacific Ocean.
For the first time since the late 1960s, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will open fishing for hatchery spring chinook salmon on the Snake River in southeast Washington, taking advantage of a predicted record upriver run bound for hatcheries and tributary spawning grounds.
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