A massive tiger trout pulled from Loon Lake in northeast Washington’s Stevens County in late June has set a new state record, state fishery managers have confirmed.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is implementing emergency regulations that began July 1 in several angling zones as Oregon faces a severe drought this summer, putting the state’s salmon, steelhead, trout and sturgeon at risk.
With recent and long term declines in coastal steelhead and last season’s early closure to the 2020-2021 coastal steelhead sport fishery, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife fishery managers are hosting a suite of virtual public town hall meetings this summer and fall to gather feedback from the public as they prepare for next season.
Spring chinook salmon fishing is nearly over and summer chinook fishing begins next week. Although it may be difficult to see much of a difference between a spring and a summer chinook at Bonneville Dam, June 16 is the transition date on which all chinook that pass the dam become summer chinook.
March and April of 2021 in Oregon were among the driest spring months since the 1890s. Many streams are already at 25 percent of the flow that is typical for this time of year, with flows usually seen in early summer observed in April on some southern Oregon streams.
Oregon and Washington fisheries managers are adding one more day of hatchery spring chinook angling downstream of Bonneville Dam and two days upstream of the dam to the states’ border, all over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
New developments in recreational fishing technology--from the use of aerial drones and social media scouting reports to advances in hook design--are creating challenges for fisheries management and effective policy making, according to a new study co-authored by University of Massachusetts Amherst researcher Andy Danylchuk.
Oregon and Washington fishery managers recently announced seasons and regulations for 2021 Columbia River summer and fall salmon and steelhead fisheries.
Despite a strong projected coho return to the state’s ocean waters, this year’s Washington salmon seasons largely reflect continued low runs of some wild chinook and coho stocks, especially in Puget Sound, state fishery managers announced yesterday.
Spring Chinook season will open in the Snake River’s Hells Canyon on Saturday, April 24 from the Dug Bar boat ramp to the boundary below Hells Canyon Dam.
A poor spring chinook run is impacting angling opportunities in two Oregon rivers. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife set regulations for fishing in the Hood and Deschutes rivers, reducing the bag limit in one river and closing the other due to an extreme low run of wild fish.
Registered anglers fishing near the Tri-Cities, Washington, can fish and turn in northern pikeminnow beginning April 19 as part of an early opening trial of the 2021 Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Fishery.
On the heels of a successful and significant reduction of lake trout in Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho is now using some of the same methods – gillnetting and an angler rewards program – it used to fight lake trout in a new effort to reduce the population of invasive walleye in the lake.
Passage of spring chinook at Bonneville Dam is less than 40 percent of the10-year average, yet anglers in the river downstream of the dam had already harvested about 90 percent of their allowed catch of the upriver run of the fish by the end of the early spring fishing period.
Although harvest opportunities for chinook salmon will be limited this year in Idaho, that doesn’t mean you can’t put some fresh salmon on the table.
The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Olympic National Park, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced an extension to continue recreational and commercial fishing closures for the Elwha River and its tributaries through July 1, 2022.
Oregon and Washington fisheries managers this week determined that projected abundance of legal size white sturgeon in the lower Columbia River estuary is sufficient to justify opening angling for the fish beginning in late spring.
Initial surveys and reports suggest that angler success, satisfaction, and harvest of Kootenai River burbot in 2021 are higher than what was observed in 2019 and 2020.
Oregon and Washington this week opened spring chinook salmon angling from Buoy 10 to the Oregon/Washington border in March. The opening in the lower river is the first time since 2018 that anglers will be allowed to pursue the prized fish early in the season from Buoy 10 to the Lewis River in Washington.
The Environmental Defense Fund is launching a new platform today to improve data collection and management of fishing in the ocean using smart cameras coupled with artificial intelligence to get an accurate assessment of the number of vessels fishing in a particular region.
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife fishery managers have scheduled a variety of opportunities for the public to participate in setting state-managed salmon fishing seasons for 2021, beginning with an annual salmon forecast meeting on Feb. 26.
Since 2010, Idaho Department of Fish and Game has been recruiting volunteer anglers to catch adult steelhead from the South Fork Clearwater River. Hatcheries rely on anglers from around the region, other states, and even other countries to collect steelhead broodstock on the South Fork Clearwater River each year.
With more free time on their hands, a growing interest in securing their own food, coupled with the needs for physical outlets and mental relief as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, more Californians turned to fishing and hunting last year.
The Bonneville Power Administration reports that in 2020, for the 23rd consecutive season, the Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Program met its annual goal to remove 10% to 20% of pikeminnow, 9 inches or longer, in the Columbia and Snake rivers that prey on juvenile salmon and steelhead. Due to Covid-19, however, catch numbers were far below average.
Anglers are having some success catching kokanee in Detroit Reservoir lately, thanks in part to the new bonus bag limit of 5 kokanee. But Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is also hearing from anglers that targeting kokanee is resulting in quite a few inadvertently hooked juvenile chinook salmon too.
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