The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will close the Snake River spring chinook fishery effective Friday while fall chinook harvest season begins on Tuesday, Aug. 18.
To aid a research project, Idaho steelhead anglers are once again being asked to watch for tagged steelhead they might catch during the 2020-21 steelhead fishing seasons, and report tagged fish if they catch one.
Hundreds of trout anglers will head to Montana’s Flathead Lake this fall to compete in a fishing derby where the goal is not to catch the biggest trout, but to reel in the most. The daily bag limit for this contest may be surprising. Organizers encourage anglers to catch as many as 100 lake trout per day.
As returning sockeye salmon to the Columbia River continue to exceed preseason expectations, fishery managers with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced this week that Lake Wenatchee will open to sockeye retention beginning Monday, Aug. 3, while anglers will also be able to keep additional sockeye on the mainstem of the upper Columbia above Priest Rapids Dam.
Washington and Oregon extended summer chinook angling through the end of July from the Tongue Point-Rocky Point line, near Astoria, upstream to the border between the two states at the Hwy 395 Bridge near Pasco, Wash. The popular Buoy 10 fishing will open August 14.
The use of bait, spears, and spear guns to harvest smallmouth bass is now allowed in Oregon’s Coquille River system July 15 through October 31, 2020. The temporary rule aims to reduce impacts of illegally introduced smallmouth bass on native fall chinook salmon.
Oregon and Washington added seven more days – July 9 to July 15 – of recreational angling for hatchery summer chinook on the mainstem Columbia River, but closed shad fishing in the Bonneville Dam pool as a way to protect endangered Snake River sockeye salmon. Shad fishermen have been catching too many of the sockeye incidentally.
Oregon and Washington are opening a five-day recreational summer chinook angling period on the mainstem Columbia River beginning this weekend after an in-season forecast boosted the anticipated number of chinook entering the river by 58 percent over the preseason forecast.
The only reason there are any fisheries in the Columbia River and tributaries right now is due to the abundance of wild sockeye, wild summer chinook and wild steelhead.
The two-state Columbia River Compact this week abruptly shut down recreational fishing for sockeye salmon on the mainstem Columbia River as anglers exceeded the limit on the number of sockeye allowed.
Anglers will have an opportunity to retain a white sturgeon on the lower Willamette River the next two Saturdays, June 20 and 27 -- the first retention opportunity in the lower Willamette since 2013.
Idaho Fish and Game has closed the chinook salmon fishing season on the Lower Salmon River effective June 17, and the Little Salmon River effective at the end of fishing hours on June 20.
Brett Jones of Rock Springs Wyoming reeled in a new catch-and-release Idaho record for rainbow trout.
Oregon and Washington denied a staff proposal to open a one-day white sturgeon retention fishery in the Columbia River estuary that would have begun this weekend. Instead, they put off a decision for the estuary fishery – one that usually occurs in the spring – until September.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is holding off on a proposal to allow more fishing from a boat or other floating device on the Sandy River starting in 2021 in order to reduce interactions between hatchery and wild fish.
Fisheries researchers estimated that over 2.5 million adult kokanee occupied Lake Pend Oreille in the fall of 2019. This is the highest count on record since the mid-1990’s. As summer heats up, reports are starting to roll in that anglers are reaping the benefits of a highly abundant kokanee population.
After two months of closures due to concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic in Washington, many of the state’s coastal waters reopened for fishing on May 26.
In March 2019, Idaho Fish and Game kicked off the first year of the walleye lottery program by announcing that $50,000 in reward money was swimming in Lake Pend Oreille. Nearly 200 anglers participated in the inaugural season and winners took home just under $9,000 in prize money.
After a drop in the spring chinook salmon forecast and dire predictions that some hatcheries won’t make broodstock quotas this year, the two-state Columbia River Compact this week shut down mainstem Columbia River fisheries.
An anticipated poor summer run of chinook salmon means no summer chinook fishing this year on the Columbia River mainstem, according to Oregon and Washington. The summer season will be limited to only sockeye and steelhead retention.
After a late start for spring chinook angling on the Columbia River due to Covid-19 closures, Oregon and Washington approved a second four-day fishing period in a hearing Wednesday, May 13.
With fishing reopened under standard rules on May 5, following a statewide closure to help combat the spread of COVID-19, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife reminds anglers that a number of emergency rules remain in effect for state waters.
Dustin Shepherd of Lewiston, Idaho broke the most recent catch and release state record for smallmouth bass.
Oregon and Washington fisheries managers reopened the Columbia River along their border for limited recreational spring chinook and steelhead angling, despite continued concerns about the number of people in boats and at public facilities due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced this week it will reopen some recreational fishing and hunting in a phased approach following the state’s efforts to limit the spread of coronavirus. The department is asking hunters and anglers to enjoy these outdoor activities only if they can do so locally, while also practicing physical distancing.
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