Ocean salmon Top seasons in Oregon 2011
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A year after unprecedented coastwide closures on chinook salmon, driven by record low California returns, both Sacramento and Klamath river fall chinook forecasts are back close to normal and the Pacific Fishery Management Council will reopen a more traditional angling season structure.
The council's decisions for the ocean's federal waters were announced last week in San Mateo, Calif. Seasons for most state waters will be ratified Friday by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission.
Offshore chinook fishing is open between Cape Falcon (near Manzanita) and Humbug Mountain (Port Orford) and will continue through Sept. 30, with a two-fish daily bag limit.
In the same zone, the hatchery coho salmon season is July 2 through Aug. 13, but will close if a quota of 15,000 fish is caught first. Last year's quota was 26,000, but only 13,000 were caught. The lower quota this year is because of lower numbers of wild coho expected to return to the lower Columbia River.
An additional 10-day wild coho fishery is set for the mid-coast ocean Sept. 1-10, with a quota of 3,000. It reflects continued stronger runs of wild fish into coastal systems. Wild coho can only be kept Thursday, Friday and Saturday (Sept. 1-3 and 8-10), but hatchery coho will be legal all days under the two-fish daily limit.
North of Cape Falcon, off the mouth of the Columbia River, there's a one-week hatchery chinook season, June 18-25 (two per day, no coho), followed by hatchery coho/any chinook season starting June 26 (two per day, only one chinook). The coho quota is 33,600.
The Oregon commission still must set state rules for coastal bays, rivers and terminal ocean fisheries and has set public meetings April 26-28 in North Bend, Newport and Tillamook to present options. A decision will be made June 3.
Also pending are joint Oregon/Washington decisions about fall fishing on the Columbia River.
"Coastwide, chinook forecasts are up about 20 percent over last year primarily due to strong returns on the south coast and, to a lesser extent, on the mid coast," Ron Boyce, ODFW Ocean Salmon Columbia River Program manager, said in a prepared release. "However, chinook forecasts for north coast basins are still uncertain."
Uncertain, but better. Boyce said some of last season's tight restrictions and closures will ease up a bit.
Proposed wild coho retention fisheries this fall include the Nehalem, Tillamook, Nestucca, Siletz, Yaquina, Alsea, Siuslaw, Umpqua, Coos, and Coquille rivers and Tenmile Lakes.
Meetings will be 7-9 p.m. April 26 at North Bend Public Library; April 27 at Hallmark Resort in Newport; and April 28 at Oregon Department of Forestry in Tillamook.
Radiation-free tuna: Albacore anglers, ever the gear-geeks, are wondering whether to shop for Geiger counters this year.
The speedy nomadic tuna winter and spawn in temperate waters of the far east and arrive off the Oregon coast in July, having passed Japan and its quake-damaged reactors.
The fleet may rest easier after hearing an assessment from the Western Fishboat Owners Association, a Redding, Calif.-based organization of commercial tuna fishermen from California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.
"Ten years of tagging data show that (albacore tuna) do not come anywhere close to the cold waters of Japan at this time of year and it is believed that these ... stocks are currently many hundreds if not thousands of miles away from Japan at this time," the association announced on its website.
"The area where contaminated water was discharged into the sea is along the Japanese shoreline and that water has not transited far off-shore. The leak has been capped and most of the elements that escaped are low weight isotopes with very short half-lives that are not expected to linger in the environment. This diminishing radioactivity will likely dilute to undetectable levels along the Japanese coast and the migratory off-shore albacore tuna are expected to be completely unaffected by this event."
Last call: For the Willamette Salmon Quest on Saturday, sponsored by the Association of Northwest Steelheaders.
Guided anglers ($250 per seat) compete for trophies, capped by the association's Angling Hall of Fame banquet. Proceeds fund Portland-area salmon and steelhead programs.
Quote of the week: On April 1, 1806, Lewis and Clark camped on the Columbia River shoreline at what is now Steamboat Landing in Washougal, Wash. They hunted (several elk and some deer were killed in the Sandy River delta) and dried meat to ready themselves for their return upriver through the gorge.
Condensed journal entries from that encampment more than two centuries ago are eerily echoed in transcripts and comments from biologists, treaty tribal descendants and anglers during recent telephone meetings of the Columbia River Compact:
"They (local natives told them) had consumed their winter store of dryed (sic) fish and that those of the present season had not yet arrived ... Nations above them were in the same situation & ... did not expect the Salmon to arrive untill (sic) the full of the next moon which happens on the 2d of May. ... This information gave us much uneasiness ..."
Bill Monroe is a freelance outdoors writer. He can be reached at nwbill@aol.com.
The Oregonian's outdoors blog: oregonlive.com/monroe
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