Coastal Anglers Not so Lucky
Jul. 28–Anglers’ salmon fortunes might be booming at the mouth of the Columbia River, but Oregon biologists won’t ask for federal permission to extend what has been a weather-wrecking coho season out of central coastal ports.
Anglers are expected to catch less than 10 percent of their coho quota of 40,000 hatchery fish after fishing closes Sunday night south of Cape Falcon, near Manzanita. The 1 1/2-month season was marked by tropical ocean temperatures even warmer than in El Nino years (this year is not an El Nino year) and days without fish.
Coho fishing has been much better, however, off the mouth of the Columbia River, where the season remains open, and this weekend’s forecast is for calming seas.
Chinook salmon fishing will remain open out of central and north coastal ports and reopens Aug. 14 out of Brookings and Gold Beach. Angling for the deeper-running, larger chinook has been excellent at times along the south Oregon Coast and was good last week as far north as Winchester.
“It’s a recognition of two factors,” said Curt Melcher, salmon harvest manager for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “If they’ve had trouble catching coho, it’s a pretty good indicator that the run may be even smaller than forecast. Also, many of those fish are moving north now, off the mouth of the Columbia River.”
The bright spot in coastal coho salmon fishing has been off the mouth of the Columbia River, where the season not only remains open, but also has been extended to seven days a week between Cape Falcon and the Canadian border.
Oregon and Washington also increased the daily limit of chinook salmon in the zone from one to two fish daily.
Through most of the coho season, onshore ocean temperatures as high as 60 to 61 degrees sent coho and chinook diving deeper than they usually feed and brought schools of albacore tuna unusually close to shore.
In the last two weeks, though, hot inland air drew winds over the ocean, causing high swells and wind chop, and mixing the water back toward the 54-degree realm that salmon like best.
Unfortunately for anglers, not many small boats could take advantage.
Last week’s salmon count by Oregon fish checkers in Newport, for example, was one chinook kept and two released for 225 anglers.
Meanwhile, 437 anglers, mostly on charter boats, caught and kept 421 coho and 100 chinook out of Columbia River ports. They released nearly as many.
Salmon fishing in the lower Columbia River, down to Buoy 10 at the river’s entrance, opens Monday. Anglers are limited to a single chinook per day in the river.
Melcher said fishing will start slowly, then pick up by mid-August, but will be slower than many years because of a low forecast of 206,000 coho salmon passing upriver this fall.
Last year’s run was 446,000 coho after a forecast of 256,000, but the ocean has been so barren for salmon this summer that Melcher isn’t holding out hopes for a repeat.
The chinook forecast is 671,500, nearly 40,000 more than last year’s forecast. Last year’s total fall chinook run was 792,000.
More ducks? State and federal Pacific Flyway managers have recommended duck hunting seasons similar to last year’s 107-day hunts.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will make final decisions in the next several days, and commissions in Washington and Oregon will set fall regulations Aug. 5.
Cutbacks in scaup and cackling Canada goose bag limits are possible, along with a single-pintail daily limit for all 107 days of the season instead of last fall’s 60 days.
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