Sub-Par Smelt Run Expected This Winter

By ALLEN THOMAS, Columbian staff writer

State fisheries officials — and fishermen — are hoping the Columbia River smelt run in 2006 won’t be a repeat of this year’s bust.

The Columbia River Compact will meet at 10 a.m. today in Longview to adopt sport and commercial smelt fishing seasons. Conservative one-day-a-week dipping is expected to be approved, seasons which are really little more than test netting.

Biologists for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife are recommending sport dipping be limited to Saturdays only in the Cowlitz River with the bag limit at 10 pounds.

Commercial smelt landings in the lower Columbia River in 2005 were the lowest on record. Netters landed 25 pounds on Jan. 25, 56 pounds on Jan. 31 and 27 pounds on March 31, for a total of 108 pounds.

Just one landing of 100 pounds occurred in the Cowlitz River on March 9 and 10.

The 208 pounds of smelt landed commercially in 2005 compares to 1,083,400 pounds in 2003.

Initially in 2005, commercial fishing for smelt was open two days per week in the Columbia and two nights per week in the Cowlitz and Lewis. In mid-February, when it was obvious the smelt run was weak and not just late, fishing was cut back to one day a week.

Predicting smelt runs is an very inexact science. There are both positive and negative indicators for 2006.

On the plus side:

The smelt runs were good in 2001 through 2003. Smelt return as 3- , 4- 5-year-olds to spawn.

Sampling for smelt larvae at Price Island on the lower Columbia during the outmigrations in 2001 through 2003 suggest good production. However, good production does not guarantee high returns.

On the minus side:

There has been a significant decline in the smelt bycatch in the Canadian ocean spring shrimp fisheries since 2002.

There was a major decline of smelt in the New Westminster test fishery on the Fraser River in 2004 and 2005.

Ocean survival conditions for fish have been deteriorating since late in 2001, evidenced by the dwindling returns of spring chinook and coho salmon.

“Ocean rearing conditions are likely the overriding factor in determining stock abundance for the upcoming year,” said Brad James, a biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.