New Weeklong Fishery for Hatchery Chinook Opens Monday on the Lower Columbia River in Washington
OutdoorHub 09.10.12
Anglers will be allowed to retain adult hatchery chinook salmon along the 70-mile stretch of the lower Columbia River during a weeklong pilot fishery that starts Monday (Sept. 10).
The new pilot fishery, approved by fishery managers from Washington and Oregon, will run through Sept. 16 from the Rocky Point/Tongue Point line upstream to Warrior Rock near the mouth of the Lewis River.
The daily catch limit during the pilot fishery is two adult hatchery salmon, two hatchery steelhead, or one of each. Only one of the salmon may be an adult chinook. Anglers must release any chinook salmon, coho salmon or steelhead not marked as a hatchery-raised fish by a clipped adipose fin.
Guy Norman, southwest regional director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), said the new pilot fishery is the first of its kind for fall chinook in the lower Columbia River.
“We wanted to give anglers an extra week of chinook fishing and reduce the number of excess hatchery fish, while minimizing impacts to wild fish,” Norman said. “This approach provides a way to do that.”
The fishery will get under way a day after the close of the regular chinook fishery, during which anglers have been allowed to retain both marked and unmarked chinook.
The area upstream from Warrior Rock remains open for chinook retention, as described in WDFW’s 2012 fishing pamphlet.
Norman said the new pilot fishery will be closely monitored to determine catch rates and compliance with the rule requiring the release of unmarked fish.
“This is a test for both the anglers and the fishery,” Norman said. “Because healthy stocks of some wild upriver chinook are not marked, anglers will likely have to release more fish than in other mark-selective fisheries on the river.”
Fishery managers from Washington and Oregon are predicting a strong run of 655,000 fall chinook salmon to Columbia River this year. Both states approved the new pilot fishery in July, but high catch rates last month in the Buoy 10 fishery near the river’s mouth raised questions about whether it would open as scheduled.
However, Norman said further analysis of the Buoy 10 fishery showed a higher ratio of hatchery fish in the catch than expected, allowing the pilot fishery to proceed.
“We’re on target with our conservation goals for wild chinook in the lower Columbia River,” he said. “That will allow us to test the feasibility of a new mark selective fishery and give anglers an extra week to catch hatchery chinook in the process.”
