ROSEBURG – The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife encourages anglers to take advantage now of the fall chinook fishery in the Umpqua River near Roseburg.

According to acting District Fish Biologist Laura Jackson, some hatchery chinook should be holding downstream of the Calapooya in the mainstem Umqpua River. These fish, released in the Calapooya as pre-smolts in 2004 by the Umpqua Fishermen’s Association, will linger in the area until enough rainfall allows them to enter the Calapooya to spawn.

According to Jackson, the chinook should be accessible to anglers from the Umpqua, Mack Brown, and James Wood boat ramps.

“We would really like people to try to harvest hatchery fish,” Jackson said. “These fish were raised by the Umpqua Fisherman’s Association for harvest augmentation and are coded wire tagged. We’re asking anglers to return the heads of hatchery fish to ODFW so we can collect data from the tags.”

Jackson said these adipose fin-clipped fall chinook have coded wire tags in the snout. Having anglers return the snouts of the hatchery chinook will help ODFW estimate the survival rates and how much the fish contribute to the local recreational harvest.

“The Umpqua Fishermen’s Association’s fall chinook program is geared toward improving fishing opportunities in the mainstem Umpqua. We’re really targeting the Calapooya area,” Jackson said.

Jackson also hopes to have volunteer creel surveyors canvass the area to gather information and collect snouts from marked chinook.

The river is currently open to fall chinook fishing with a limit of two adult fish per day, twenty per year. There is no yearly limit on the number of adipose fin-clipped chinook harvested as long as the appropriate number of Hatchery Harvest Tags have been purchased to record the catch.

The mission of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is to protect and enhance Oregon's fish and wildlife and their habitats for use and enjoyment by present and future generations. The agency consists of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission, a commission-appointed director and a statewide staff of approximately 950 permanent employees. Headquartered in Salem, ODFW has regional offices in Clackamas, Roseburg, Bend, and La Grande with ten district offices located throughout the state. For additional information, please visit www.dfw.state.or.us.