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August 25, 2016
CLACKAMAS – This Labor Day weekend salmon fishermen will be allowed to keep both clipped and unclipped Chinook salmon on Sunday and Monday, Sept. 4-5 from the Columbia River mouth at Buoy 10 upstream to Tongue Point, under rule changes adopted today by fishery managers from Oregon and Washington.
The Buoy 10 fishery opened Aug. 1 and is scheduled to continue through Monday, Sept. 5.
From the opening of the 2016 Buoy 10 season anglers have been required to release unclipped Chinook on Sundays and Mondays, under rules designed to reduce fishing impacts on unclipped or “wild” Chinook.
Though fishing effort to date has been high, catch rates have been lower than expected. After reviewing the latest harvest and passage information and taking testimony from the public, the two-state fishery panel concluded it could expand Chinook opportunity slightly by moving to “non-mark select” harvesting for the last two days of the season.
“My number one priority is making sure the fall fisheries remain within their conservation objectives and that they get through the dates we planned preseason,” said Tucker Jones, ODFW’s Ocean Salmon and Columbia River Program Manager, “But it seems like we can accomplish those goals and offer a couple of additional any Chinook retention days.”
With the rule change, Buoy 10 anglers are on track to harvest 44,000 Chinook, about 4,500 fish less than the pre-season expectation.
The next two weeks typically have the highest Chinook catch in the Buoy 10 fishery, and ODFW and WDFW staff will continue to closely monitor catch and stock composition. Jones added, “The Buoy 10 fishery is highly dynamic this time of year, and given the amount of effort out there, small changes in catch rates can have big effects on the harvest.”
After the scheduled Sept. 6 closure of the Buoy 10 Chinook season, retention is set to re-open in the Buoy 10 area on Oct. 1. In the meantime, the area remains open to retention of hatchery coho and hatchery steelhead.
For more details about this and other in-season rule changes, please visit ODFW’s on-line Regulation Update Page and click on Columbia Zone updates.
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