Strong returns of salmon and steelhead in the past 11 months have sparked retail tackle and boat sales, the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association says.
“We started seeing significant gains in business volume last summer with the Buoy 10 fishery,” said Dan Grogan, president of Fishermen’s Marine and Outdoor. “It really hasn’t slowed down.”
Grogan, a Clark County resident, operates stores on Hayden Island and in Oregon City.
“Fall fishing was OK, but the winter steelhead fishery this past January, February and March along with the anticipation of a large return of spring chinook kept people coming through our doors and spending money. I can’t stress how important these fisheries are to our business and all of our vendors business…it’s huge.”
Paul Mayer, president of Stevens Marine, said business went in the tank in 2008 when the Buoy 10 season was shortened, then was hurt by the uncertainty surrounding the 2009 spring chinook season and the economic downturn.
“This year is off to a much better start thanks to good fishing last summer that got people thinking about making large purchases, followed by the news that spring chinook fishing was expected to be good. That really tipped the market over and we’ve seen a much better business climate and results in 2010 than we had in 2009.”
Liz Hamilton, executive director of the association, said small shifts in fishery policies to help sports fishing can make the business improvements of the past few months sustainable.
She said 2010 is being called “salmon stimulus plan” thanks to the strong showing of winter steelhead, a good spring chinook season, the first full summer chinook season in 40 years, an anticipated strong summer steelhead run and a forecast for a big fall chinook return.
“Consistently good fishing is putting hundreds of people back to work,” Hamilton said.
“The fact is, that when there’s meaningful fishing opportunity for salmon and steelhead in the Northwest, we sell boats…lots of them,” said Mayer.
