Retention of hatchery-origin chinook in the popular Buoy 10 salmon season at the mouth of the Columbia River is closed beginning Saturday, the result of an exceptional month of angling in the estuary.
The decision by Washington and Oregon fishery managers on Thursday means anglers are limited to keeping only hatchery-origin coho in the 16 miles between Buoy No. 10 and Tongue Point in Oregon and Rocky Point in Washington. The daily limit is two fish.
The closure of hatchery chinook retention comes five days after anglers were prohibited from keeping wild chinook, a move officials thought might be sufficient to keep harvest within allocation guidelines.
Angling at Buoy 10 opened strong on Aug. 1 — and then got better.
“Actual catch last week (Aug. 17-23) was much higher than projected and likely the highest on record with nearly 18,300 chinook kept in those seven days alone,” said Robin Ehlke, assistant Columbia River policy manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Then on Monday through Wednesday, the catch was another 4,600 chinook kept, again higher than expected.
Sportsmen at Buoy 10 were allocated almost 35,000 chinook. Anglers are projected to have a total catch of 41,900 chinook through Sunday, which is 20 percent over the allocation. The harvest of wild chinook headed for lower Columbia tributaries, a threatened species, projects to be 29 percent over the allocation.
“We don’t have a lot of options,” said Chris Kern, an assistant administrator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, about the closure. “Fishing got better and the impacts got worse. So, here we are.”
Kern said the chinook catch rate at Buoy 10 was a record high.
“I don’t see any way we know how to predict a record catch rate,” he said. “Thankfully, we’ve still got coho open.”
Guy Norman of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said high catch rates rarely sustain themselves for very long.
“We hit a perfect storm — high effort, record catch rates,” Norman said.
Commercial fisherman Jack Marincovich of Astoria said August used to be the gillnetters big month in the estuary. Now, it’s not safe to drive through Astoria due to all the sport-fishing traffic, he added.
“The sports fleet has definitely taken over the whole lower Columbia,” Marincovich said.
Jim Wells of Salmon For All, a commercial group, said some sport-fishing guides are taking three boat loads of customers a day at Buoy 10.
“Buoy 10 is out of control,” Wells said.
Anglers who catch a chinook in the ocean, or upstream of Tongue Point, can transit through the Buoy 10 area, but not stop to fish, Kern added.
Randy Woolsey, a sporting goods wholesaler in Tigard, Ore., cheered this year’s Buoy 10 fishery.
“The power of that recreational fishery is amazing,” Woolsey said. “It’s testimony to the number of residents of Washington and Oregon who want to participate in that fishery — it’s world-class.”
He asked the states to consider increasing the Buoy 10 bag limit to three coho a day.
Cody Clark of Bob’s Sporting Goods in Longview said he is concerned that exceeding chinook allocations at Buoy 10 might have to be made up by cutting catch in the next management section upstream, which is between Tongue Point and the Lewis River.
There are many bank anglers who fish between Cathlamet and Woodland who do not have boats, he added.
Ocean chinook — Anglers fishing in the ocean off the mouth of the Columbia River can keep two chinook beginning Saturday as part of their daily limit.
Washington has limited ocean anglers off Ilwaco to one chinook per day to ensure the fishery would stay open the entire season.
“We have enough chinook remaining under the guideline to allow anglers two chinook per day off Ilwaco without much risk of having to close early,” said Doug Milward, ocean salmon manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Ocean and inland fishing regulations are adopted at the same time, but catch allocations are not shared.
