Columbia River 2015 Salmon Seasons Set
Oregon and Washington fishery managers have announced the 2015 summer and fall salmon seasons for the Columbia River. The 2015 fall salmon seasons are based on strong projected returns of 925,000 fall chinook and 540,000 coho salmon, and include a Buoy 10 fishery projected through Labor Day and increased bag limits in some upriver areas.
Highlights of the upcoming seasons include: • Buoy 10: Retention of adult chinook (fin-clipped or not) is expected to remain open Aug. 1 through Sept. 7 (Labor Day objective).
• Warrior Rock upstream to Steamboat Landing Park/Marker #50: The daily bag limit may include two fall chinook (fin-clipped or not).
• Steamboat Landing Park/Marker #50 upstream to the OR/WA border (above McNary Dam): the daily bag limit may include three fall chinook (fin-clipped or not).
As in 2014, the “boat limit” rule will be in place from Buoy 10 upstream to the OR/WA border. Anglers fishing from the same boat may continue fishing for salmon until all licensed anglers have reached their daily limits.
According to Chris Kern, ODFW deputy administrator for Columbia and Marine programs, the major constraint for fall lower Columbia River fisheries is still the allowable harvest rate of ESA-listed wild tule chinook.
“This year, we had a little more room on allowable impact for wild tules,” Kern said. “As a result, we estimate there will be six additional days of chinook fishing at Buoy 10 compared to 2014, extending the season through Labor Day. We also expect to meet all of our policy objectives and have chinook retention on the middle river through September 14.”
Kern also noted that given continued strong runs of upriver stocks, the three-chinook bag limit in upriver areas first implemented in 2014 will continue for the 2015 season.
“This will allow anglers to take advantage of the large chinook returns with little impact on wild tules,” he said.
Anglers should be alert for potential in-season modifications to chinook retention rules, especially in the Buoy 10 and middle river areas.
Here are the details of the 2015 Columbia River summer and fall salmon and steelhead seasons:
Summer Seasons*
Summer Chinook and Sockeye
Retention of sockeye and adipose fin-clipped adult summer chinook will be allowed:
• June 16 – July 6 from the Astoria-Megler Bridge upstream to Bonneville Dam. Staff will monitor the fishery in-season and potentially modify the July portion of the fishery (which may include extending the season or allowing retention of any adult chinook).
• June 16 – July 31 from Bonneville Dam upstream to the OR/WA border.
• Retention of adipose fin-clipped jack summer chinook (between 12 and 24 inches long) and adipose-fin-clipped steelhead allowed June 16 – July 31 from the Astoria-Megler Bridge upstream to the OR/WA border.
The daily bag limit is two adult salmonids and five jacks. All sockeye are considered adults in the daily limit and must be recorded as adults on the combined angling tag.
All other permanent rules apply.
Fall Seasons*
Buoy 10
Area definition: From the Buoy 10 line upstream to a line projected from Rocky Point on the Washington shore through red buoy #44 to red marker #2 at Tongue Point on the Oregon shore.
• August 1 – December 31: Retention of adipose-fin-clipped coho (16-inches or longer) and adipose-fin-clipped steelhead allowed.
• August 1 – September 7: Retention of chinook (24 inches or longer, fin-clipped or not) is allowed. The daily bag limit is two salmonids, only one of which may be a chinook.
• September 8 – 30: Retention of all chinook is prohibited. The daily bag limit is two salmonids (adipose-fin-clipped coho/steelhead only).
• October 1 – December 31: Retention of chinook (fin-clipped or not) is allowed. The daily bag limit is two adult salmonids.
Chinook jacks (fin-clipped or not) and adipose-fin-clipped coho jacks may only be retained October 1 – December 31 under permanent rules. The daily bag limit for jack salmon in Oregon is five fish.
All other permanent rules apply.
Lower Columbia: Tongue Point/Rocky Point upstream to Warrior Rock/Bachelor Island
Area definition: From a line projected from Rocky Point on the Washington shore through red buoy #44 to the red marker #2 at Tongue Point on the Oregon shore upstream to a line projected from the Warrior Rock Lighthouse on the Oregon shore through red buoy #4 to a marker on the lower end of Bachelor Island.
• August 1 – December 31: Retention of adipose-fin-clipped adult coho and adipose-fin-clipped steelhead allowed.
• August 1 – September 7: Retention of adult chinook (fin-clipped or not) is allowed. The daily bag limit is two adult salmonids, only one of which may be a chinook. The daily bag limit for jack salmon in Oregon is five fish. • September 8 – 14: Retention of adipose fin-clipped adult chinook is allowed. The daily adult bag limit is two salmonids, only one of which may be a chinook. The daily bag limit for jack salmon in Oregon is five fish.
• September 15 – 30: Retention of all chinook is prohibited. The daily bag limit is two adult salmonids (adipose-fin-clipped coho/steelhead only).
• October 1 – December 31: Retention of adult chinook (fin-clipped or not) is allowed. The daily bag limit is two adult salmonids. The daily bag limit for jack salmon in Oregon is five fish.
Each legal angler aboard a vessel may continue to deploy angling gear until the daily adult salmonid bag limit for all anglers aboard has been achieved.
All other permanent rules apply.
Lower Columbia: Warrior Rock/Bachelor Isl. upstream to Steamboat Landing Park/Marker #50
Area definition: From a line projected from the Warrior Rock Lighthouse on the Oregon shore through red buoy #4 to a marker on the lower end of Bachelor Island upstream to a line projected from the most downstream point on the Steamboat Landing Park (100 S. Washougal River Road) dock on the Washington shore through navigation light #50 to the Oregon shore. Angling from the Steamboat Landing Park dock is not included in this fishing area.
• August 1 – December 31: Retention of adult chinook (fin-clipped or not), adipose-fin-clipped adult coho, and adipose-fin-clipped steelhead allowed. The daily bag limit is two adult salmonids. The daily bag limit for jack salmon in Oregon is five fish.
Each legal angler aboard a vessel may continue to deploy angling gear until the daily adult salmonid bag limit for all anglers aboard has been achieved.
All other permanent rules apply.
Lower Columbia: Steamboat Landing Park/Marker #50 upstream to Bonneville Dam
Area definition: From a line projected from the most downstream point on the Steamboat Landing Park (100 S. Washougal River Road) dock on the Washington shore through navigation light #50 to the Oregon shore upstream to Bonneville Dam. Angling from the Steamboat Landing Park dock is included in this fishing area.
• August 1 – December 31: Retention of adult chinook (fin-clipped or not), adipose-fin-clipped adult coho, and adipose-fin-clipped steelhead allowed. The daily bag limit is three adult salmonids, of which no more than two may be adipose-fin-clipped coho or adipose-fin-clipped steelhead (in any combination). The daily bag limit for jack salmon in Oregon is five fish.
Each legal angler aboard a vessel may continue to deploy angling gear until the daily adult salmonid bag limit for all anglers aboard has been achieved.
All other permanent rules apply.
Bonneville Dam upstream to the OR/WA border (upstream of McNary Dam)
• August 1 – December 31: Retention of adult chinook (fin-clipped or not), adult coho, and adipose-fin-clipped steelhead allowed. The daily bag limit is three adult salmonids, of which no more than two may be coho or adipose-fin-clipped steelhead (in any combination). The daily bag limit for jack salmon in Oregon is five fish.
All coho (adults and jacks) retained downstream of the Hood River Bridge must be adipose-fin-clipped.
Each legal angler aboard a vessel may continue to deploy angling gear until the daily adult salmonid bag limit for all anglers aboard has been achieved.
All other permanent rules apply.
* Seasons may be subject to in-season modification.
JD: For those that love harvesting big Columbia River chinook, whether they have an adipose fin or not, this is great news! We get to keep them finned or finless for more days than I imagined and there’s plenty of opportunity available for fin-clipped fish. If the Columbia chinook and coho runs are on par with what’s predicted, it’s going to be an awesome summer to be fishing on the Columbia. And that doesn’t even count all the summer steelhead and sockeye. I am fully pumped!
Northern Pike Numbers Diminishing
State and tribal fish managers are winning the battle against invasive northern pike on a section of the Pend Oreille River in northeast Washington, but they don’t expect to declare victory anytime soon.
For the fourth straight year, crews from the Kalispel Tribe Natural Resources Department (KNRD) will use gill nets to remove non-native pike from Box Canyon Reservoir and work with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to monitor the results.
As in previous years, the netting operation will run five days per week through March and April, even though fish managers estimate they have already removed more than 90 percent of the northern pike from the reservoir.
“Northern pike are voracious predators that pose a significant threat to native and game fish species,” said Bruce Bolding, WDFW warmwater fish program manager. “We can’t stop these fish from moving into Washington waters from Idaho, but we’re going to do everything we can to keep their numbers as low as possible.”
A key goal is to keep northern pike from moving downstream from the Pend Oreille River into the Columbia River, where they could affect salmon and steelhead populations, Bolding said.
Surveys conducted by WDFW and KNRD between 2004 and 2011 documented a rapid increase in the number of pike in Box Canyon Reservoir and a significant decline in abundance of other fish species.
Bolding said gillnetting during early spring has proven to be the most effective method of reducing northern pike. Between 2012 and 2014, more than 16,000 fish (38,000 pounds) were removed by netting.
In addition, anglers harvested a total of 334 northern pike during “PikePalooza” fishing derbies sponsored by KNRD, which offered more than $20,000 in cash and prizes over the past three years.
Jason Olson, KNRD Fisheries Conservation Program Manager, said the tribe will not conduct similar fishing derbies this year, because the numbers of northern pike have been reduced so far.
“We expect sport angler catch rates for northern pike in Box Canyon Reservoir to remain low,” Olson said. “However, bass fishing can be exceptional, and populations of brown trout and panfish are showing signs of rebounding.”
State and tribal fishery managers encourage anglers to harvest as many northern pike as they can from both Box Canyon and Boundary reservoirs. Under state law, any northern pike that is caught must be killed before it is removed from the area in which it was taken.
While Box Canyon Reservoir has the state’s largest population of northern pike, anglers have also reported catching them in the Columbia River just north of the Canada border, near Northport and Kettle Falls, and in the Spokane River from Lake Coeur d’Alene in Idaho to Long Lake in Spokane County.
Bolding said problems with northern pike started with illegal releases of the fish into the Flathead, Bitterroot and Clark Fork river systems in Montana, where they migrated downstream into Idaho’s Lake Pend Oreille and into Washington.
For more information about northern pike in Washington and annual summaries of the project see http://wdfw.wa.gov/ais/esox_lucius/.
JD: Glad to see a major salmon and steelhead predator being managed, although catching pike is an absolute blast.