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Add a Spear to Save Salmon by Bill Munroe The Oregonian, August 16, 2025

Organized bass groups
aren't happy with the proposal.

What summer doldrums?

It's a new era...expect the unexpected.

Like seesaw summer temperatures topping 100 degrees one day and into the 70s the next.

Or half an inch of August rain. Overnight. (August?)

And red hot coho salmon fishing in the Pacific Ocean; large fish, too, and so good all salmon fishing will close Monday evening off the mouth of the Columbia and probably in the near future south of Cape Falcon as quotas are reached.

How about a welcome early push of upriver bright chinook past Buoy 10 all the way up to Tongue Point and beyond, joined by early coho, riding the strength of strong tides.

But that's not all.

On Sept. 12, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will take up the issue of barbed and barbless points.

But settle back into your armchairs, you anxious salmon anglers. It's not exactly an answer to your dreams.

Instead, in a meeting nearly as far from the opportunity as possible (Ontario), commissioners will be asked to approve a Department of Fish and Wildlife proposal to allow spearfishing for bass and walleye in all of the state's rivers (including Columbia River reservoirs) where limits for those fish have been eliminated.

And yes, it includes all of the Willamette River system, including tributaries below U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dams.

Spearfishing, practiced by "free divers" (just masks, snorkels and weight belts, no tanks) isn't new to Oregon, where it's legal in saltwater for most fish other than salmon and steelhead (well, and not for sturgeon) and is also legal in several states (according to Dr. Google).

Some even for trout, although it doesn't appear to apply to any states with anadromous fish runs.

And in Oregon, other than a relatively new rule adopted in 2021 for the Coquille River, where bass were illegally introduced and are now numerous enough to dramatically reduce the system's chinook run.

Bass and walleye, despite the lifting of bag limits on several waters, remain a gamefish species here, but in some waters may soon join scrap and trash fish species before the barbed trident tips.

Relatively recent support for additional opportunity, coupled with newer studies showing a greater take of salmon and steelhead youngsters by walleye and bass in the Columbia River, resulted in the new rule for 2026.

"I always thought it was a cool way to fish," said Jared Nagreen of Hood River.

Nagreen recently participated in a first-ever (for him) excursion to the Coquille River for a filmed segment to be aired on OPB's Oregon Field Guide.

"We (he and his brother-in-law, also new to free-diving and spearfishing) got 31 bass in two days," he said. "We saw hundreds and hundreds." (Their fish were filleted and eaten -- think tacos.)

While spearfishing would allow either a speargun or a long "spear pole" tipped with a barbed trident, Nagreen opted for the pole -- but not because it's less expensive.

"A speargun seems hazardous," he said. "It's got a much longer range and you don't know where it might end up."

Nagreen also sees potential conflict with bass anglers, although not with salmon fishermen farther away from bass habitat. Both those on the bank and casting to shore from boats need to be avoided, he said. (he spearfished the Coquille in areas inaccessible by boat.)

Politically? He defers to the advice of Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists.

"Saving salmon is worth it," he said.

A video produced by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife shows spearfishing on the Coquille and the abundance of hungry smallmouth bass.

Understandably, organized bass groups aren't happy with the proposal.

The Oregon Bass and Panfish Club didn't object to the rule on the South Fork Coquille river because of the illegal introduction but a statewide rule exponentially expands the legal boundaries for spearfishing, including such major systems as the Columbia, Willamette and Umpqua rivers.

"The Club views warmwater fisheries as one of Oregon's precious resources," reads a Bass and Panfish Club statement. "The Club objects to spearfishing for bass and walleye, except were the bass and walleye were illegally introduced."

There are several ways to voice your opinion without driving to Ontario.

Proposed changes by zone are here