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Columbia at Mouth of Deschutes Closed to Fishing by Staff The Dalles Chronicle, August 20, 2019

Closure aims to protect wild steelhead

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildllife (ODFW) is closing all fishing (including catch-and-release) in the Columbia River around the mouth of the Deschutes River and in the lower Deschutes River from the mouth upstream to markers placed on the downstream end of Moody Rapids, from Monday, Aug. 12 through Sept. 15 per direction from the Fish and Wildlife Commission at its Aug. 2 meeting,

The closure is to protect wild summer steelhead and follows other regulatory steps ODFW and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) have taken to protect wild steelhead this year. Returns of ESA-listed wild Snake River steelhead are forecasted to be extremely poor, and there are concerns about the effects of angling on fish that gather in cooler water near tributary mouths.

The boundary of the angling closure is defined by a line projecting from the South Channel Range "B" marker located approximately 3/4-mile upstream of the Deschutes, downstream through Red Buoy Marker "4," and terminating at the red USCG light #2 on the Oregon shore downstream of the mouth.

The Commission directed ODFW to take similar steps to close the mouth of the Deschutes last year, and that boundary was refined this year to reduce impact on Chinook anglers.

Based on additional discussions with the public and regional biologists, the boundary of this year’s closure has been refined to reduce the impact on Chinook fishing opportunities.

The closure is one of a number of regulatory steps taken to protect wild steelhead during the summer and fall fisheries this year; bag limits in the Columbia River were reduced to one hatchery steelhead per day for the month of July; and for fall fisheries, all steelhead (hatchery and wild) must be released during the following periods:

• Aug. 1-31 from Buoy 10 upstream to The Dalles Dam,

• Aug. 1 -- Sept. 30 from The Dalles Dam upstream to John Day Dam,

• Sept. 1 -- Oct. 31 from John Day to McNary Dam, and

• Oct. 1 -- Nov. 30 from McNary Dam upstream to the OR/WA state line.