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Columbia River Reopens to Recreational Boats; Fishing Resumes Below Bonneville Dam by Bill Monroe The Oregonian, April 13, 2018

After a year of fretting about the ocean, months of wondering about spawning bed counts and jack returns, weeks of gnawing concern about low forecasts and, finally, many days of chest-pounding, hair-tearing and back-room who-knows-what meetings ...

... We have salmon seasons.

Buoy 10 and the lower Columbia River may not make it all the way through Labor Day for chinook, but there's still plenty of fishing to go around.

And not only will the central Oregon Coast will have a longer coho season than last year, the south coast will reopen to chinook fishing, with a decent return expected into the Rogue River.

Even the Washington Coast and Puget Sound will offer at least opportunity.

No, it's not like the good old days of 2015; but gone, too, are the ugly years of the 90s when entire fisheries were shuttered.

By the numbers:

Spring chinook: Anglers just got one more day of fishing (Saturday) in the lower Columbia, but probably still won't catch all of the fish they were allocated in the early season.

Summer steelhead: Opens June 16 in the Columbia from Interstate 5 Bridge upriver to the state border above McNary Dam. Hatchery fish only.

Summer chinook: Open June 22 through July 4 from the Astoria-Megler Bridge upstream to Bonneville Dam and June 16 through July 31 from Bonneville to the US 395 bridge near Pasco, Wash. The daily adult limit will be two hatchery salmonids.

NOTE: There will be no sockeye (or chum salmon) fishing season this year on the Columbia River. All must be released.

Offshore:

Leadbetter Point to Cape Falcon - Open June 23 to Sept. 3 or quota of 21,000 hatchery coho; chinook guideline of 8,000.

Cape Falcon to Humbug Mountain - (Federal rules; expected to be ratified for state waters Friday by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission) Open now for chinook through Oct. 31; opens June 30 for hatchery coho until Sept. 3 or quota of 35,000 is reached; any coho season is Sept. 7-8 then Fridays and Saturdays until 3,500 are caught.

Humbug Mountain to California border - Chinook-only; May 19 to Aug. 26.

Columbia River fall (Party rule applies; all anglers in a boat keep fishing until all daily limits are met):

Note: During all Columbia River seasons from Buoy 10 to the Oregon/Washington border, only one hatchery steelhead is allowed per day.

Buoy 10 to Tongue Point - One-fish limit Aug. 1 to 24 (coho and steelhead must be fin-clipped). Two fish Aug. 25 to Dec. 31, but no chinook and only one hatchery steelhead allowed.

Tongue Point to Lewis River - One-fish limit Aug. 1 to Sept. 2 (coho and steelhead must be fin-clipped); two fish (but no chinook and only one hatchery steelhead) Sept. 3 to Dec. 31.

Lewis River to Bonneville Dam - One-fish limit Aug. 1 to Sept. 14 (coho and steelhead must be fin-clipped); two fish (but no chinook and only one hatchery steelhead) Sept. 15 to Dec. 31.

Bonneville Dam to US 395 Bridge in Pasco, Wash. - Two-fish limit Aug. 1 to Dec. 31, but only one chinook and only one hatchery steelhead.

Coastal fall tributary seasons: Will be announced later this spring; however, there will be no wild coho fishing in north coast tributaries this year.

. . .

Related Pages:
Fisheries Managers Forecast 'Unprecedentedly Low' Summer Steelhead by George Plaven, East Oregonian, 5/22/17