The numbers are in for the 2007 spring and summer salmon season and the outlook isn’t good, which of course isn’t a surprise to anyone watching the fishing reports.
“Returns of spring and summer chinook to the Columbia-Snake basin fell far below the level needed for recovery for the eighth consecutive year. For fishermen and northwest communities, it was another year of reduced seasons and economic insecurity, and put an exclamation point on the continuing failure of federal salmon recovery efforts.
“The federal agencies can slice the numbers and spin the data any way they want, but the real bottom line is clear: fewer and fewer fish are returning each year, and this administration has no intention of doing anything new or serious to actually help us,” said Jeremy Brown, a commercial salmon fishermen and member of the Washington Trollers Association.”
Wild salmon were the winners in today’s federal court ruling that upheld protecting wild salmon separately from hatchery-bred fish. Pacific Legal Foundation, which represents developers and farm groups, argued that the court should remove 16 populations of salmon and equate them to hatchery fish, in the manner the Bush Administration has attempted to implement. Judge Michael Hogan rejected that argument and accepted the science outlining important differences between hatchery and wild salmon. According to Jim Lichatowich, author of Salmon Without Rivers, “The presence of hatchery fish should never be an excuse to reduce protections for wild salmon and their habitat.”
Decision (pdf)
Attorneys Jan Hasselman and Shaun Goho of Earthjustice represented an array of agencies including Trout Unlimited, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermens’ Associations, Institute for Fisheries Resources, American Rivers, Oregon Wild, Klamath Forest Alliance, Northcoast Environmental Center, National Center for Conservation Science and Policy, Pacific Rivers Council and Sierra Club.
Only a few reports trickling in. So far it is a slow salmon season all around.
Gary and Karen fished out of Florence on Sunday where the ocean was delightfully flat, “but the fish were still scattered and difficult to find. Karen landed one Coho and we caught our 24 crabs. We talked to a couple boats with three fish and one that returned with eight keepers but most returned to shore with none or one. The boat with eight fish was in 240 foot water, north off of Sea Lion Caves.”
Captain Rick went out for salmon on Sunday, hooked 8 and landed 4 Coho for the box.
I guess we’ll have to hope for better river runs in the weeks ahead.
Rod Lathrop took good friends out on the Columbia where they hooked into their first sturgeon, which made for quite an exciting day. Along with 3 oversized fish - up to 8 feet; they also got many dinks and one keeper. And snapped this great pic for the memory books.
Unbelievable halibut opening out of Winchester Bay with this 86 lb monster brought in by Capt Rick Mason of Salmon Harbor Charter Fishing. Fishing has been pretty slow since then, although there are always crabbing has been fantastic!
Pacific halibut is back on the list of abundant sport fishing opportunities this time of year along the Oregon coast.
- Sport halibut opens North of Cape Falcon Aug. 3 and will continue every Friday through Sunday until the catch limit is taken or Sept. 30.
- South of Cape Falcon to Humbug Mountain (central Oregon) the all-depth fishery will be open every other Friday through Sunday (Aug. 3-5, 17-19, Aug. 31-Sept. 2, 14-16, 28-30, Oct. 12-14 and 26-28) until the catch limit is reached. If there is at least 60,000 pounds quota left over after the Aug. 3-5 opening, managers may decide to open the all-depth fishery every Friday through Sunday. The nearshore fishery in the central Oregon area (shoreward of 40-fathoms) remains open seven days a week.
- South of Humbug Mountain fishing for halibut continues until Oct. 31.
Gary and Karen found Coho at 240 foot water depth and caught all fish near the surface. Hooked 27 fish, released 7 wild Coho and kept 4 nice sized hatchery fish. Fish were striking and releasing from downrigger, jumping high into the air and spitting the hook. Fun to see them dance on top of the water but disappointing when we couldn’t play them to the boat. They had previously dropped four crab pots south of the jetties in 30-50 foot water that produced a dozen nice crabs in a two hour soak.
Travis Fished out of Coos Bay on a beautiful ocean. Ran out to 330 feet and dropped them in, we were into fish from the get go. Hooked 16, landed 11, kept 6 nice hatchery Coho. Nice big fish too, one about 12#. Lost a 20+ Chinook right at the boat. They fished plug cut both of riggers and lead ran down to the glass house and caught a cooler full of bottom fish
Terry Sullivan went out on the Siuslaw, great bar and ocean.. “we ended up with 3 Coho in the box average sizes.. and lost three with a couple of misses.. great day on the big pond…most all the fish we caught out about 200′ line and 25 ft down”
Chuck took one of his grandsons out, and spent the day drifiting the Umpqua with Lyle Andrews Guide Service, and got out fished by his grandson. “He caught an average of 3 fish to every one of mine, he also go first, most, and biggest and last which was really great. The fishing was not “RED HOT” but we still managed to boat somewhere between 30 to 50 fish with the majority going to my grandson.” Aside from the fishing, they also saw Osprey, a Bald Eagle, lots of river turtles, Blue Heron, and a Black Tailed doe. Great day all around and it sounds like another fishing generation has been born!
Another meeting regarding the Reedsport wave park took place last week, with intense discussions between area fishermen and Steve Kopf of Ocean Pacific Technologies. Fishermen continued to express concern about the location and the potential alterations to the crabbing habitat, particularly with the future expansion of the project to 200 buoys. Many groups in the northwest are choosing to file as intervenors to their local projects, but it appears Reedsport area fishermen have chosen to work with OPT, at least at this stage. While Jim Hastreiter of FERC explained the importance of intervention status, the fishermen’s representatives agreed to “work with OPT on the company’s preliminary application”.Kopf said fishermen didn’t have to agree with settlement talks and that fishermen could still express opposition to future expansions. He also said that it is unlikely the wave project will be moved, in part because the FERC permit only applies to the current location. http://www.theumpquapost.com/articles/2007/07/18/local_news/news02.txt
Lincoln County established a 19-member advisory panel to develop a siting plan for wave energy projects off their shoreline, called Fishermen Involved in Natural Energy (FINE), it is made up of commercial and recreational fisheries. Its mission is to develop a siting plan, not limited to any current proposal or Oregon’s current 3 mile limit; and to review any applications made for those projects. They are also commenting on the Florence project being developed by Energetech America, which uses using an oscillating water column, a very different technology from the other projects on the coast. Like the other projects, the Florence project is also planned on some of the best crabbing grounds on the coast, according to Lincoln County Commissioner Terry Thompson. http://www.newportnewstimes.com/articles/2007/07/13/news/news13.txt
Jeff Farm, Honeyman State Park, has submitted commentary regarding OPRD jurisdiction and administrative rules. Mr. Farm outlined a variety of issues, including possible bentonite pollution from cable installation malfnctions, salvage issues if the buoys collapse or come ashore, wave action alterations that could affect beach erosion or sand deposition, whale migration patterns, vehicle access to beaches, 100 year storm statistics, and tourism related impacts. These comments were submitted before the June 14 Notice of Application was accepted, so it is unclear whether Mr. Farm intends to file for intervention status or not.
The period to file comments, protests, and motions to intervene on the Florence wave park expires August 14. Commission’s website at http://www.ferc.gov using the “eLibrary” link. Enter the docket number excluding the last three digits in the docket number field to access the document. P-12793
John & Sherrie Seymoure checked in with some excellent fishing activity. “Like everyone else out of Winchester Bay the last couple of days (12,13,14 July) fishing was excellent. We managed at least 2-3 keeper Coho’s per day with lots of multiple hookups. We caught all of our fish in about 350-375 ft of water about 25 ft. down on a multitude of different colored hootchies. Thur, Fri best days, Sat was nice until about 0830 and then turned nasty, fog and swells. Didn’t see to many Chinook caught, a few, but far and few between. Wonder where all of the big guys are? No pictures to post, since they probably look like everyone elses! Take care.”
After several good days,
Salmon Harbor Charter Fishing had a mixed day today. “The bite never got red hot like the other day we did manage to hook about 12 fish today but only landed these 3 nice Coho but the crabbing has kicked in big time 33 legal crabs one pull our pots were soaking only 5 hours.”
Gary & Karen of Florence reported that on Monday they “limited in four hours with three silvers and one 10 pound Chinook. We had several long line releases and also some wild fish releases. With the bar closed early we didn’t get out until 10:30 and began catching fish at 12:30 and were on our way home by 3:00. The water is still in the low 60’s and the fish are now scattered from 80 foot of water out to 200 foot. We heard of a thirty pound Chinook caught today near the whistle buoy. We’ve had our best luck heading north from the jaws. Saturday we brought home sixteen crabs from four pots that soaked four hours while we fished. Pots were dropped a mile south of the south Florence jetty in 30-50 foot of water. “
It is really warming up, have heard reports of 57 in the river and 60 to 63 out in the ocean, go figure. With temps like that we could see the tuna come in real close this year. Hooking up with a tuna on spin cast setup would provide for some real arm bending action.
Salmon Harbor Charter Fishing took off out of Winchester Bay on Sunday on a tuna hunt. “We found 60 degree water right outside, but ran to about 27 miles and blue water, put in and trolled straight out to 43 41N 125 03W, picking up fish all along the way. We landed our target of 20 fish. The water ran from 61 to 63 degrees. The hot jigs for us were pink Tuna Terminator, pink/green/yellow and mex/flag Zuker clones. We picked one up on a spinning rig while on a stop with the school below us. Awesome day, ocean and crew!!”
