Fall chinook salmon returns to the Columbia River are predicted to fall 17 percent short of record-high expectations.
Robin Ehlke of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife told the Columbia River Compact on Thursday the 2014 run is projected to be 1,258,000 fall chinook compared to the forecast of 1,510,600.
The run is still huge and might eke out the 2013 return to be a new record.
Early-stock coho headed for waters upstream of Bonneville Dam already total 136,800 salmon compared to an expectation of 102,200 through Sept. 30.
Ehlke said the 95,200 angler trips in the Buoy 10 fishery in the Columbia River estuary this year was a high effort.
Anglers at Buoy 10 kept 26,800 chinook and released 15,800 chinook. The coho harvest at Buoy 10 was 50,600 through Sunday, with good catches on-going.
Buoy 10 still is open for coho with a three-fish limit, but chinook retention is closed.
In the lower Columbia River between Tongue Point, east of Astoria, and Bonneville Dam, there have been 108,400 angler trips through Sunday with 19,900 chinook kept, 6,900 chinook released, 4,600 coho kept and 2,400 coho released.
Chinook retention is closed downstream of Woodland through September, but remains open upstream.
No gillnetting — The compact delayed a decision until next week on additional gillnetting in the Columbia River.
The commercial fleet caught 47,730 fall chinook in August and early September, then landed 34,600 chinook and 3,600 coho in two nights of fishing this week.
Sport and commercial fishing seasons are designed to catch chinook from the healthy chinook stocks without exceeding limitations to protect wild-spawning chinook headed for lower Columbia tributaries such as the Washougal River.
Guy Norman, regional director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the coded-wire tags implanted in a portion of the fall chinook stocks have not been read completely and analyzed for this week’s commercial catch.
Once that analysis is complete, the states will know how many of the wild-spawning lower Columbia chinook are available for harvest and will determine if additional commercial fishing can be allowed.
“It’s disappointing for us to be the only group on the river not fishing,” said Jim Wells of Salmon For All, an Astoria-based commercial fishing organization.
Bruce Crookshanks, a veteran gillnetter, complained about the number of sport-fishing guides on the Columbia River.
“The guides are not different from us,” Crookshanks said. “The only difference is the gear type.”
The harvest by guides needs to be split out and not lumped with the catch of individual anglers, he said.
“They need to step up and be responsible as commercial fishermen,” Crookshanks said.
Ocean closure — Salmon fishing off the mouth of the Columbia River will be closed beginning Monday.
Through Sunday, anglers between Cape Falcon in northern Oregon and Leadbetter Point in southern Washington had caught 85 percent of their coho quota.
Friday is the final day of the season for anglers in the ocean off Westport, Wash.
