Salmon and steelhead fishing in the lower Columbia River and Columbia Gorge will close for 2016 beginning Saturday as the sport and commercial non-Indian fall chinook catch has exceeded harvest guidelines.
Washington and Oregon fisheries officials today voted to prohibit salmon and steelhead angling from Buoy 10 at the mouth of the Columbia River upstream to the Highway 395 Bridge at Pasco from Saturday through Dec. 31.
Robin Ehlke, assistant Columbia River policy coordinator for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, told a joint state hearing that non-Indians are allowed a 15 percent harvest rate on upriver bright fall chinook and that the rate will be at 15.46 percent at the end of angling on Friday.
State, federal and tribal biologists say the upriver bright fall chinook run is about 412,700 fish, which is only 71 percent of the forecast made in early 2016, Ehlke said.
A total chinook run of 701,100 adults is projected for 2016 compared to the initial prediction of 960,400.
Washington and Oregon biologists initially proposed just closing chinook retention, but allowing steelhead and coho fishing to continue.
Ehlke said an estimated 10 chinook would die in the process of being caught and released upstream of Bonneville Dam by anglers targeting steelhead and coho.
However, Jeremy Jording of the National Marine Fisheries Service said the federal fish agency could not support any additional deaths of fall chinook with the harvest rate guideline already exceeded.
Although some die-hard anglers fish for salmon in the lower Columbia into November, the season downstream of Bonneville Dam is mostly over. But in the Columbia Gorge, sportsmen chase steelhead and late-stock coho in the three reservoirs into December.
Robert Moxley of Oregon, a member of the bistate Columbia River Recreational Advisory Group, told the hearing there is so little angler effort on the lower Columbia that there is no reason to close coho and steelhead fishing.
“Effort is almost non-existent,’’ Moxley said. “It’s shifted to the tributaries or big-game or waterfowl.’’
Harry Barber of Washougal asked the states what was the chinook split between sport and commercial fishermen.
John North of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said the sharing was intended to be 51 percent sport and 49 percent commercial and ended up 47 percent sport and 53 percent commercial.
