Salmon fishing will reopen Thursday, Sept. 15 in two portions of the lower Columbia River — at Buoy 10 and between Reed Island and Bonneville Dam.
Washington and Oregon fishery managers agreed Tuesday to permit fishing for hatchery-origin coho at Buoy 10, the lower 16 miles of the Columbia downstream of the line between Tongue Point in Oregon and Rocky Point in Washington.
The daily bag limit will be three hatchery (fin-clipped) coho. All chinook and wild coho must be released.
The states also will reopen the portion of the Columbia from the eastern tip of Reed Island, east of Washougal, to the deadline at Bonneville Dam.
The daily bag limit will be two salmon, either two hatchery coho or one hatchery coho and one chinook. Any chinook, fin-clipped or not, may be retained.
Salmon fishing in the lower Columbia has been closed since Sept. 2 after the states realized catches of naturally spawning tule-stock chinook at Buoy 10 in August greatly exceeded projections for the entire fall season.
Jeff Whisler of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said there is almost no chance of that particular stock of fall chinook being caught upstream of Reed Island.
A small number of those chinook might die in the process of being released by Buoy 10 anglers targeting coho, but the number will be fewer than 100, Whisler said.
Salmon fishing in the entire lower Columbia, from Buoy 10 to Bonneville Dam, will reopen on Oct. 1.
Fishing also is open upstream of Bonneville Dam with state sampling indicating a good success rate.
