Ocean salmon and halibut seasons, coastal coho

[rogerdodger]

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/news/2016/04_april/042216b.asp

on the bright side, 17% more halibut.

on the dark side, ouch.
"Opportunities for harvest of wild coho in coastal rivers will be very limited in 2016. ODFW may also propose very conservative fisheries in the Umpqua, Coos, and Coquille rivers as well as traditional coastal lake fisheries. These decisions will be made in June. Due to recent poor returns in mid-Coast and North Coast areas, ODFW does not intend to propose wild harvest fisheries in areas north of the Umpqua River."

 

[GaryP1958]

No Coho sounds bad for the Slaw I guess I will have to double my early efforts for a Nook they seem to arrive earlier!

 

[rogerdodger]

not certain but if I am counting years correctly, there will also be no clipped coho coming back to the Slaw this year due to a water problem at our STEP hatchery that killed all 10,000 fry...

sadly, with all the chinook fishing pressure here, when this years coho start coming in, there will be carnage, coho are so much easier to catch, barbed hooks are allowed, and lots will be released only to die or become an easy meal for a fur bag...to really help the coho spawning numbers, they would probably need to do a total fishing closure for a few weeks when the main coho run is passing through the tidewater...

last item will be whether they close the lakes (Siltcoos, Tahk, Ten Miles) to all coho fishing and retention, it sounds like they might or at least cut back the seasonal limit (perhaps from 5 to 2 total for the year)...

 

[eugene1]

Interesting, Roger.

I heard Chris Kern, one of the ODFW representatives at the PFMC meeting, state that ODFW would like to maintain coho seasons in areas that have decent runs, in spite of the overall downturn of the coho run. I figured he was referring to Siltcoos and the other coastal lakes.

Keep up the good work and let us know how it pans out.

 

[killigan]

not certain but if I am counting years correctly, there will also be no clipped coho coming back to the Slaw this year due to a water problem at our STEP hatchery that killed all 10,000 fry...

[MENTION=6870]rogerdodger[/MENTION] I had no clue that a hatchery coho run was started on the Siuslaw, when was that implemented? I tried a quick Google search, but did not find anything on the subject. Thanks for all your great info! :thumb:

Cheers

 

[rogerdodger]

Interesting, Roger.

I heard Chris Kern, one of the ODFW representatives at the PFMC meeting, state that ODFW would like to maintain coho seasons in areas that have decent runs, in spite of the overall downturn of the coho run. I figured he was referring to Siltcoos and the other coastal lakes.

fingers crossed, definitely a concern to see the coastal lakes in the list that "ODFW may also propose very conservative fisheries"...

[MENTION=6870]rogerdodger[/MENTION] I had no clue that a hatchery coho run was started on the Siuslaw, when was that implemented? I tried a quick Google search, but did not find anything on the subject. Thanks for all your great info! :thumb:

Cheers

I don't think it is listed anywhere as it is just a small program that ODFW allows STEP to run here, a maximum of coho 10K fry can be hatched, clipped, and released in Ackerley Creek as 3" fry in May, they drop into Munsel lake and spend time there, then OFF to the ocean...ideally this results in several hundred clipped coho passing through the lower Siuslaw each year before turning just above the Florence boat launch and heading back to Munsel Lake...

 

[getsdwyz]

Roger has there been any recent studies on how many hatchery fish are making back to Munsel Lake ?

 

[rogerdodger]

Roger has there been any recent studies on how many hatchery fish are making back to Munsel Lake ?

no and our trap on Munsel Creek didn't catch many coming back last year...the STEP coho hatchery program here at Munsel is really just an educational activity that is a carryover from when they used coho for the eggs-to-fry program in the elementary schools...our steelhead program, on the other hand, is a priority and ODFW will be helping more this year to make sure we get 100K clipped smolts into the Siuslaw system...