Ocean salmon fishing forecast a mixed bag

Overall, this year’s ocean salmon seasons are likely to be good between San Francisco and Monterey, Calif., a little tighter than last year off Washington, and a lot tighter from Northern California to Newport, Ore., said Chuck Tracy, salmon staffer for the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which sets ocean salmon seasons.

The council will meet Friday in Sacramento to adopt options for commercial, recreational and tribal fisheries before convening again April 8 in Tacoma to set seasons.

Fish managers say ocean salmon fishing seasons for Northern California and Oregon face sharp cutbacks this year to protect low projected returns of Klamath River wild chinook, a perennial weak spot in efforts to rebuild West Coast salmon runs.

Federal fishery managers also must wrestle with forecasts of low returns of hatchery coho from the Columbia River and Oregon Coast, which are likely to prompt sharp cutbacks for recreational fishermen off Oregon and Washington.

On the other hand, forecasts based on returns of sexually immature adults known as jacks call for a record 1.7 million chinook returning to California’s Central Valley this year, double last year’s returns.

But sport and commercial fishermen may not be able to take full advantage of them, to avoid catching too many of the fish headed back to the Klamath River. Fishing seasons last year resulted in Klamath returns falling 10,000 short of the goal of 35,000 natural spawners.

“Everybody has gotten spoiled the last few years,” said Dave Bitts, a Eureka, Calif., commercial fisherman who is also vice president of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. “We think that it’s normal to be able to go fishing.”

Good returns in 2003, even in the Klamath River, allowed the most bountiful ocean salmon fishing seasons in 15 years.

However, ocean conditions began going sour last year, accounting for the drop in hatchery coho numbers, said Curt Melcher, ocean salmon fishery manager for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Fishermen will have their best chance for chinook off Oregon when sport and commercial seasons open March 15, because Klamath fish are generally out of the area.

Quotas for coho, which account for most of the fish caught by Oregon and Washington sport anglers, could be cut in half, said Melcher. Specifics depend on information being developed in the next few months.