Limited coastal wild coho seasons set to open Sept. 15

Just posted on Ifish by Bill Monroe
Conservative harvest opportunities will be allowed within the Tillamook, Nestucca, Siletz, and Coos river basins. Basin-specific seasons, quotas, bag limits and other regulations can be found on the MyODFW website at https://myodfw.com/recreation-report/fishing-report/southwest-zone

 

Great news!

Lots of small print in the regs updates......

Too bad that the Nehalem Bay is not included.

And Yaquina!

Also Siuslaw and Umpqua.

Surprisingly conservative harvest season for the rivers/bays, given the abundance forecasts for OCN coho this year. Meanwhile, those with ocean-worthy boats get to keep between 14-20k wild coho in the ocean for the non-select season. The local residents who cannot afford an ocean-worthy boat get the shaft, just like they have since 2016.

How can we expect local residents to hold a vested interest in the recovery of wild coho stocks if they're basically shut out of the fishery, while those with the money can go out and kill em on the ocean? How about shuttling 1k of the ocean non-select quota over to the bays/rivers and throw the local residents a bone by allowing them to keep a fish? I'm not privy to the ODFW/NMFS negotiations on these seasons, but the disparity between the huge non-select quota on the ocean and the pittance of a quota for a few rivers/bays does not make for a positive public image for ODFW.

I don't feel shafted but since they're opening Coos Bay for coho, I'm biased.

I would think if ODFW and the NMFS were to move a thousand coho from the marine quota to allow more freshwater angling, all those fish would be snatched up by "salmon tourists" from out of state (it's what happens when they increase the daily or annual catch limits on chinook down this-a-way).  That doesn't garner local interest in species recovery - unless you own a motel.  Just sayin'.