State and federal fishery managers announced that as of Saturday, Aug. 26, ocean salmon anglers may keep any coho (unmarked e.g. unclipped or marked/clipped) when fishing from Cape Falcon, OR to Leadbetter Pt., Washington. Wild coho salmon are abundant along the Oregon coast this year, marking the third consecutive year of strong returns. Early season regulations allowed the retention of marked/clipped coho only, but retention has been low due to poor weather conditions and low mark rates.
With a large marked coho salmon quota remaining for the Cape Falcon to Leadbetter Pt. area season scheduled through Sept. 30, fishery managers can add wild coho retention while reducing the overall quota to keep impacts to ESA-listed species less than the pre-season estimates under earlier fishing regulations. The daily bag limit remains two salmon and no more than one can be a Chinook. Additional ocean opportunity for wild coho will soon open south of Cape Falcon, too. From Sept. 1-30 or until the quota is met, ocean salmon anglers may also keep any coho from Cape Falcon to Humbug Mt.
In addition, Chinook fishing reopens Sept. 1 from Cape Falcon to Humbug Mt. after being closed since spring due to extremely low returns of Sacramento and Klamath River fall Chinook. By Sept. 1, these fall Chinook have left the area and Oregon's coastal fall Chinook have begun staging near the coast where they will comprise most of the catch.
All salmon fishing is closed from Humbug Mt to the OR/CA border beginning Sept. 1.
