NOAA Fisheries in consultation with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, representatives from the recreational and the commercial ocean troll salmon fisheries, and the Pacific Fishery Management Council, has taken in-season action with respect to the recreational salmon fishery in the area from Leadbetter Point to Cape Falcon. Recreational ocean salmon angling within the Columbia River Ocean Salmon Management Area (Leadbetter Point, Washington to Cape Falcon, Oregon), closes effective 11:59 PM on Sunday, July 26, 2020.
The marked Coho Salmon harvest in this area is expected to approach the quota of 13,250 Coho Salmon by the end of the day on Sunday, July 26. Through Sunday, July 19 an estimated 9,164 Coho Salmon had been landed out of the quota leaving only 4,086 Coho Salmon remaining on the quota. The week of July 6-12, had an estimated 4,031 angler-trips and a harvest of 5,898 Coho Salmon.
The most recent week of fishing (July 13-19) had very poor ocean weather conditions, but catch rates remained near a fish per angler for the boats that did make it out, with a total of 1,384 Coho Salmon landed from 1,558 angler-trips. This week the weather has improved, with good ocean conditions forecast through Friday and catch rates near 1.4 salmon per angler. WDFW provided a forecast for the week of July 20-26 Sunday of slightly less than 4,000 Coho Salmon landed for the week.
Prior to the call, the commercial troll fishery and the Westport recreational fishery offered up an extra 500 Coho Salmon to help insure that the fishery could stay open through Sunday without exceeding the quota. However, the best assessment by fishery managers was that there was no need to request the transfer at this time.
