The Fishing Corner

By Larry Dublanko

Keeping up with the changes on the local fishing scene is like hitting a moving target. It is true that the rules around the current salmon fishery seem to be changing often.

For starters, the Willapa Bay and its tributaries have been at the top of the discussion and the big news was that at first the entire system closed to salmon fishing. The latest in this regard is the Department of Fish and Wildlife has now reopened the bay and its tributaries with scheduled salmon season except for the Naselle River. The salmon daily limit is six fish and up to two adults may be retained. No more than one adult may be a wild coho and all Chinook must be released. This measure is effective until further notice. The specific waters affected are the Bear, Middle Nemah, North Nemah, South Nemah, North and Willapa rivers, Fork Creek and Smith Creek.

Initially, this river system was closed to protect the arriving king salmon whose returning numbers were lower than expected. However later last month, the WDFW determined a significant increase in brood stock allowing the hatchery to achieve their production goals. The Naselle River hatchery production is still short of production goals, therefore the Naselle River will remain closed to salmon fishing until further notice.

The retention of fall Chinook is prohibited in all fisheries within the Willapa Bay watershed as a conservation measure in order to focus harvest opportunity on coho salmon.

In the mean time, Grays Harbor follows suit with an all coho fishery except for the Humptulips River. For the month of October and November anglers may keep hatchery kings and all wild salmon (kings and silvers) must be released on this stream. All other Grays Harbor rivers, are exclusively a coho or silver salmon fishery. The biggest discrepancy exists with retention limits.

Anglers would do well to refer to the Fishing Regulations Pamphlet to determine what the retention rules are for the river they are fishing. Each river has a different rule and it is the responsibility of the angler to know the rules of each river.

This information can seem to get rather complicated and somewhat confusing, Anglers will just have to learn how to deal with these measures because it seems to be the current state of affairs with our inland salmon fishery. We had inclinations of this situation during the ocean fishery this past summer. The reality of the matter has come upon us.

Add to the story is a shortened season through the month of November. This simply means we are at the mercy of favorable weather patterns to maximize fishing opportunities. The worst case scenario would be a monsoon to blow out all rivers; and thereby, keep anglers off fishable rivers.

So, a lot of good things need to happen from now until the end of November to cash in on this salmon season. More closures and bad weather would put a major damper on this year’s fishery.