...starting on Monday, September 1st.

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Anglers can soon retain hatchery and
wild coho salmon in marine areas 2, 3 and 4

OLYMPIA - Anglers will be allowed to retain both wild and hatchery coho salmon beginning Monday, Sept. 1, in ocean waters off Westport, La Push and Neah Bay.

Those changes will not affect the ocean salmon fishery off of Ilwaco (Marine Area 1), where anglers will continue to be allowed to retain hatchery coho, but must release wild coho, said Doug Milward, ocean salmon manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).

Anglers were initially limited to hatchery coho - marked with a missing adipose fin - to ensure the department would meet conservation goals for wild coho while extending fishing through the entire salmon season, said Milward.

However, with a month remaining in the fishery, only 55 percent of the coho quota has been reached in Marine Area 2 (Westport), 63 percent in Marine Area 3 (La Push) and 20 percent in Marine Area 4 (Neah Bay).

"With so much of the coho catch quota remaining in each of those three marine areas this late in the season, we can allow anglers to keep both hatchery and wild coho without exceeding our conservation objectives for wild salmon," Milward said.

Through Aug. 24, anglers fishing out of Westport had caught 37,539 coho of the 68,380 fish quota. Anglers fishing off La Push, where there is a coho catch quota of 4,750 fish, had caught 2,981 coho. And anglers fishing out of Neah Bay have caught 3,809 coho of the 19,220 fish quota.

Anglers have a two-salmon daily catch limit in all four marine areas off the Washington coast. Up to two chinook may be retained in areas 2, 3 and 4. However, chinook must be released east of the Bonilla-Tatoosh Line in Marine Area 4. Anglers fishing Marine Area 1 are limited to one chinook as part of their two-salmon daily catch limit.

All ocean areas (marine areas 1-4) are open to salmon fishing seven days a week.

Ocean salmon fisheries are currently scheduled to continue through Sept. 21 in marine areas 3 and 4 and through Sept. 30 in marine areas 1 and 2. A portion of Marine Area 3 will open again Sept. 27 through Oct. 12.

Fishery managers will continue to monitor the ocean salmon fishery throughout the season, and announce any other changes on WDFW's website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/ .

Additional information on the ocean fishery, including minimum size limits and area catch guidelines, is available in WDFW's Sportfishing Rules pamphlet, available at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/

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Fish on...

Todd

Wonder how many of those would be Humptulips fish where they are not meeting escapement.

i hope all of their preseason forecasts were correct.

god forbid some extra fish enter the rivers and either spawn or get caught in river fisheries.

I wonder how many wild coho are killed in mark selective ocean fisheries above and beyond if the angler just killed their 2 and quit the fishery...? If a guy has to sort through 10+ wild fish to harvest a hatchery fish or two... which is the most conservative approach?

The math is easy on that one, jason...if the mark rate is less than 50% then you are probably killing more wild coho than if you just bonked the first two and called it a day...and the mark rate is a LOT less than that in a lot of the ocean fisheries, especially up at Neah Bay.

Fish on...

Todd

i agree that wild fish die in mark selective fisheries (especially with common two hook rigs), but opening it to wild retention because the quota is not getting caught is imo not the right decision. first, many people will still release smaller coho and high grade their limits and this rule change was put in place to increase the number of anglers going to these ports that wouldn't otherwise. these rules were not just to fill the quota but were pushed by the ports to increase business during a normally slower time of year.

i just think that when fishing has been relatively poor for silvers like at neah bay this season increasing either the harvest or pressure is not what's in the resources best interest. par for the course in washington though.

You have to wonder about our overall objectives here. On the coast with no listings some rivers never meet escapement, yet half the people cheer for increased wild retention to meet a harvest quota in an year where they obviously fuked up the return estimate, and the rest of us wonder WTF they are thinking.