The Coho are here!

I understand your point Steve.

In recent years ODFW has kept the season earlier rather than later as to try and avoid incidental catch of wild coho as much as possible.

The majority of coho we catch here off the central Oregon coast are Columbia River stocks. A good share of them have already passed through this area in August and are near the mouth of the Columbia and some even entering the Columbia at that time.

With large numbers of hatchery coho absent from this area that makes your percentage of accidental hooking and mortality of wild coho go up.

I was just shocked to find out that we were given the opportunity to fish them all the way through August 24th if the quota last that long. And it might especially if the chinook fishing is anything like last year. Some of the charters are getting serious about targeting chinook also.

I personally would wait till later in the season to fish them when they are larger but you could be taking that chance of a closure you mentioned if the quota is met.

If the wild coho continue rebounding the way they have been this factor will become less important and we will see longer and perhaps later seasons on them.

It is possible in the not to distant future, we will be able to retain one fin clipped and one non fin clipped or the first two. Depends on how these resilient fish do.

Good point though!

Well, I guess if a guy/gal has plenty time and money, he/she can fish those early small coho's and the late one's both untill the season closes. ODFW still sells those hatchery harvest tags. I don't have a problem with those tags for coho on a year like this. There will be plenty excess and you might as well eat them.

This gives an oportunity to fish prior to the Buoy 10 season opening. Some folks prefer the extra room out in the salt over the buoy fishery and the central coast is much closer for some than the north coast. For some of us it's in our back yard. :wink:

steelheadslayer,

I'm not so sure we are going to have such unusually large coho that we have had the last couple years. Those were some of the best ocean conditions on record and as I said, unusually large coho. Time will tell.

I don't fish coho in the salt much although it is a fun and productive fishery. Wait a couple months later and we will be catching them in some of those holes I showed you in your back yard. Most of the coho I caught there last year still had sea lice on them. I plan on living there by then.

It will be interesting to see what the average size coho is during the opener. By ***'s estimates, they will be around 5-6 pounds average. I have heard the same estimates/rumors previously, about a pound a week. Add another 5-6 weeks/pounds and that is sounding somewhat realistic of the size when they enter the Columbia River fisheries.

Dano