Reduce The Limit For Wild Salmon and Steelhead

Fall chinook runs on the Oregon coast this year are very depressed. As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, fish runs in world-famous fisheries such as the Rogue River, Umpqua River and Tillamook Bay are so low that it’s caused alarm bells to go off with the Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. This fall’s poor run comes on the heels of terrible spring chinook numbers on the Rogue, Umpqua and in the Willamette Valley.

You might say, “Hey, I got my fish out here in the river. I saw a bunch of fish caught. What’s the big deal?” Remember, the fall chinook run on the Siuslaw was one of the strongest on the Oregon Coast, but was still only an estimated 30% of last year’s run. Spawning fish estimates throughout the basin show that this year’s run is very poor. I’ve seen it myself on Knowles Creek: I’ve been walking the entire lower creek which is a traditional chinook stronghold. And very few fish are around. In years past, by this point in the season I would have seen 200-300 fall chinook and dozens of redds. This year it’s been less than 20 chinook and less than 10 redds.

This is bringing me around to the point of my article – that it’s time to reduce the statewide limit for wild salmon and steelhead.

How Many Fish Do You Really Need?
If an angler filled their salmon/steelhead tag exclusively with fall chinook (20 fish) at approximately 25 lbs. each that equates to 400 lbs of fish. If you only got 35% fillet (you’d probably get more), that is 175 lbs. of pure meat. A person could eat a ½ pound of salmon almost every day of the year (350 days). Believe me, experience tells me that nobody is going to do this. I got sick of eating salmon every day after just a couple of months. I don’t care how many different recipes you have. Someone out there is going to say “I have a family to support and I depend on those fish.” Fine. Take your wife and kids fishing with you and you’ll still have enough salmon to stuff the whole gang.

Drop The Limit To 10 Wild Fish Per Season
Ten wild salmon or steelhead per season is more than enough. The remaining 10 spots on the tag could be used for halibut, sturgeon or hatchery fish. And if 10 salmon aren’t enough for you, buy a Hatchery Harvest Tag which allows you to harvest 10 more hatchery salmon and steelhead. The cost is $12 and there’s no limit on the number of tags you can buy.

We as anglers and lovers of the resource owe it to the fish to do everything we can to make sure runs remain strong. This is something easy we can do to help save our fish runs. So many times in the past we’ve over-used a resource until it was too late. We shouldn’t let individual greed and the attitude of “I’ve got to get all that’s coming to me” destroy something we all love.

See you on the water,
Action Jackson

(Please send comments or questions to Action Jackson at 268-6944 or www.actionjacksonfishing.com)