According to a high-ranking Oregon fishery official the authority has ordered the Chinook retention at Buoy 10 to remain open all through this month. Steve Williams, an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife administrator, said that Buoy 10 is the name given to the popular sport fishery in the lower 16 miles of the Columbia River between Buoy No. 10 and Tongue Point in Oregon.
Williams also said that it is very popular and often yields good catches for owners of medium-size fishing boats not quite large and seaworthy enough to cross the Columbia River bar into the ocean. Chris Kern of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said Friday from Aug. 1-19, there were 18,000 Buoy 10 angler trips with catches of 3,200 fall chinook and 9,200 coho. The daily limit is two salmon, but only one chinook.
Buoy 10 anglers make a big contribution to the late-summer economy of the Long Beach Peninsula. Williams also told that with only 3,200 chinook gone from a 10,700 guideline, prospects for staying open through August look good. With a run of 700,000 coho expected to enter the Columbia, and a catch guideline of 119,100, an excellent coho season is likely.
Commercial catch — Washington and Oregon officials on Friday rescinded a commercial fishing period scheduled for Sunday night from the Kalama River mouth upstream to Beacon Rock. The Columbia River Compact will meet at 11 a.m. Monday to review the commercial catches. The net fleet is scheduled to fish Tuesday and Thursday nights upstream of the mouth of the Lewis River.
