Thanks to Stacie L Kelsey for passing this along:

Easy,
Tell me this is a bad April Fools joke! I have been hearing rumers that changes were in the works and that a total closure was possible from the Bonni to the Bouy, so at least they have left us some window for fishing!!

I hope it is not true too. Could be a joke. I think we are going to find out for sure tomorrow.

my understanding was that the original season was slated to go to may 15. I've been debating buying a ticket home to hit the last weekend (may 9-12). looks like I'll be rolling the dice on a non-refundable ride?!!

For Immediate Release Tuesday, April 01, 2003

Columbia River between I-5 and Bonneville Dam to close to spring chinook fishing

PORTLAND - Oregon and Washington fishery managers decided today to close the Columbia River to spring chinook fishing from the Interstate 5 Bridge to Bonneville Dam effective Sunday, April 6. The fishery below the I-5 Bridge was reduced to four days per week beginning April 6.

Anglers may fish for spring chinook below the I-5 Bridge Wednesdays through Saturdays until further notice. The fishery is scheduled to close May 15.

Anglers have made 50 percent more angler trips this year compared to this time last year and landed 9,500 hatchery and wild spring chinook compared to last year's 3,800. As a result, they have used half of the allowed "impact" to upriver wild spring chinook listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.

"If we didn't take this action today, we would have had to close the fishery entirely by mid-April," said Steve King, salmon fishery manager for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "We want to keep the fishery going until we get a run update later this month."

The following rules were adopted Tuesday afternoon:
Effective Sunday, April 6, the Columbia River is open to the retention of adipose fin-clipped chinook, adipose fin-clipped steelhead and shad Wednesdays through Sundays from the mouth at Buoy 10 upstream to the I-5 Bridge. The Columbia River is closed to chinook, steelhead and shad retention from I-5 to Bonneville Dam. All other permanent and temporary rules related to catch limits and gear restrictions remain in place.

The absence of an adipose fin, a small fleshy fin located between the tail and the dorsal fin, marks the fish as hatchery bred and available to take home.

Fishery managers will meet again Tuesday, April 15, at 2 p.m. to reassess the Columbia River spring chinook sport fishery. At that time, they also will review the number of fish that have passed Bonneville Dam. So far, the dam counts are strong and exceeding expectations. According to King, the preseason forecast of 145,400 may be increased which could lead to additional fishing days.

Fish managers set the Columbia River spring chinook fishery based on the number of fish expected to return from the ocean and the allowable impact to wild stocks. "Impacts" are the unintended mortalities associated with handling and releasing wild fish. A 2001 spring chinook management agreement between the states of Washington and Oregon, NOAA Fisheries and the tribes set the allowable impact levels on the upriver wild fish. The allowed sport fishery impact is 1.11 percent of the total wild run. The sport fishery impacts to date total 0.55 percent.

Much of the fishing effort has been centered in the Columbia River gorge because of higher success rates and clearer water. However, by fishing upstream of the Willamette River mouth, anglers increase the likelihood of handling a upriver wild spring chinook. Biologists estimated that 109,800 spring chinook destined for the Willamette River will enter the Columbia. With muddy water conditions in the Willamette and in the Columbia below the Willamette, anglers moved upstream the past few weeks.

As of March 31, anglers made 77,600 fishing trips to target spring chinook in the Columbia. In those trips, anglers landed 9,500 spring chinook and retained 6,000 hatchery-bred fish. In 2002, anglers made 40,800 trips by this time, landed 3,800 spring chinook and retained 2,100 "keepers

Sad to say, it is not a joke.

I called region 5 WDFW and was told about the closures that will take place starting Sunday April 6th. I was told the following:

The area from the mouth to I-5 will close to fishing on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays starting this coming Sunday, April 6.

The area from i-5 to Bonneville will close starting Sunday April 6.

Wind river and Drano will remain open for fishing.

The above is subject to change.

Giz...

sorry to be obtuse, but does this mean the river will not fish this Sunday, 4/6?

Did I read that right? They are saying it's because of increased sport pressure and not from the gillnetters taking too many...?

If so it's hard to believe...

I smell a cover up by our net happy folks on the Commision, that in my opinion should be standing in an unemployment line, not making a good living off of my tax dollars....


We, as sportfishermen, need to unite!!!

Funny, why didnt they announce this before i renewed my licence? Hmmm. Insert f-word then b-word with an s. I fish out of Longview and ill tell you out of 7 trips ive hooked one native.And the pressure is nothing like last year. Ive seen 2 thats right 2 caught out of hundreds of boats in the last two three weeks.Theres been some hot days but the fish havent really shown up yet in numbers, oh and they will show up, as soon as they close it down, just like last year they got nervous on there forecast(gillnetters get quotas based on FORECASTS) sportsman get quotas based on real numbers. So the netters get the pickens and we get the stragglers. Dfw is getting nervous that thier FORECAST has been too high, so theyll resrict it to 4 days and then close it down and then what do you know, there will be 20,000 fish going over Bonneville a day, i guess we will open it back up next week when the numbers fall and oh goody well let the netters back in and everyone will be happy. Im too pis$ed off to type anymore.

There still is not any info about this on the WDFW site....

Still looking to me like a good April 1 joke????

IT'S TRUE!
Confirmed by region 5.
The modified schedule goes into effect this Saturday, 4/5 at midnight.
Weekend plans shot.
I am so pi$$ed!

I got this E-mail last monday from my dad who lives in Cathlamet
"Howdy you two, hope all is well, fishing has really picked up so if you want
to get into some great fishing better get down in the next week or two. Heard
they might close the season early because Commercials took to many. Saw a
guide boat catch several nice big fish right behind the house. Fish really big
this year several over 30 lbs and most around 20. Got the boat fixed this
morning and anxious to get it wet. If I can get out in the next few days will
give you a report."
Its amazing to me how the State uses sports fishermen as fall guys and never seem to mention the commercial nets. How many unclipped springers have they killed in the nets?
Ramprat

How many of you have been checked by a biologist this year down there. I've been down there 7 times this year and have not seen a biologist yet. How in the heck do they know I got a fish or not. They must take all the boat launch tickets multiply it by 4 and carry the 2 divided by the number of fingers on their left hand and come up with the number of fish we got. HOLY SMOKES those idiots drive me nuts. If they're gonna screw me at least the could give me a kiss when they're done.

How many of you have been checked by a biologist down there? I've been down there 7 times this year and have not seen a biologist yet. How in the heck do they know I got a fish or not. They must take all the boat launch tickets multiply it by 4 and carry the 2 divided by the number of fingers on their left hand and come up with the number of fish we got. HOLY SMOKES those idiots drive me nuts. If they're gonna screw me at least the could give me a kiss when they're done.

No joke.

http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/fish/regs/fishregs.htm

I love the wording. There is no mention of commercial net impact on protected fish.

I am glad I haven't bought a new license yet for my wife and I. We will just wait a bit and buy it last minute, if need be.

Actually, I was told of this closure about a week ago. A guy I know who works for the department (Joe Hymer) told me this closure was coming. His story was quite a bit different from the "official" press release. Joe told me that they accidentally let the nets take too many fish and that as a result, the sporties were gonna get screwed. Think about that next time you hook one of those big unclipped wild/hatchery springers. Think about weather or not you're gonna release it......

Okay, the wording here has me a bit confused and maybe somebody can clear it up for me. Is it leagal to fish below the I-5 Bridge ON Sunday April 6th??

As I read it, the river is open the rest of this week, until Saturday at midnight. Starting at midnight on Saturday it is illegal to fish anywhere on the mainstem Columbia River from Bonneville Dam downstream to Buoy 10. This includes anytime Sunday, April 6, Monday April 7, and Tuesday April 8. So, fishing on the mainstem CR on Saturday is okay but not on Sunday.

The mainstem Columbia River from I-5 downstream to Buoy 10 will open again on Wednesday, April 9 and remain open until midnight, Saturday, April 12. The stretch between I-5 and Bonneville Dam will remain closed until further notice. The bag limits remain the same - two adults.

why the heck is it closed for shad?

I already have my vacation set for the end of may.

Hope it opens up again soon.

Your not to far off. I dont remember the exact formula but its something ridicules like that.

Don't know if this is really true or not but this is what I have heard. Those planes that fly up and down the river are actually counting the nuber of boats in the river. Then they apply the average of the boats checked by the fish counters to the number of boats in the river. Example, if the plane counts 1,000 in the river on a given day and the checkers look at 100 boats that retained 50 fish, then they will figure 500 fish retained for the 1,000 boats counted that day.

Like I said, this is just something that I have heard on a few occasions and I do not know if this is true or not. Has anybody else ever heard of this before???

Here is an expalnation of the early closure.
http://www.columbian.com/03272003/sports/23764.html

Kind of kills my plans.

It feels like my dog just died. I don't have a dog, but if I did and he died, this is how I would feel.

This whole thing stinks of the Fish and Wildlife Commission being in bed with the commercials. Most of the members are either former commercial fisherman or believe that they need to be kept fishing no matter what. It's a total crock of crap and one more time the sport fisherman get the short end of the stick. It's funny how they can actually know the numbers much better with the commercials and yet they never close them until "after they realize they got more than they should've". Then they use estimation and ridiculous formula's to calculate what we've caught. Here in Puget Sound the Commission gave 80% of the non-indian 50% share to a group of 17 commercial boats. The sport fisherman get the remaining 20%. That means we'll probably have about a 4 to 7 day fishery and it will close. If anybody has a great idea as to how we could effect a change in this kind of crap I would love to be part of it.

Sorry. I was so angry I forget to note that the Puget Sound fishing I was referring to was the prawn season.

Criminal waste of state resources, that. The fish were given away to the commercials at less than it costs to produce them in the hatcheries, then the sport fishery that provides a return to the economy of many times what is invested gets cut off, right through the weekend, in this year of already lousy economy. And the gas tax is going up. Where is frickin' sue happy WT on a real issue

I'm too old to get pissed off AGAIN!!

SOOOOOO...........THANKS, GUTZ!! Made me laugh! (can relate to the feeling too!)

I couldn't agree with you guys more. I was fishing near longview last week on Thursday through Sunday and never once did I see a fish and game person. I did see some fish caught but nothing too extraordinary. I think all of us want to protect the resource but this seems way too restrictive. The springers are just starting to come, it's only now April! I think it's ridiculous!

RM

I saw what happened to the loggers when the crap hit the fan, hell I grew up in it and doing it. But it was time for a change (way overdue by some counts). And the timber industry is way better than it used to be. I know its not perfect...not my point.
I will be very happy when the last of the commercial fishing boys goes the way of the profitable logger.
Oh I won't hold my breath that they will all be gone someday, I know better than that, There will be some that will become "enviromentaly friendly" and find markets willing to pay what their product will cost. And thats fine by me.
But for the majority it is already to the point that they can't hardly exist with out "corporate welfare" from the state and feds, and I guess when enough of a rukus is raised that will be cut off too.
I JUST WISH IT WAS TODAY!!!!!!!
It just amazes me that these idiots will keep fishing when the price is so low they lose money, or sure as hell should be! How friggin long before these guys die out? Or the powers that be reorganize them to some type of "sutsainable harvest" type plan?(Hold yer breath)
Hmmm methinks I sound like a broken record
If you use up the resource then you don't have a resource to use, If there is no resource THERE IS NO REVENUE! At some point can someone get this through to the idiots making the decisions( they have such a stellar track record for making good calls for the betterment of the species( I can't find a puking smiley to put here))

Yeah chalk me up as P.O.ed
The 19th is my b-day and the trip to St Helens was my Present....

Cabo in Oct

Just too bad to close almost all the fishing on the Columbia. And yes , I feel the same as you do micropterus 101, I too go down for the shad and have to pay the price. Things could change latter if the upper runs get better, look what they've done when they closed the the dam to get on the island to fish the faster water due to terrorist scare. At least they haven't shut down the whole stretch of the wind for fishing. Guess I'll have to stick with the trout fishing.

Robert

Was at Bobs yesterday.They had a news bulletin on the counter from wdfw.Stating the steelhead and shad regs. would be unchanged.it will still be open.