08/02/01

ASTORIA, WA -- With state biologists predicting that 2001 will go down in the books as a banner year for Columbia River coho salmon, nearly 500 boats turned out at the mouth of the river Wednesday to find out whether opening day would live up to that promise.

"I don't think we've ever seen a bite like this so early," Steve King, salmon harvest manager for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said of the day's fishing.

The bumper crop of salmon expected to cross the Columbia River bar in the next four months represents the abundant survivors of ocean conditions that turned around in salmon's favor since the harsh years of El Nino.

The crowd of anglers on Wednesday checked in about 2,000 coho and a handful of larger chinook salmon, according to state officials.

"We need to enjoy it while we can," King said. "We don't know what happens out in the ocean, but whatever's happening is very good for salmon. There's something amazing going on. How long it will last we're really not sure."

At least 1.1 million coho are expected to return to the Columbia this year, King said. That total is four to 15 times as many fish as in any year since 1991. Before the run ends in late fall, it has a chance to exceed the 1.5 million adult coho counted into the lower Columbia in 1986, the biggest run since record-keeping began in 1938.

More than 90 percent of the total coho run are fish that were raised in hatcheries; the remaining are wild coho. Anglers are allowed to keep only hatchery fish -- those with a clipped adipose fin, distinguishing them from wild coho.

Coho are the bellwether of ocean conditions among salmon. They go to sea in the spring and return the following summer, weighing an average of five to 15 pounds. Chinook salmon, which can grow to 40 or 50 pounds, spend three to five years at sea.

Wednesday's turnout was unusually high for an opening day at Buoy 10, a well-known fishing area between the river's entrance and Tongue Point, east of Astoria.

Later in the month, nearly 2,000 boats will dot the water on weekend days. Typically, few boats fish the Buoy 10 opening day, since the ocean beyond the buoy also is open from Sunday through Thursday. The ocean will close in coming weeks, once a quota of 102,500 coho is reached.

However, the bay is far calmer than the ocean, and rumors have run rampant that the river's mouth has far more salmon than expected this early in the season.

For several weeks, sturgeon anglers have reported catching salmon on sturgeon gear, unusual because sturgeon fishermen anchor their bait on the bottom and let the fish come to them. Salmon prefer to chase bait.

King said the state is eager to have more salmon caught than the 208,700 coho and 11,600 chinook taken in 1991, the last year of an unusually high run.

Surplus hatchery fish that go uncaught are killed. Those unfit for human consumption will be sold for pet food or used to fertilize Northwest rivers. Edible fish will be used by needy families statewide through the Oregon Food Bank.

Anglers are allowed two salmon per day until Aug. 16, but only one of them can be a chinook. On Aug. 16, the limit goes to three, including one chinook daily.

Buoy 10 is a marker on one of the world's most dangerous river bars. Anglers fish only on the incoming tide, which calms the swells. On the outgoing tide, ebbing water tends to build up beneath incoming breakers and creates a maelstrom at the river's entrance.

Also, the coho surge in and out with the tide.

By midmorning Wednesday, Dan Hamilton and Carl Oswald of Vancouver, Wash., had released two wild fish. But with a legal coho in the fish box, they weren't upset about their initial luck.

"We're having fun anyway," Oswald shouted.

Bill Miller, a fishing guide from Aloha, agreed.

"I've never seen it like this so soon," Miller said.

He had a boatload of buddies with him who were passing on the surest way to catch a coho -- by using bait. Miller's friend, Ted Wade of Portland, caught a keeper using only a lure.

"It's more fun," Wade said. "We get to keep fishing longer." You can reach Bill Monroe at 503-221-8231, by mail at 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland, OR 97201, or at billmonroe@news.oregonian.com.