Federal overseers have turned down Oregon’s request to open a wild coho season on the Alsea River this fall.
ODFW hadn’t initially proposed one on the Central Coast system because the forecast was about 300 fish shy of a dated spawning benchmark for the Endangered Species Act-listed stock, but at their late June meeting, the Fish and Wildlife Commission had directed agency staffers to talk to the National Marine Fisheries Service about whether a conservative fishery would be doable.
The answer recently came back as a no.
“NMFS did not authorize a wild coho season in the Alsea Basin for 2026 because escapement is not projected to meet full seeding requirements as required in the federally-approved Fisheries Management and Evaluation Plan (FMEP) for coho fisheries in coastal rivers,” said an ODFW notice emailed out this afternoon.
The statement can also be found on ODFW’s Fall coastal salmon management page.
While Oregon Coast coho are close to being federally delisted, in the meanwhile river and offshore fisheries are subject to NMFS review and approval.
Commissioner Bob Spelbrink of Siletz had led the push to open the Alsea for at least 30 days and a total of three wild coho as something of a short-term work-around to the long-term work of updating that seeding value, which dates back to 1999 and comes from what’s known as Amendment 13 of the Pacific Coast Salmon Fishery Management Plan. This year’s forecast of 14,803 wild coho for the system is less than the plan’s full seeding value of 15,100 fish.
The response from the feds this year will go down as the yin to 2025’s yang.
Last year, Spelbrink and fellow commissioners successfully got NMFS to add “bonus days” for wild coho on the Siletz, Yaquina and Alsea Rivers. That was possible because ODFW and NMFS analysis showed more time on the water was possible without blowing past ESA limits, according to ODFW.
This year, the Siletz and Yaquina, along with the Nehalem, Tillamook, Nestucca, Siuslaw, Coos, Coquille and other coastal streams will again be open for wild coho. The Umpqua will also not open for wild coho, but it and the Alsea are open for fall Chinook.
Coastwide, this year’s wild coho forecast is 218,600, down from last year’s forecasted 289,000.
Also on the wild coho front, yesterday marked the nonselective opener between Cape Falcon and Humbug Mountain. The limit is two a day and fishing is slated to run through September 30 or the quota of 27,500 is filled.
