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53 °F Forecast | Road Cams Sunday, May 2, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend March 25, 2004 Ocean anglers hope to catch their coho and keep them, too By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Frank Cavin mines the ocean waters off Brookings each summer for salmon that he brings home to Medford in a sport-fishing ritual he’s kept faithfully for the past three decades. But last year’s season, the 10th in which coho salmon were off-limits to harvest in Southern Oregon’s chinook-only season, shook Cavin’s angling foundation. Some days Cavin caught and was forced to release close to a dozen hatchery-raised coho, also called silver salmon, but no chinook. Then he would motor back to Brookings with nothing to show for a successful day’s fishing. "I was disgusted," says Cavin, 77. "I told myself I’m not going back to Brookings unless I can catch a silver this year. If not, I’m going to Coos Bay where they can." Cavin may not be driving north any time soon. Federal fish managers are mulling whether Cavin and other Southern Oregon ocean anglers can catch their coho and keep them, too. Advertisement Expanding northern Oregon’s hatchery coho season down to the California border is one of three options the Pacific Fishery Management Council is considering for the upcoming sport-fishing season. The council, which regulates ocean fishing off Washington, Oregon and California, is proposing a coast-wide season for fin-clipped coho that would open June 19 and run until a 75,000-fish quota is reached. The other two options would stop the waters that are open for hatchery coho at Humbug Mountain near Port Orford. That’s the same southern border used for the central and northern Oregon wild coho seasons each of the past five years. If done, it would be the first time anglers fishing out of Southern Oregon could keep hatchery coho since 1993 — the year wild coho were listed as a threatened species in Southern Oregon and Northern California. The option is up for PFMC consideration when the council meets April 4-9 in Sacramento, Calif. Oregon salmon managers believe PFMC isn’t just paying lip service to Cavin’s coho crowd. "I think there’s a real good chance of it passing," says Craig Foster, a fisheries management biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "There seems to be support for it and there’s no opposition to it." Foster says computer modeling shows that extending the fishery to the California border would result in no added loss of threatened wild coho, in part because it theoretically does not increase the number of wild coho caught and released as non-target species. Also, the harvest is expected to be around 3,000 fin-clipped coho — not enough to raise hackles of north coast offshore anglers who catch the lion’s share of the coho quota annually, Foster says. And just as importantly, it helps quell the roar from people like Cavin who are tired of releasing hatchery coho after hatchery coho in the quest to find chinook. "That’s one of the reasons for support for it," Foster says. "You’re handling these fish anyway. You might as well retain some of them." Keeping a coho has been nothing but illegal since a small coho fishery during the 1993 season. Yet the Southern Oregon waters teem with cohos each summer to a point where they have become a nuisance for anglers like Cavin. Cohos tend to swim higher in the ocean water column than chinook, which more commonly hug the bottom. Most chinook fishing in the ocean is done by trolling with lead down-riggers to get the baits and hooks down and keep them at prescribed trolling depths. Often, coho would jump at the bait before it descended into chinook waters, forcing anglers to reel the fish to the boat and release it — preferably while keeping it in the water and without too much handling. "You’d be out there pulling up silver after silver and you couldn’t keep a single one of them — even the hatchery fish," Cavin says. "That’s pretty tough on a guy who just wants to go out, catch a salmon and come back in." The PFMC is not proposing any coho season — for wild or hatchery fish — off California’s waters for either sport or commercial interests over concerns about harming threatened coho there. That makes Brookings instantly attractive to Northern California’s anglers, who were equally frustrated with the coho situation last year. "That should bring those guys up here," says Roy Hammerly from Sporthaven Marina, the hub of the Port of Brookings-Harbor. "We’ve been hoping for this change for a while now. There’s been gobs of silvers out there the past two years." Northern California sport-anglers, however, will share with Southern Oregon what is expected to be a long and productive fall chinook salmon season. The council is recommending that fishing in the so-called Klamath Management Zone from Humbug Mountain south to Horse Mountain near Mendocino open May 15 and run uninterrupted into September. The limit will be two chinook a day during the chinook-only season, and a combined two salmon per day when the coho and chinook seasons run concurrently. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times