Early 2012 salmon, steelhead and sturgeon fishing seasons are now set for the lower Columbia River, giving anglers some hard information on which to plan trips.
Expectations rate as good for the lower Columbia's early returning chinook fishery this year, but the boundary river's sturgeon outlook is less optimistic.
And, as is customary in late January, Washington halibut fishers got their first indication of how the coming season will take shape and the news is good. Allocation figures put out by the International Pacific Halibut Commission this week promise that 2012 spring flattie opportunities will likely be much like last years.
These days when numbers hold the line, that's cause for celebration.
COLUMBIA SPRINGS
This year's upriver spring chinook return to the Columbia River is expected to number 314,200 fish, which, if they all come in, would be at least the fourth largest run on record.
These salmon generally are bound for the upper Columbia Basin above Priest Rapids Dam in Washington or to destination streams up the Snake River in both Washington and Idaho.
Additional spring chinook stocks return to several Washington tributaries below Bonneville Dam, including the Cowlitz River as well as the Beaver State's Willamette River.
For comparison, the 2011 run's forecast strength was 198,400 early upriver chinook and the actual run eventually surpassed pre-season expectations though high spring flows kept angler catches in baulk.
With the aegis of the federal Endangered Species Act protecting the natural origin or so-called wild specimens of these runs, fishers with hook and line will be allowed to retain only hatchery or cultured-origin spring chinook that are conspicuous by of their lack of an adipose fin.
This fatty appendage is clipped off at their natal hatchery prior to release. Hatchery-origin adults surviving their swim in the North Pacific Ocean upon their return have a healed vestigial bump where the fin would be.
Unclipped or non-marked springs are deemed wild and must be release quickly without injury.
Similar legal status and mandates govern angler handling and disposition of upriver-bound Columbia and Snake River steelhead in the lower river at the same time.
Eyeing current and anticipated snowpacks in the greater basin, Washington managers are predicting a good early salmon season with the convergence of moderate flow volumes and large numbers of chinook.
COLUMBIA STURGEON
Unfortunately, this spring's picture for sturgeon fishing on the lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam isn't so rosy.
Fishers, for the third straight year, face declining white species numbers will be angling under a yet-again lowered catch ceiling and with fewer fishing days than 2011.
Biologists from Oregon and Washington report they have seen a nearly 50 percent drop-off in the last nine years in the numbers of legal slot length range (38-54 inches) fish.
Fingered as principle causal factors for the sturgeon slide are sea lion predation that has been on the upswing as well as a noticeable drop in the ancient fish's forage, specifically smelt and lamprey.
No matter what the adverse influences are, policy makers are forced to deal with their consequences first by reducing the direct human take. Then they can provide focus on dealing with what's ailing the fish.
This year's agreed-upon harvest cap for the lower Columbia is 9,600 white sturgeon, 38 percent lower than 2011's catch limit. This follows 30 and 40 percent reductions in 2011 and 2010, respectively.
Under a Columbia Compact accord, the two states have agreed to an 80/20 apportionment of the non-tribal catch with the lion's share going to the personal use or recreational side.
Under that basic formulaic split, recreational fishers will get to catch a maximum of 4,160 white sturgeon in the estuary up to the Wauna line, 2,080 whites from Wauna to Bonneville and between 1,768 and 2022 fish in the waters of the Willamette River.
Managers say they can make adjustments within the personal use quotas on the mainstem to forestall quota-driven closures. But if the fishery goes over its annualized limit those sturgeon caught in excess of the cap can be deducted from the next year's harvest quota.
Lower Columbia sturgeon numbers are expected to eventually be helped by a ban on the retention of sturgeon in Puget Sound, just imposed by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission.
Tag recoveries indicate that as many as a third of white sturgeon that have been caught in Puget Sound estuaries are prodigals that wandered out of the Columbia River.
Amid the talk of downturns, there is brighter sturgeon news elsewhere on the Columbia. Monitoring has found that even as recreational fishing under restraints has gone on above Bonneville Dam, sturgeon numbers there are on the rise.
Take home guidelines have not yet been set for these "pool" fisheries, but anglers may currently fish those reaches according to permanent regs.
To read the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission's 2012 directive on Columbia River sturgeon go to wdfw.wa.gov/commission/policies/c3001.html.
HALIBUT OUTLOOK
Though continued declines in halibut catches elsewhere in the North Pacific are concerning to policy makers of the International Halibut Fisheries Commission, fairly stable stock numbers on the south end of their range enabled the panel to hold the line on the overall catch allocation for stakeholders plying waters off the lower Forty-Eight States.
The IPHC ratified the Pacific Fisheries Management Council's catch sharing plan for halibut in Area 2A so looking forward to the 2012 season, Washington personal use (sport) halibut anglers will be fishing on a 21.5-percent share of the 989,000-pound Area 2A allocation.
That is a 2,379-pound decrease from last year's 216,489-pound Washington personal use fishery quota.
Compared to the sport allocation of 214,110 pounds of flatties set aside for hook and line fishers north of the Columbia River, this year recreational anglers off Oregon and California (south of Columbia River sub-zone) will fish on a 203,783-pound allocation.
2012 treaty fishers in Area 2A will have a combined 346,150-pound quota (321,650 pounds for commercial sale plus 24,500 pounds of halibut for ceremony and subsistence).
In the same waters non-treaty commercial fishers from California to Washington get a chance to catch up to 224,957 pounds of flatties and there is a halibut incidental catch cushion for the sablefish long-line fishery.
Washington's sport (personal use) fishery is managed in four major catch quota zones, including three management areas on the Pacific Coast and one zone covering so-called inland waters from the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca to mid-Puget Sound.
Sport halibut enthusiasts can expect Washington's 2012 recreational seasons to be announced by about the middle of March.
Doug Huddle, the Bellingham Herald's outdoors correspondent since 1983, has written a weekly fishing and hunting column that now appears Sundays. Read his blog and contact him at http://pblogs.bellinghamherald.com/outdoors.
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