Chetco fishing remains closed

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Low water on Southern Oregon's Chetco River enticed fish managers today to extend an angling closure there until further notice to protect fall chinook salmon.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will keep closed all fishing upstream of the Highway 101 bridge. That area was set to open to anglers Saturday.

A lack of rain has kept Chetco flows low enough that large numbers of fall chinook are concentrated in the upper tidewater area east of the bridge, according to ODFW fish biologist Todd Confer.

This year's run is expected to be low, and the closure is designed to reduce these chinook's vulnerability to over-harvest.

The closure will be lifted once a freshet raises river levels and allows chinook to move upstream, according to the ODFW.

Waters downstream of the bridge remains open to salmon and steelhead fishing, with the limit of two chinook per day but only one can be a wild chinook.

Only two wild chinook can be kept per angler on the lower Chetco tidewater this season.

— Mark Freeman

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