State will lifts Chetco fishing ban

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BROOKINGS — Chinook salmon anglers will be on Curry County's Chetco River for the first time — yet likely only briefly — beginning Thursday after rains wash away a persistent emergency fishing closure there.
(Correction: See below.)

Rain-swelled flows in the Chetco rose enough today for state fish managers to open fishing upstream of the Highway 101 bridge beginning Thursday for the first time since August.

The closure was meant to protect what was expected to be a low run of wild chinook from harassment by anglers. The fish need enough water in the river to migrate safely.

The flows are enough today to make that happen, says Todd Confer, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's Gold Beach District fish biologist.

But the U.S. Geological Survey has forecast flows to rise dramatically today and through the weekend, and the storm likely will chase anglers off the Chetco as early as Friday.

Fishing will remain closed through Dec. 31 upstream of the Forest Service bridge at river mile 10.5, a place called Ice Box.

The majority of the chinook that pass Ice Box are wild chinook.

The Chetco's fishery is fueled by a hatchery program, with hatchery chinook sporting clipped adipose fins.

The limit remains two chinook per day, of which only one can be wild. Also, only two wild chinook may be kept per angler on the Chetco this year, including tidewater catches earlier in the season.

— Mark Freeman

Correction: The season opens Thursday. The original headline on this story incorrectly stated the length of the season. This version has been corrected.

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