June 9, 2021 10:20 a.m. 

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is enacting temporary restrictions on coastal wild adult Chinook salmon harvest in the Southwest Zone due to low forecasted returns.

An ODFW release said Chinook salmon returns have been below average the past few years associated with very poor ocean conditions beginning in 2014. Although the ocean has improved recently and overall returns may be somewhat higher, the forecasted returns in Southwest Zone coastal rivers remain low this year.

Except for the Coquille Basin, or unless otherwise indicated, restrictions only apply to harvest of adult wild chinook salmon and anglers may harvest adult hatchery salmon until the normal daily bag limit of two fish has been met.

The release said the daily limit for jack Chinook salmon remains five fish per day and does not count towards the adult daily limit. However, once the adult daily limit is harvested, anglers may not continue to fish for jack salmon.

Although not experiencing similar declines as the Coquille River, there will also be restrictions to wild fall Chinook salmon fisheries in a number of other rivers including the Umpqua.

Regulation details are available at: https://myodfw.com/recreation-report/fishing-report/southwest-zone