December 22, 2025 3:05 a.m. 

On Friday, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife announced a temporary rule prohibiting wild spring Chinook salmon harvest on the mainstem Umpqua River and keeping the North Umpqua bag limit the same as 2025.

An ODFW release said from February 1st through June 30th:

*Mainstem Umpqua River: only hatchery spring Chinook may be kept. Harvesting wild spring Chinook – both jacks and adults – is prohibited.

*North Umpqua River: one adult wild spring Chinook per day, ten per year may be kept

*Mainstem Umpqua and North Umpqua rivers: anglers may still retain hatchery spring Chinook on both rivers.

ODFW said this temporary rule is meant to help protect the populations returning to the South and North Umpqua rivers as biologists forecast lower than desired returns of adult wild spring Chinook in 2026. In 2025, just 131 adult wild spring Chinook returned to the South Umpqua River, while returns to the North Umpqua were average.

The release said returns in 2025 and a low forecast for 2026 is triggering the restriction of wild spring Chinook harvest in accordance with the Umpqua River wild spring Chinook salmon harvest sliding scale in ODFW’s Coastal Multi-Species Conservation and Management Plan. Low returns of spring Chinook in the South Umpqua have been continuing in the last five years and have been as poor as 19 adults in 2023. The harvest sliding scale allows for harvest when populations are higher and restricts harvest when runs are trending below desired levels.

ODFW said the CMP was adopted in 2014 by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission. It was developed with help from stakeholder teams within the Umpqua Basin along the Oregon coast.

More information from ODFW is available at: https://www.dfw.state.or.us/