Bountiful salmon season expected.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Go to sea for three!

That could well be the rallying cry for port cities on the central Oregon Coast during this summer's ocean salmon season.

For the first time since 1981, anglers in the Cape Falcon to Humbug Mountain management zone will be allowed to keep three salmon per day under regulations proposed last week by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council.

The council is responsible for managing ocean fisheries along the West Coast.

The PFMC recommends the season open June 20 and continue seven days per week through Aug. 31, or the harvest of 110,000 fin-marked coho in waters between Cape Falcon, near Tillamook, and the Oregon/California border.

However, anglers fishing south coast waters between Humbug Mountain, near Port Orford, and the California border will be limited to the traditional two salmon per day.

During September, coho salmon fishing would continue from Cape Falcon to Humbug Mountain, but the bag limit would drop back to two fish per day. The harvest quota during the September portion of the season is 7,000 fin-marked coho. In addition, any balance remaining in the June-August quota would be carried over. The total allowable catch during both segments of the recreational seasons is 117,000.

"Anglers should start sharpening their hooks because this is the largest coho quota since 1992," said Ron Boyce, Technical Resources Program manager for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The liberal catch limits - made possible by the expected return of 1.3 million hatchery-reared coho salmon to the Columbia River - contrasts sharply with last summer's quota of 9,000 coho.

The downside for anglers this summer is that no chinook salmon may be retained in the Cape Falcon to Humbug Mountain fishery - a move prompted by the PFMC's need to protect the beleaguered Sacramento River run of fall chinook.

The only chinook harvest south of Falcon approved by the council was a 10-day (Aug. 29 through Sept. 7) "all salmon except coho" season with a bag limit of two per day in waters between Humbug Mountain and the California border.

The large recreational fishery for ocean coho should provide a boost for coastal communities facing a second straight year of no commercial fishing for ocean chinook salmon South of Cape Falcon.

With no commercial chinook harvest and only a very limited recreational chinook fishery, more chinook will be available to catch once they enter Oregon rivers in late summer and early fall. That, too, should help draw more anglers to coastal towns.

The PFMC recommendation now goes to the National Marine Fisheries Service for approval and implementation into federal regulations. In addition, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will adopt regulations for state waters. State rules typically mirror the federal regulations.