Harvesting Wild Spring Chinook On Mainstem Umpqua River Temporarily Banned

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ore. — On Friday, the Oregon Department of Fisheries and Wildlife (ODFW) announced that wild spring Chinook salmon harvest on the mainstem Umpqua River will be prohibited for six months from February 1. The North Umpqua bag limit has also been reduced.

Wild Spring Chonook Harvesting Temporarily Prohibited On Umpqua River

The low numbers of South Umpqua adult wild spring Chinook in 2024- just 111 wild fish, and similarly low runs in the North Umpquacombined with a low forecast of biologists for 2025 triggered a restriction of wild spring Chinook harvest, which is well below average, on the sliding scale of ODFW’s Coastal Multi-Species Conservation and Management Plan (CMP).

Adopted by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission in 2014, the CMP was developed with input from stakeholder teams within the Umpqua Basin along the Oregon coast.

The ban on harvesting, which runs from February 1 through June 30, 2025, has been put in place by ODFW. Only hatchery spring Chinook (jacks and adults) may be kept on the mainstem Umpqua River.

On the North Umpqua River, only one adult wild spring Chinook per day- 10 per year, may be kept. Anglers can still retain hatchery spring Chinook.

The rule has been temporarily implemented to help protect Chinook populations returning to the South and North Umpqua rivers as adult wild spring Chinook return this year.

ODFW is working with the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management as well as the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, and NOAA Fisheries and indicated that information and address habitat and passage issues for spring Chinook in the upper South Umpqua River will be shared between the partners.