Wild spring Chinook harvest prohibited on mainstem Umpqua River, moderate on North Umpqua River

ROSEBURG, Ore – A temporary rule prohibits wild spring Chinook salmon harvest on the mainstem Umpqua River and keeps the North Umpqua bag limit the same as 2025, ODFW announced today.

Feb. 1 – June 30, 2026:

• Mainstem Umpqua River: only hatchery spring Chinook may be kept. Harvesting wild spring Chinook (jacks and adults) is prohibited.
• North Umpqua River: one adult wild spring Chinook per day, 10 per year may be kept.
• Mainstem Umpqua and North Umpqua rivers: anglers may still retain hatchery spring Chinook on both rivers.

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; returns to the North Umpqua were average.

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 continues to work with our partners (the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, and NOAA Fisheries) to share information and address habitat and passage issues for spring Chinook in the upper South Umpqua River. Recent improvements to a fish ladder in the South Umpqua have allowed fish to reach cooler water in the upper basin.

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.