By Ron Brown & Associated Press
 
February 26, 2009
 
NEAR SHADY COVE, Ore. -- The forecast for West Coast salmon doesn't look good for fishermen.
 
Expectations are for twice as many salmon as last year overall, but barely enough Chinook returning to the Sacramento and Klamath rivers to spawn a new generation.
 
That will likely mean no commercial ocean fishing off California and little off Oregon, no improvement over 2008, when salmon fishermen qualified for federal assistance for the second year in a row. Any commercial fishing will likely be limited to more northern waters, away from those two rivers.
 
Chuck Tracy of the Pacific Fishery Management Council says more food and colder ocean temperatures probably helped the numbers.
 
Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, which represents California fishermen, says Sacramento Basin river conditions still need to improve.
 
Meanwhile, forecasters say this could be the year Rogue River begin to rebound in a big way.
 
"The word that we wanna get across to the public is, things are improving here in the Rogue River. And that's based on our recent counts of some of the younger, aged fish that have returned to the river here this last year," says ODFW Fish Biologist Daniel Van Dyke.
 
Steelhead fishing is still slow in the Upper Rogue, but Van Dyke expects salmon and steelhead runs on the river to improve considerably by 2010.
 
"The real improvement though is gonna be 2010. That's where, and we think for several years, things will be looking good here on the Rogue," says Van Dyke.