Oregon Public Broadcasting

Trout anglers who fish in Oregon’s north coastal streams can keep some of their catches beginning next year. That's according to a new rule just adopted by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Since the late nineties cutthroat trout fishers practiced a policy of catch and release along Oregon’s coastal streams. But soon fishermen along the north coast will have the option to keep up to two fish a day, as long a they're at least eight inches long.

State biologist Robert Bradley is with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. He says there are several state regulations that may be helping the fish thrive.

Robert Bradley: "Changes to the Forest Practices Act improved consideration of fish habitat in forest operations and in addition to that a better understanding of the distribution of the cutthroat has led to better regulations."

Bradley says Fish and Wildlife also adopted stringent regulations for helping fish to navigate past roads and other obstructions to streams near the coast.

In addition,  he says the Oregon Plan For Salmon and Watersheds has helped preserve habitat for trout, as well as salmon.

But several conservation and fishing groups are opposed to the new rule.  Tom Wolf of Trout Unlimited was at the commission’s meeting. He says the trout have different life cycles and each cycle needs to be studied individually for an accurate assessment.

Tom Wolf: "We feel that there’s not enough data right now on the health of the population of sea run cutthroat to allow harvest so we were opposed to that but the commission based on evidence presented by some of the staff biologists which showed that the whole population was stable decided to allow harvest on these fish."

Wolf says Trout Unlimited and other groups will try to gather evidence to support their claims and present it to Fish and Wildlife next year.