Changes, some significant, are in store for hunting and angling in Oregon next year, but anglers want the state’s Fish and Wildlife Commission to take a special look at perhaps the biggest, as-yet undone policy shift in salmon-fishing.

...A return to anglers’ choice for barbed/barbless hooks on the Columbia River.

Fishing on the river’s jointly managed waters from the mouth to the Washington state line upriver from McNary Dam requires the use of barbless hooks for salmon, steelhead and sturgeon (sturgeon during all retention and catch-and-release seasons).

Sturgeon rules aren’t an issue, just salmon and steelhead on the river, and not in the ocean (where barbless is also the law) or any other state waters. Barbed hooks are allowed on the Willamette River and other Columbia tributaries i

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