Biologists with the California Department of Fish and Game explained the complicated modeling used to predict the abundance of Klamath salmon that will return to the river to spawn. The equation shows that more 3-year-old fall chinook salmon are thought to be swimming in the ocean than in any other year since 1985. That balances a precariously low number of 4-year-old fish -- the lowest in more than 20 years.

”That means we have more fish to fish on this season,” said Fish and Game biologist Melodie Palmer-Zwahlen at the Humboldt Area Foundation in Bayside. “That's the good news.”

Klamath stocks are a main constraint on how long ocean commercial and sport fishermen can fish, even though they make up only about 5 percent of the overall catch at sea. This year both Klamath salmon and other parameters that govern the season appear to be favorable, including Sacramento River stocks, the lion's share of the catch.

Last year poor Klamath numbers essentially erased commercial fishing off the Humboldt and Del Norte county coasts and severely crimped it for hundreds of miles north and south. Klamath and Trinity river fishermen weren't allowed to keep a single adult chinook salmon in the fall, although fishing for jacks, 2-year-old fish, was excellent. Tribal fisheries were held to a minimum.

Virginia Bostwick, a river sports fishing representative for the former Klamath Fishery Management Council, told the department staff that it's not acceptable to have no fishery in the river again this year. The typical 15 percent of the non-tribal allocation should be allotted, Bostwick said, and the river fishery should not be penalized for what commercial fishermen take above their allocation.

The sentiment was echoed by fisherman Ed Duggan.

”We should at least have some semblance of a season for adults,” Duggan said.

Fish and Game said it will be asking the Pacific Fishery Management Council -- which will craft allocations and seasons in April -- that any Klamath fish that can't be caught by ocean fishermen be added to the in-river fishery. Fish and Game will set a quota on the number of fish that can be caught in the river, and likely adopt the council's recommendation on ocean sport fishing out to 3 miles.

John Driscoll can be reached at 441-0504 or jdriscoll@times-standard.com.