Friday August 28, 2026
OPB —
Last August, Jared Nagreen and Aaron Griffin drove five hours from where they live in Hood River to the Coquille River in Southern Oregon, where fall Chinook salmon populations had recently crashed to less than a thousand fish.
Along with a paddle board, wetsuits and snorkeling masks, they brought some new, unfamiliar fishing gear with them.
“So we got spears on Amazon,” Nagreen said, lifting a pole with three sharp prongs on the end.
They geared up to test out an experimental new fishery the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife opened on the Coquille after salmon numbers plunged from more than 10,000 adults to less than 500 in 2018.
Wildlife officials linked the collapse primarily to the illegal introduction of smallmouth bass to the river, where the non-native species were gobbling up juvenile salmon.
In response, ODFW ramped up an electrofishing operation with the Coquille Tribe to stun and remove as many bass as they could from the river. The agency also started looking for new ways to inspire people to catch more of these invasive bass. They removed catch limits on smallmouth bass and opened the Coquille to spearfishing – a new sport that adds a bit of adventure to removing invasive species.
Nagreen got an email from ODFW alerting him to the invasive bass problem and the new opportunity to go spearfishing.