[3] Fall Chinook Season Opens On Columbia

Harvest managers have closed the books on the summer chinook run and opened the Columbia River to recreational chinook fishing again on Aug. 1, hoping that this year's plentiful fall returns will allow the lower river Buoy 10 fishery to remain open through Labor Day. Last year, the fishery was open only 12 days.

Commercial fishing opened a few days later, with five 12-hour periods allotted to lower river gillnetters. After four fishing periods, the gillnetters had caught more than 7,500 chinook, so their fishery was closed until late August.

Tribal fishermen were getting ready to net their 23-percent share of the fall run above Bonneville Dam, along with 15 percent of the B-run steelhead. Non-Indians (sport and commercial) are allowed 8.25 percent.

Managers expect a fall chinook run of 377,000 fish. That's 170 percent better than last year's return, but 75 percent of the 10-year average. About 50,000 B-run steelhead (hatchery and wild) are expected (8,500 wild).

Their estimate includes about 6,400 ESA-listed wild fall chinook headed for the Snake, about 140 percent of the 10-year average.

The largest component of the fall run will be made up of upriver brights, headed for the Hanford Reach area. About 164,000 are expected this year, up 44 percent from last year's numbers, and about 75 percent of the 10-year average.

Lower river wild fall chinook, also listed under the ESA, are expected to return close to last year's numbers--3,800--only 25 percent of the 10-year average.

Also expected is a near-average return of hatchery tules above Bonneville, about 86,000. Last year, less than 15,000 tules returned to the hatchery above the dam.

Upriver summer steelhead are also expected to return in similar numbers to last year's 319,000, close to the 10-year average.

But coho returns are not expected to fare well this year. Only 165,000 are predicted to come back to the Columbia, compared to last year's 329,000. The early part of the run has been pegged at 96,000, only 32 percent of the 10-year average. The late stock return is pegged at nearly 69,000 fish, about 40 percent of the 10-year average.

Another bright spot this year turned out to be the abundant spring/summer chinook run on the Snake River, where the returns to some hatcheries were excellent.

Recreational fishers were also able to target hatchery (Sawtooth) chinook for more than half of July on the Upper Salmon River, where the season opened for the first time in over 30 years.

This year's 15,900 spring/summer chinook jack count at Lower Granite Dam even topped 2000's high numbers (14,000), which presaged a return of more than 184,000 chinook in 2001.

With ocean conditions in prime shape, next year's spring run to Idaho might top 200,000 fish, almost three times this year's return of 72,000 and nearly seven times the 2007 return. -B. R.

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