[5] Huge Jack Count For Fall Run In The Snake

With almost 14,000 adult fall chinook going over Lower Granite Dam since the middle of August, fish managers are pretty much assured that this year's return will include enough wild fish to pass the interim recovery threshold of 2,500. In fact, it's more likely to be about double that number.

The adult fish count is good, but still less than twice the 10-year average and about 2,000 shy of last year's count by now. The 38,000-fish jack count, however is nearly 7 times the 10-year average, and more than four times higher than last year's count at this time.

The high jack count is a trend that was evident in the spring chinook return earlier this year. It is already higher than last year's entire fall jack count (by this date) way downriver at Bonneville Dam.

This year's Bonneville fall chinook jack number is around 109,000 fish, about three times last year's number. Spring jacks topped 80,000, about four times last year's tally.

Does that mean next year's fall run on the Snake will hit more than 50,000 hatchery and wild fish? No one has yet ventured a guess.

Steelhead numbers are also doing extremely well, with around 241,000 (143,000 in 2008) total--with 52,000 wild ones mixed in. About 36,000 wild steelies were counted at the dam by this time last year. In fact, overall numbers are outpacing the 2001 record year at this point.

Harvest managers had estimated about 6,600 wild Snake fall chinook would enter the mouth of the Columbia this year. After accounting for about a 30-percent harvest rate between tribal and non-Indian fishers, that would still put plenty above the dam by the end of October.

Last year, the managers estimated about 6,400 wild falls from the Snake entered the Columbia.

Only 78 wild fall chinook were counted at Lower Granite in 1990. Since then, a combination of hatchery supplementation and improved ocean conditions has boosted the run. Since 2000, wild numbers have been above 2,000, with more than 5,000 returning in 2001.

On Sept. 21, harvest managers reviewed run sizes and downgraded the upriver bright fall run, which they estimated was running four days early, to 203,000 from their pre-season estimate of 270,000.

They also decided that the Bonneville Hatchery tules would come up a bit shy of their expectations--41,000 now, down from 56,500 pre-season.

The managers said most lower Columbia hatcheries were on track to reach broodstock collection goals for fall chinook.

They authorized a late-fall commercial gillnet season for the lower Columbia that is expected to net up to 4,000 more chinook, along with 15,000 coho and 1,600 white sturgeon.

By the end of September, the non-Indian gillnetters were expected to have caught more than 32,000 fall chinook, more than 29,000 coho and 4,600 white sturgeon, with an 8.5-percent expected impact on upriver bright fall chinook.

The managers said coho passing Bonneville were also exceeding expectations, with about 135,000 early stock fish counted by Sept. 30.

Lower river coho were showing up in better-than-expected numbers as well. About 10,700 coho had passed Willamette Falls by Sept. 27. Only about 4,000 passed the dam in 2008 and about 1,000 in 2007.

Managers expect more than 700,000 coho will enter the Columbia by the end of the season.

News on the upper Columbia was good as well. WDFW announced the recreational season for hatchery steelhead was opening on the upper Columbia and some nearby tributaries on Sept. 29.

This year's upper-C run of wild and hatchery-produced steelhead is showing so well that sport anglers are allowed four hatchery steelhead apiece, said Jim Scott, assistant director of WDFW's fish program. More than 33,000 summer steelhead had been counted at Priest Rapids Dam through Sept. 22, well above the overall return's 10-year average of nearly 14,500 fish.

"This is a terrific fall fishing opportunity that also will help further fish-recovery efforts by removing hatchery-origin steelhead and increasing the proportion of wild steelhead onto the spawning grounds," Scott said. -B. R.

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