Chinook run faltering on upriver Columbia

By Mark Yuasa
Seattle Times staff reporter

The ballyhooed strong return of upriver Columbia River spring chinook — that produced off-the-chart sport fishing in the lower river last month — isn't quite living up to expectations at this point.

"It is possible the run could be late, but as of right now it is confusing with big daily [fish] counts [at Bonneville Dam] followed by small counts," said Joe Hymer, a state Fish and Wildlife biologist. "It is like a moving target, and still too hard to pinpoint it down."

The Oregon, Washington and tribal fishery managers met this past Monday, and reported the run is late timed and has not reached 50-percent passage yet.

The group felt that the updated run size of 200,000 upriver fish was somewhere near the middle of projections, and fish counts at Bonneville need to stabilize in order to get a more definitive estimate.

The preseason forecast was 269,300 upriver fish, and would be the third largest return since 1977.

Through Wednesday, the total count at Bonneville was 74,228 adult spring chinook.

The Lower Columbia closed to sport fishing on April 20, and anglers kept 20,040 hatchery spring chinook and 392 steelhead, and released 3,132 and 62 from 102,972 angler trips.

The nontribal commercial fisheries caught 5,938 spring chinook and released 1,626.

The tribal take depends on how large the return is, so if it stays at 200,000 fish they can catch about 18,000.

Hymer pointed out that Oregon Fish and Wildlife are making plans that could affect fishing in the Willamette River.

"[Today] may be the last day to fish in the Lower Willamette for salmon, but the upper [Willamette] and the Clackamas River will remain open,' Hymer said. "This kind of unpredictability in the run really throws a wrench in things, and doesn't just affect Upper Columbia fish, but it is happening all across the board at the moment."

Fishery managers met Friday and will meet again tomorrow.

Has been the worst year for me so far.  Have come up empty after 6 trips.  Had one hooked but broke off.
I did see a first on Saturday afternoon.  A large bull sea lion in Drano.

Elliot