Spring chinook angling open this weekend

Sport fishing for spring chinook salmon will reopen this Saturday and Sunday (May 26-27) on the lower Columbia River below Bonneville Dam.

Fishery managers from Washington and Oregon agreed to reopen the fishery for those two days to boat and bank anglers from Buoy 10 to Beacon Rock. Bank anglers will also be allowed to fish from Beacon Rock upriver to the deadline at Bonneville Dam.

The daily limit is two adult hatchery salmon, two hatchery steelhead, or one of each. However, anglers may retain only one chinook salmon as part of their daily limit. All wild salmon or steelhead with an intact adipose fin must be released.

Anglers are expected to catch about 825 hatchery-reared spring chinook, including 715 from upriver stock, during the two-day opening, said Cindy LeFleur, WDFW Columbia River policy manager. The spring chinook fishery below Bonneville Dam has been closed since April 13, when the last fishing period ended.

"There's a chance we'll be able to open the fishery for some additional days after this weekend, but that all depends on next week's run update," she said.

The current projection of spring chinook headed upriver beyond Bonneville Dam is 216,500 fish. Fishery managers will meet next Tuesday (May 29) to determine whether that projection is still on track.

LeFleur said that the catch allocation above Bonneville Dam in the Columbia and Snake rivers has been met, so additional fishing opportunity is limited to the lower Columbia River.