Gillnetters catch 980 in 1st opening

A non-Indian commercial gillnet fishery in the Columbia River opened for seven hours on March 31, yielding 980 spring chinook salmon with an average weight of 12.4 pounds.

Some 737 of the fish were upriver spring chinook and the remaining 243 were fish destined to lower Columbia River tributaries.

The catch, distributed among 94 boats, was about half what the commercial fishery will be allowed when the commercial season for spring chinook ends in early May, according to this week’s run projections.

Gillnetters were on the river again last Tuesday. The compact planned to meet yesterday (Wednesday) to consider an updated spring chinook run estimate, additional commercial gillnet seasons, the lower Columbia River sport fishery and a white sturgeon season upstream of Bonneville Dam.

Because the fishery was limited to hatchery spring chinook salmon with fin-clipped adipose fins, only Columbia River commercial fishers who have completed a state-sponsored workshop to learn live capture commercial fishing techniques could participate. This enables the commercial fishers to release wild salmon and steelhead.

The compact considers a number of river and fish count conditions when making its decision, including:

--River conditions are higher, warmer, and clearer than recent five and ten year averages. Water temperatures have been above normal for March and are now at 48 degrees.

--Outflow at Bonneville Dam on March 29 is 231,000 cubic feet per second, compared to the five year average of 202 kcfs.

--1,000 adult chinook had passed Bonneville Dam through March 28. Based on the preseason forecast and five year average timing, about 300 fish would have been expected at Bonneville Dam by this time. The five year average for 50 percent of the spring chinook passing Bonneville Dam is May 7.

--Winter steelhead abundance typically peaks in mid-March, then declines as the fish move into tributaries. Passage at Bonneville Dam and Willamette Falls indicates the run is as expected.

--The number of upriver spring chinook available to the commercial fishery at this point is 1,760 adult fish. Future run size estimates could alter this number. Four thousand Willamette hatchery spring chinook are available to commercial fisheries for the 2015 spring season, but access to these fish will be constrained by the commercial upriver chinook allocation.

--Test fishing on March 29 test fishery indicated an increase in chinook abundance and a decrease in steelhead abundance, when compared to data collected the week of March 22. The data showed 63 percent of chinook were upriver fish, and the chinook mark rate was 86 percent combined (all stocks).

The compact had earlier delayed a commercial start to the season March 22 because of an abundance of steelhead.

For now, harvest managers are projecting a run of 312,600 adult spring chinook to the Columbia River, just shy of last year's banner return.

Such a return would be just under the 2010-2014 annual average, which is 321,537, according to the 2015 winter-spring joint staff report produced by the the Oregon and Washington fish and wildlife departments. The peak during those years was 471,361 in 2010. The record high spring chinook return, dating back to at least 1938, was 541,002.

The runs, as estimated at the mouth of the Columbia, include the lower Columbia estuary select areas, the Cowlitz, Kalama, Lewis, Sandy and Willamette river systems and the upriver run.

The upriver spring chinook are fish found for hatcheries and spawning areas upstream of Bonneville Dam (river mile 146) in Idaho, Oregon and Washington in both the Columbia and Snake river system.

The upriver stocks make up the largest component of the overall Columbia basin return. The 2015 forecast for upriver spring chinook is 232,500 adults to the Columbia River mouth. This forecast includes 27,500 upper Columbia spring chinook (4,500 wild) and 140,800 Snake River fish (45,300 wild), with the remainder of the run (64,200) comprised of spring chinook returning to mid-Columbia tributaries.

If accurate, this forecast of 232,500 upriver spring chinook would be the sixth highest return since 1980 and 131 percent of the average return observed over the past decade (2004–2013).