Columbia Upriver Springer Run Expected To Meet Forecast

With the upriver spring Chinook run now expected to at least make forecast and catch balances available above and below Bonneville, Columbia salmon managers this week are exploring fishery options and will hold a teleconference early Wednesday afternoon to talk mainstem recreational salmon opportunities.

The count at the dam through yesterday, May 5, is 58,277 – the most this early since 2022 and third most of the past decade – and overall we’re about 10,000 fish ahead of the 10-year average, though it’s too early to say if the 50-percent-passage point has been reached.

The preseason prediction was for 122,500 Upper Columbia and Snake River springers, and managers set the initial March-April season and the two three-day extensions last month based around that figure and after folding in a 30 percent buffer, catch-balancing provisions and ESA impact limits. Now that the U.S. v. Oregon Technical Advisory Committee expects the run to meet forecast, that runsize buffer comes off, per the management plan.

Given good numbers of fish in the system – recent days have seen 7,706, 6,975 and 5,481 Chinook surge through Bonneville and there were relatively strong back-to-back tangle net test fishery catches in late April – expect managers to be cautious with how much fishing they might recommend to ODFW and WDFW director representatives via the Columbia River Compact process.

Keep your eyes peeled this week for a fact sheet that will spell out how many upriver mortalities are available on either side of the dam, how many days on the water and kept fish that that might equate to, any other fisheries that staffers at the DFWs may or may not recommend, and other interesting factoids.