Hanford Reach Fishing Report (6-27-22)
THE FOLLOWING FISHING REPORT WAS FORWARDED BY PAUL HOFFARTH, WDFW
Sockeye counts at Bonneville continue to climb and exceeded 40,000 on June 26. The same day sockeye counts at McNary exceeded 16,000. Roughly 240,000 sockeye have passed through Bonneville Dam to date. Shad counts are nearing 4,000,000 fish. Summer chinook counts have also increased compared to last year and the ten-year average.
TAC updated the sockeye return to 426,000 and summer Chinook to 66,800 to the Columbia River mouth. Preseason sockeye forecast was 198,000 and summer Chinook was 56,300. TAC will continue to monitor the return and update run size if warranted.
River flows in the Columbia River remain high, ~300,000 cfs, but the fishing is still excellent. You will spend a bit of time knocking the debris off your lines.
This past week, WDFW staff interviewed 436 anglers from 188 boats and 30 bank anglers with a combined harvest of 284 sockeye and 8 hatchery summer chinook. Two adult wild chinook and one sockeye were caught and released. Anglers averaged 1.6 salmon per boat, 8 angler hours per fish. The fishery should continue to improve over the upcoming week.
Based on the data collected there have been 1,908 angler trips for salmon (summer fishery) in the Hanford Reach fishery to date with 1,041 sockeye, 26 hatchery adult chinook, and 2 jack chinook harvested.