Salmon Season Extended On Lower Columbia, Gorge Pools; Chinook Back In B10 Bag

Four more days of salmon fishing opportunity are coming to the Columbia from the mouth of the big river upstream to the Tri-Cities, WDFW and ODFW managers decided this morning.

Chinook are back in the bag September 18-21 from Buoy 10 up to the west Puget Island line, and king and coho fishing from that line up to the Highway 395 bridge is also extended those same dates, this Thursday through Sunday. Only hatchery coho can be retained below the Hood River Bridge on the mainstem Columbia.

“I like that extension keeping people on the water while Chinook are still around,” said ODFW’s John North, representing agency Director Debbie Colbert, during a Columbia River Compact call this morning.

The reopener and extension come after the U.S. v. Oregon Technical Advisory Committee downgraded the overall adult Chinook run by 13 percent earlier this week, mainly due to weaker than expected Bonneville Pool hatchery returns. A total of 637,840 kings are now expected to the mouth. Still, catches are expected to remain within available Endangered Species Act impacts for this season.

Staffers at ODFW and WDFW predict that anglers will retain 150 Chinook at Buoy 10 over the next four days, 1,000 from the west Puget Island line to the Warrior Rock-Bachelor Island line, 3,000 from there to Bonneville, and 1,600 from the dam to Highway 395.

Today was otherwise scheduled to be the last day of salmon angling from Warrior Rock to Tri-Cities. ODFW’s John Whisler said that this year’s fall fishery has gone according to plan, and now managers were at the point to consider if more opportunity was available. There was, and today’s fact sheet mentions another CRC call next week, but expectations that 2024’s liberal extensions might be seen again were tempered by both DFWs.

Staff at both agencies worked on the proposals well ahead of today’s teleconference to be able to offer recreational and nontreaty commercial time on the water so soon after the call.

“We’ve been preparing for this for a week for both fisheries,” said Ryan Lothrop, WDFW Columbia manager, about being able to file rules with his state’s rules coordinator.

As for the Columbia, it has been throwing some curveballs this year, including “record-setting” temperatures for September at The Dalles and John Day Dams. WDFW’s Charlene Hurst, representing Director Kelly Susewind, said that the state Department of Ecology had recorded temps that convert to 73.94 and 74.3 degrees at the dams, respectively, and hot water appears to have been slowing the run’s progress upstream to, mainly, the Hanford Reach but also the Snake River, a worry for Idaho managers.

During public comment, Reach guide John Plughoff expressed concern that the McNary Dam count was 40,000 upriver brights behind where it was at this same time in 2024.

Sport, tribal and commercial interests have also all been noting lots of weeds in the river. Stuart Ellis of the Columbia Inter-Tribal Fish Commission said tribal fishermen had seen low catch rates because of both aquatic vegetation and water temps.

And Hurst noted that Cowlitz River Chinook broodstock collection is “way behind” meeting expectations and needs.

Hurst and North also approved two 10-hour gillnet openers in what’s known as Zones 4 and 5, the waters from Warrior Rock to Bonneville Dam. One will occur starting this evening, the other next week.

Nello Picinich of the Coastal Conservation Association said there was a legislative obligation for Washington to reduce gillnetting and he asked what WDFW was to honor that. Netters said they were looking forward to getting fish to market before the end of the week.