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Many happy returns for salmon fans Anglers seeking to give winter blues the boot might want to fire up their boats, grab their tackle and head to the Columbia River for the second-largest spring chinook salmon run. Fishing for hatchery fin-clipped spring chinook salmon is under way on the Columbia River from the Interstate 5 bridge in Vancouver downstream to Buoy 10. Although it's slow going now, it's only a matter of time until the river is sizzling with salmon. And beginning March 16, the main stem of the Columbia opens to fishing from the I-5 bridge upstream to Bonneville Dam and from The Dalles Dam to McNary Dam, said Joe Hymer, a state Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist in Vancouver. The Bonneville Pool, upstream of Bonneville Dam, is closed to spring chinook sport fishing because adult fish returning to tributaries were not adipose fin-clipped as juveniles. In addition, selective fishing for spring chinook opened Feb. 6 on the Deep, Cispus, Cowlitz, Kalama and Lewis rivers in southwestern Washington. The Green River in Cowlitz County opens April 1. Hymer said about 420,000 spring chinook salmon are forecast to return to the Columbia, with nearly 21,000 fin-clipped fish from state and federal hatcheries expected to be caught. Another 13,000 nonclipped fish could be caught and released, he said. This year's run would be the second largest since the state began keeping data in 1938 on fish runs passing Bonneville Dam. Last year, a whopping 508,000 spring chinook salmon returned to the Columbia. Hymer said those fishing the Columbia last season did quite well - 172,000 angler trips boated 26,000 marked fish. Another 15,500 wild fish were released. "Overall, nearly one out every four anglers on the Columbia caught and kept or released a spring chinook," he said. Fishing on the Columbia was so popular last year, that on one day in mid-April, more than 3,200 boats and 2,700 bank anglers were counted between Bonneville Dam and Buoy 10 at the mouth of the Columbia. The main stem catch success rate, in fact, was almost as good as the total catch in the Columbia's lower tributaries, including Wind River and Drano Lake. And those two popular fishing areas are scheduled to open to spring chinook in mid-March through June. The Klickitat River will open to springer fishing beginning April 1. And spring chinook - with or without adipose fins - can be kept in those waters. Hymer said one significant change in the salmon rules this year is that The Dalles and John Day pools are scheduled to be open for sport fishing for two months - March 16 through May 15. Last year, those stretches were open just three days. "What this means is that if anglers are willing to follow the fish, they will have opportunities to fish for spring chinook from now through perhaps early summer," he said. The only catch to the Columbia fishery would be if the sport catch allocation were met early. "This is really a great opportunity to take advantage of a very large run of salmon, as well as excellent prospects for upriver steelhead and fall chinook," he added. The Columbia River forecast for returning summer steelhead is about 450,000 fish, and as many as 670,000 fall chinook could return to the Columbia this year. "About the only chink in the Columbia River salmon forecast is that last year's 1.2 million hatchery coho return is expected to dwindle to about 300,000 this year," he said. Northwest fishery managers attribute the two years of record runs to excellent outmigration conditions, such as river flow and water temperatures and favorable ocean conditions, including the abundance of feed for young salmon. Not only is there an abundance of spring chinook salmon on the Columbia and its tributaries, but Hymer also said that overall about 50 percent of the spring chinook run produced from hatcheries should be clipped above Bonneville Dam, with nearly 100 percent marked in the lower river. Hymer cautioned that while last year saw ideal fishing conditions on the Columbia and its tributaries because of drought conditions, above-normal snowfall in the Cascades this winter could bring higher flows and tougher fishing conditions during the spring runoff. "On the other hand, because the Columbia was so low and clear last year, it's possible spring chinook did not enter the tributaries such as Wind River in as large of numbers as we forecasted," he explained. Anglers can keep track of the latest spring chinook fishing rules and prospects by going to the state's Web site at www.wa.gov/wdfw or by calling the Region 5 fishing hotline at 360-696-6211, or the state hotline at 360-902-2500. |
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