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Fall chinook run not about to cool off You can just about throw a dart at a map of Eastern Washington to find a good place to fish for salmon or steelhead. In what's shaping up as the third largest salmon run on record, anglers already are hooking up with record catches of fall chinook. Joe Hymer, a state Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist in Vancouver, said anglers caught 10,000 chinook last week in the lower Columbia River fishery. "That's the highest figure we've ever seen since we started doing creel census checks in 1969. In fact, in some years we don't even see that many fish caught for the entire year," he said. In addition, the August total count of 142,000 salmon at Bonneville Dam set an all-time record for the month. Fish biologists predict 678,000 adult chinook will enter the Columbia, the third largest run since 1948. And at Bonneville, the first dam migrating salmon encounter, 330,000 chinook have been seen, with thousands pouring through each day. Not only are there a lot of salmon out there, but they're also huge. Hymer said fall chinook in the 30- to 50-pound range will not be uncommon. Most should average 15 to 25 pounds. "The largest salmon I've heard about being caught weighed 51 pounds," he said. "This is shaping up as an excellent year for salmon, no matter where you fish." Even if you don't fish, it might be worth a visit to the McNary Dam fish viewing window on the Oregon side of the river. The fish viewing station is open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. "At Bonneville," Hymer added, "so many salmon are going through that the viewing windows almost rumble as the fish pass through." Of the total salmon run, 274,000 upriver bright fall chinook are forecast to enter the Columbia, with 125,000 brights expected to pass McNary Dam en route to spawning grounds on the Hanford Reach, the upper Columbia and the Snake and Yakima rivers. At McNary Dam, where fall chinook counting began Aug. 9, a total of 55,000 adults has been recorded. Moreover, the escapement goal above McNary, or the number of fish needed to successfully spawn to ensure healthy future runs, is 43,500. So that means plenty of excess fish for anglers. However, while angling success in the Reach is still on the slow side - with anglers reporting about one fish caught for every 10 rods - anglers plying the mouth of the Yakima River last week caught about 100 salmon, Hymer said. The Yakima River's fall chinook season runs Monday to Oct. 31, and John Easterbrooks, the Fish and Wildlife Department's regional fish program manager in Yakima, said anglers should see a season as good as, if not better, than last year's. Easterbrooks said anglers in 2001 caught about 1,000 chinook on the Yakima, out of total run of 6,660 fall chinook adults and jacks. Easterbrooks pointed out that the Yakima season, which was adopted last winter by the state Wildlife Commission and added to the 2002-03 fishing pamphlet, will allow fishing from the Highway 240 bridge in Richland upstream to 400 feet below the Prosser Dam. However, because of a forecasted low coho salmon return, there will be not be a fall fishery targeting coho in the middle stretch of the Yakima between the Highway 223 bridge in Granger and Roza Dam. "We adopted the permanent rule for the lower Yakima because the fishery has matured over the past four years and it was time to stop opening the fishery each year by emergency regulation," he said. Adding the season to the fishing pamphlet, Easterbrooks explained, means anglers don't have to monitor the agency's Web site, press releases or make telephone calls to determine if the fishery is going to open. Under the new rules, anglers can catch up to six salmon daily, but no more than two adults - chinook longer than 24 inches - can be retained. Also, the fishery is closed to night fishing and a nonbuoyant lure restriction is in effect. Meaning, he said, that Yakima River anglers using sinking lures, such as a Blue Fox Vibrax spinner, must use a single hook, whereas floating/diving plugs can be used with the standard treble hooks. Anglers fishing the Reach this season should note that a portion of the Columbia River between the Old Hanford townsite's wooden powerline towers to Priest Rapids Dam will close to all salmon fishing after Oct. 22. The new rule is on page 109 of the fishing pamphlet. Steelheaders also are getting in on the action as cooler water temperatures on the Columbia are pulling fish upstream at a quick clip. Already, 366,000 steelhead have been counted at Bonneville Dam, well into the total run estimated at 459,000 fish. "We're into the B-run of steelhead now and there's no indication the fish are holding up downstream," Hymer said. What that means for anglers is that they might want to start fishing behind McNary Dam and on the Snake River a bit sooner this year. Traditionally, trolling and bobber fishing behind the dams doesn't heat up until early October. "When we have warmer water on the Columbia, say in the low 70s, the fish will often hold up in lower Columbia River tributaries, such as Wind River, Drano Lake and the White Salmon. Fishing at those tributaries started out well but has declined significantly over the past few weeks as the fish moved out," he said. While steelhead may be moving upstream early, anglers so far have had little success behind McNary Dam, although the number of boaters plying the water grows daily. "With the weather staying warm during the day, the best bite is likely going to be late in the day and into the night," he said.
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