In a hearing this week (Thursday, Sept. 5), the two-state Columbia River Compact set two Saturdays later this month for recreational angling of white sturgeon from Wauna upstream to Bonneville Dam.

Due to lower forecasts of upriver summer steelhead, the Columbia River is closed to steelhead retention through September from the river’s mouth up to the John Day Dam. However, tributaries of the river remain open for steelhead fishing and retention, and in the Snake River and tributaries, fishing either is continuing, as it is in Idaho, although with a reduced bag limit, or just opening, as in tributaries of the Snake in Oregon, also with a reduced bag limit.

As of Aug. 24, Oregon will open the river from the Oregon and Washington border up to the Idaho Power dam for a fall chinook run that is anticipated to be 349,700 fish at the Columbia River mouth, which is 47 percent of the 10-year average (2009-2018) of 737,720 adult fall chinook. Still, the forecast is higher than the 2018 actual return of 293,424.

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission last week approved moving forward on a request to the State Legislature to increase Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife funding.

For the second year in a row, fishing for wild fall chinook salmon will be restricted in coastal rivers, due to poor escapement in 2018 and poor forecasted returns this year.

Economists tasked with quantifying the costs of suppressing invasive northern pike in Lake Roosevelt as well as the costs to the region if the pike escaped Grand Coulee Dam and migrated downstream, risking recovery of the Columbia River basin’s threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead, indicated at a Northwest Power and Conservation Council meeting this week that available data is too sparse to adequately answer the questions.

As of last weekend, June 1, the requirement to use barbless hooks to fish for salmon, steelhead and trout in the Columbia River is no longer mandatory.

Runs of Columbia River summer and fall chinook salmon, sockeye salmon and upriver steelhead are predicted to again have a poor year, but the forecasted run of coho will be higher than recent runs of the fish.

Anglers who fish for salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River basin will no longer be required to purchase an endorsement to do so beginning July 1