Spring chinook salmon fishing is starting to pick up on the lower Columbia River, as are counts of upriver fish crossing over Bonneville Dam, in what is expected to be the tip of the iceberg -- an overall return of 559,900 to the Columbia-Snake River basin.
The record 2009 summer steelhead return to Idaho and northeast Oregon streams has continued unabated into a new year that also may see the biggest upriver spring chinook salmon run in modern times.
Oregon's recreational and commercial ocean salmon seasons scheduled to open from March 15 through April 30 have been closed due, in part, to a low projected run of fall chinook to the Sacramento River.
The prospect of a huge spring chinook return to the Columbia River basin already has anglers in a fever.
With a record upriver spring chinook salmon return expected, anglers should be able to land catch and keep as many as 17,200 hatchery salmon during an early fishing season mapped this week for the lower Columbia River by Oregon and Washington fishery managers.
Despite estimates of a 2010 upriver spring chinook salmon run that will be the best ever, non-tribal anglers and gill-netters in the lower Columbia River will be held in check to some degree until managers know that that dream run is indeed building.
High catch rates and angler effort have made short work of the 2010 white sturgeon sport season in the Bonneville Dam pool despite a doubling of the allowed harvest in the Columbia River reservoir.
It is expected that the states of Oregon and Washington will decide next week on a white sturgeon harvest reduction on the lower Columbia River mainstem of 35 to 45 percent over recent years' allocations.
The first known spring chinook salmon catch of the year was reported Feb. 1 in the Columbia River off Davis Bar, west of Vancouver, Wash., according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's "Weekender Report."
The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider adopting a new package of sportfishing rules for 2010-12, as well as updates to the Columbia River sturgeon management policy, during a public meeting Feb. 4-6 in Olympia.
Last summer, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission opened 130 miles of the Salmon River from Island Park in Salmon City upstream to the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery for chinook salmon fishing.
Biologists working to recover the kokanee population in Lake Pend Oreille are encouraged by progress seen in 2009.
With another poor run of smelt expected to return to the Columbia River and its tributaries, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife this week announced it would limit sport fishing on the Cowlitz River sport fishery to only four days this winter.
Fishing seasons that begin in the new year on the lower Columbia River mainstem are designed to keep the eulachon (smelt) harvest to a minimum, and the allowable white sturgeon catch in 2010 will be less than in recent years, though it is yet to be determined how much less.
Adult salmon returns to the Columbia-Snake river basin should be improved almost across the board, according to a Dec. 17 preliminary draft "2009 Adult Returns and 2010 Expectations" produced by fishery officials.
With the 2010 coho salmon return the Willamette River basin on track to break existing records, Oregon fishery managers decided late last month to increase the bag limit for anglers.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle District, water managers have released the planned Lake Pend Oreille elevations for Oct. 1-15. The Corps operates Albeni Falls Dam, which regulates the level of Lake Pend Oreille.
A new interactive Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Web site offers a county-level view of the $2.5 billion spent in Oregon by fishing, hunting and wildlife viewing enthusiasts in 2008.
Starting April 1, Washington State anglers who fish for salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River and its tributaries will be required to purchase a new endorsement intended to help maintain and improve fishing opportunities throughout the basin.
It isn't exactly on the fish recovery front burner, yet a Kootenai Tribe of Idaho effort to rekindle populations of kokanee in Idaho Panhandle streams is showing signs of success.
The lower Columbia River commercial fleet got one last shot at spawning upriver fall chinook salmon this week, and anglers got a doubled bag limit in mainstem reaches between Portland and Bonneville Dam, with the goal of allowing each fishery's full harvest allocation.
Success in the Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Fishery Program may well be measured by anglers' declining ability to claim cash rewards for the removal of salmon-eating predators from the Columbia River.
With plenty of surplus hatchery origin coho salmon available for harvest, the states of Oregon and Washington this week approved additional commercial fisheries and liberalized daily bag limits for the Columbia River mainstem.
The first of several 2010 hatchery steelhead fisheries in central Washington got under way Sept. 4 with the opening of the Hanford Reach section of the Columbia River, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
A highly successful fishing season has raised concerns that the spawner escapement to the mid-Columbia River's Hanford Reach will be less than desired to assure maintenance of the most heralded of the basin's wild salmon populations.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
