The total 2009 steelhead count at the lower Snake River's Lower Granite Dam has broken the record, and the so-called "wild" portion of the return is also the biggest on the books.
Sport, non-Indian commercial and tribal fishers this late summer and fall are sharing the wealth of strong returns of salmon and steelhead to the Columbia River basin.
Warmer water conditions are likely contributing to the bumper crop of pikeminnow that has been caught so far this year in the Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Fishery Program in the lower Columbia and Snake rivers.
A University of Idaho fisheries research group says some Columbia/Snake upriver steelhead populations are at risk as anglers cash in on the high numbers of steelhead concentrating in cool tributaries in western Oregon and Washington.
For the first time in recent history, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will open the upper Snake River for fall chinook harvest on Sept. 1.
The opening late last week of a first-in-recent-memory sport fishery for sockeye salmon in British Columbia's Lake Osoyoos has raised the ire of First Nations groups.
A 2009 Snake River summer steelhead run that could well break the existing record has allowed the Idaho Fish and Game Commission to expand harvest opportunities in the Snake, Salmon and Little Salmon rivers by nearly doubling bag limits on a portion of the big trout returning from the ocean.
Starting Tuesday, hatchery steelhead fisheries will open on the upper Columbia, Wenatchee, Icicle, Entiat, Methow and Okanogan rivers with a new inflated bag limit, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will be placing radio tags in coho salmon bound for the upper Willamette River and its tributaries over the next three weeks in an attempt to better understand the movements of fish returning to the basin.
The 2009 season's string of peculiar, and for the most part unexplainable, Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead return numbers has continued into the fall with steelhead counts at Bonneville Dam mounting toward a potential record and fall chinook "jack" totals already in record territory.
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Based on the in-season projection through July 31, last month's steelhead catch in the lower Columbia River fell just short of last year's record July harvest (dating back to at least the early 1970s).
For a second year, the Colville Confederated Tribes are funding fish production at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's Colville Fish Hatchery, a state facility in northeast Washington that was slated for closure under last year's budget cuts.
The fall chinook salmon harvest season on the Snake River between Lewiston and Hells Canyon Dam opens Tuesday, Sept. 1, the same day Snake River steelhead harvest season opens.
Sport fishing for salmon in the ocean between Leadbetter Point, Wash., and Cape Falcon, Ore., will close Monday, Aug. 31, at 11:59 p.m.
But fishing opportunity remains at the mouth of the Columbia River at Buoy 10 where the coho bag limit was increased this week.
Anglers can look forward to large numbers of coho and improved returns of chinook salmon this year during the fall fishing season on the Columbia River, which kicked off Aug. 1.
Anglers planning to fish for salmon on any of the eight Washington tributaries that flow into the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam can expect good fishing for hatchery coho.
Anglers have extra reason to fish for pikeminnow in August: $60,000 worth of special prize money to be awarded in weekly drawings from the names of everyone who catches pikeminnow that week.
The states of Oregon and Washington on Tuesday decided to extend the popular recreational white sturgeon season in the lower Columbia River to allow anglers more time to, potentially, achieve their harvest allocation.
The Colville Confederated Tribes have agreed to cover fish production costs at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's Colville Fish Hatchery, a state facility in northeast Washington slated for closure under recent budget cuts.
A newly completed document is expected to provide the framework for a comprehensive water resource management plan aimed at easing water shortages that affect humans and fish in Washington's Yakima River basin.
An improving upriver spring chinook forecast translates to fewer Endangered Species Act "impacts" and thus allowed the opening this morning of a Columbia River mainstem sport fishery for steelhead and sockeye from Portland's Interstate 5 bridge down to Tongue Point-Rocky Point near the river mouth.
Things are looking up in northeast Oregon where the anticipated strength of both wild-born and hatchery produced fish will allow a spring chinook fishing season in a section of the Wallowa River for only the second time since the 1970s.
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Due to relatively strong returns of spring chinook in the Snake River, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game are opening a spring chinook fishery below Hells Canyon Dam from May 30 until a closure is announced.
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