Spring Chinook anglers on the lower Columbia River will get two more days of salmon fishing – Saturday, April 11 and Thursday, April 16 — under a season extension adopted today by Oregon and Washington fishery managers.
The spring Chinook season had been scheduled to close after April 10, but was extended when staff estimated 28 percent of the upriver spring Chinook allocation would remain after the season closed. With the salmon run building and catch rates improving in the lower river, managers predict 95 percent of the upriver allocation, prior to the run update, will have been used after two additional days of fishing.
The pause in fishing days will give managers time to estimate the Saturday harvest before the fishery re-opens on Thursday – a necessary precaution to ensure total harvest stays within the allocation.
The bag limits and areas open to fishing remain the same during the extension: From Buoy 10 upstream to Beacon Rock (boat and bank) plus bank fishing only from Beacon Rock upstream to the Bonneville Dam deadline. Anglers may keep two adult salmonids a day, of which only one may be a Chinook. Only adipose fin-clipped fish may be kept.
Summer sturgeon season in Bonneville Pool
Managers also set a nine-day summer sturgeon season for the Bonneville Pool. Under the rules adopted today, the Bonneville Pool will be open to sturgeon retention Friday through Sunday June 19-21, June 26-28 and July 3-5.
• All sturgeon fishing is prohibited during May through July in the sturgeon spawning sanctuary extending from The Dalles Dam downstream 1.8 miles to a line from the east (upstream) dock at the Port of The Dalles boat ramp straight across to a marker on the Washington shore
• Only white sturgeon between 38-inches and 54-inches fork length may be retained.
The 2015 annual harvest guideline for the Bonneville Pool is 1,100 fish split between winter and summer seasons. Anglers harvested 155 fish during the winter season, leaving the remaining harvest guideline of 945 fish for the summer fishery.
