Record breaking returns of Columbia River Chinook give promise to a sustainable sport fishery
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In spite of drought sweeping the west coast causing a grim outlook for many streams too hot, low or simply dry to hold spawning salmon, record numbers continue to appear in one of our most valuable salmon fisheries. Joe Hymer, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife salmon expert in Vancouver, reported to The Seattle Times that this was largest lower Columbia catch in 50 years. Data showed that 5,928 adult summer chinook were harvested from the Lower Columbia mainstem sport fishery this year, the largest catch since at least 1965. The previous record was set with 5,160 adults caught in 2011.
Data taken from June 16 to July 31 revealed 50,555 anglers with 5,928 chinook kept, 458 jack chinook kept and 4,560 steelhead kept, and 1,491 chinook released and 3,068 steelhead released, plus 958 sockeye kept and 436 released. The catch per unit effort (CPUE) was 0.1468 fish per rod.
The total chinook catch from Feb. 1 to June 15 was 151,713 anglers with 19,586 chinook kept and 5,052 released, plus 1,127 jack chinook and 1,181 steelhead kept, and 724 steelhead and 46 sockeye released. The CPUE was 0.163.
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Upriver, chinook runs are setting records for fish counted over Bonneville Dam, with anglers having regular success in the Hanford Reach.
Paul Hoffarth, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife fisheries biologist in the Tri Cities, reported his most recent findings in The Spokesman.
The total of spring, summer and fall chinook counted at Bonneville through the end of September is the highest number since the dam was completed and counts began in 1938. Chinook are still coming over the dam at about 10,000 a day.
2015’s counts top the 1,152,643 counted in 2014 and 1,129,664 counted in 2013. Three years of consistently high returns are good news during a year of severe droughts that have devastated smaller systems along the Pacific Coast.
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Photo By Grant Scheele of Grant’s NW Guide Service