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Fantastic Salmon Fishery on Lower Columbia will End Monday by Jeffrey Mayor, Staff Writer The News Tribune, April 19, 2008

After weeks of exceptional salmon fishing, fishery managers for Washington and Oregon Wednesday announced the spring chinook fishery on the lower Columbia River will close Monday, when anglers are expected to reach their preseason catch target.

By then, the sport catch from the west Hayden powerlines upriver to Bonneville Dam is expected to reach a total of 22,300 fish -- about 2,000 more fish than anglers had been expected to catch through the end of April. Spring chinook fishing will close from the Hayden Island west powerlines upstream to Bonneville Dam at 12:01 a.m. April 21. Fishing for steelhead and shad will close at the same time in that area.

Fishery managers will continue to monitor the status of the spring chinook run on a daily basis and will consider re-opening those fisheries if returns are larger than expected. That determination will be made later this month or in early May, after a larger portion of the run has arrived.

About 269,300 upriver spring chinook were forecast to return this year, one of the largest runs in recent years.