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Summer Chinook Harvest Begins by Bill Rudolph NW Fishletter, June 22, 2004

Another Big Fall Run Expected

Columbia River tribal fishers began their commercial summer platform fishery last week with hoopnets, dipnets and hook and line. They will be allowed to catch a bit more than 5,000 fish from an expected summer chinook run (fish that pass Bonneville dam between June 1 and July 31) of 103,000 fish.

Harvest managers also expect about 80,000 sockeye to return to the upper Columbia, which means the tribes can catch 7 percent of that run.

Sports fishers began a summer fishery as well, from Tongue Point, near Astoria to the Oregon-Washington border above McNary Dam. They will be allowed to catch hatchery chinook longer than 24 inches through July 31.

The pre-season prognosticators estimated that about 34,000 summers would be bound for the Snake River, with the rest headed up the upper Columbia.

The fall run is expected to be strong again this year as well, with over 600,000 chinook expected to enter the river. Last year's 885,000-fish return was the biggest since 1948.

The upriver bright run headed for the Hanford Reach is pegged at more than 290,000 fish, which would make it the fourth consecutive year over 200,000 fish and the fourth largest return since 1964.