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Chinook Fishing Opens Saturday on the Upper Snake River by Staff Statesman Journal, April 19, 2010

The upper Snake River opens Saturday for spring Chinook.

The river will be open to sport fishing seven days a week from Dug Bar Boat Ramp to the deadline below Hells Canyon Dam.

The fishery will remain open until a notice of closure is announced by officials with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The daily limit is four adipose fin-clipped spring Chinook a day, no more than two of which can be adult salmon longer than 24 inches. Anglers must stop fishing for salmon for the day when they have kept four salmon or two adult salmon, whichever comes first. Only barbless hooks are allowed.

Officials with Oregon Fish and Wildlife and Idaho Fish and Game who co-manage fishing on the shared boundary water, predict that up to 15,000 hatchery-origin Chinook will return to the base of Hell's Canyon dam this year. That is more fish than are needed for hatchery production.

"The duration of the fishery will depend on actual number of fish returning and the success rate of anglers trying to catch them" said Jeff Yanke, a Fish and Wildlife district fish biologist in Enterprise. "Given the number of fish expected to return, we expect Oregon and Idaho anglers to enjoy a great spring Chinook season this year."