With A Continued Strong Fall Chinook Run (Above 10-Year Average), States Extend Recreational Fishing Below Bonneville, Add Gillnetting Days
September 22nd, 2023
With a higher in-season forecast of Chinook salmon tracking above the 5- and 10-year average, Oregon and Washington reopened all the Columbia River downstream of Bonneville Dam to recreational angling for Chinook and hatchery coho as of Sept. 22. The reopening is for the remainder of this year.
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Draft 2023 Survival Study Says Substantial Gains In Adult Returns Of Imperiled Salmon, Steelhead Will Require Breaching Lower Snake River Dams
September 15th, 2023
A long-running annual report that evaluates salmon and steelhead survival in the Columbia and Snake rivers again this year concluded that removal of the lower Snake River dams poses less of a risk to recovery than allowing the four dams to remain in place.
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Columbia River Fish Run Update: Upriver Steelhead Forecast Shoots Upward, Managers Allow More Buoy 10 Fishing, Gillnetting
September 8th, 2023
The forecast for Columbia River upriver summer steelhead passing Bonneville Dam nearly doubled more than a week ago to more than 90,000 fish, with some of those fish already arriving in Idaho rivers.
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Snake River Sockeye Run Winding Down As Fish Head To Stanley Basin; Conversion Rate From Bonneville Dam To Lower Granite Low
August 10th, 2023
This year’s Columbia River sockeye salmon passage is mostly over at Bonneville Dam. Mid-Columbia River sockeye are now moving into tributaries and lakes, while the endangered Snake River sockeye are migrating towards the Stanley Basin in central Idaho, according to Jonathan Ebel of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
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States Issue Status Report For Upcoming Columbia River Salmon, Steelhead Fall Fisheries; Coho Forecasted Returns High, Steelhead Numbers Dismal
July 13th, 2023
The Oregon and Washington Departments of Fish and Wildlife have issued their annual joint report describing upcoming fall fisheries in the mainstem Columbia River. It includes a review of those fisheries that occurred in 2022 and expectations for 2023 fall fish runs.
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With Summer Chinook Returns Running Way Below Forecasted, Another Columbia River Fishing Season Shuts Down Early
June 29th, 2023
With a lower-than-expected return of summer Chinook to the Columbia River, Washington and Oregon will close the river downstream of Priest Rapids Dam to recreational angling for the fish July 1, bringing the summer season that began June 15 --and was to go to July 31 -- to an abrupt end.
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With ESA Impact Exceeded, Harvest Managers Forced To Shut Down Columbia River Salmon, Steelhead Fishing
June 1st, 2023
After catch data analysis showed allowable harvest impacts to wild spring chinook have been exceeded, Oregon and Washington fisheries managers on extremely short notice shut down salmon and steelhead fishing on the Columbia River.
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Columbia River Harvest Managers Approve Spring Chinook Fishing Days Though Run Abundance Remains Uncertain
May 19th, 2023
With a flurry of spring Chinook passing Bonneville Dam daily the past two weeks, Oregon and Washington decided to reopen spring Chinook angling from Buoy 10 in the lower Columbia River to the Oregon/Washington border.
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Science Review Of 50-Year-Old Lower Snake Compensation Program (Hatcheries) Shows Missed Return Goals For Spring/Summer Chinook
May 18th, 2023
The number of spring/summer Chinook salmon adult returns produced by the eleven Lower Snake River Compensation Plan hatchery programs has declined by 75 percent since the program’s first years and, overall, has not produced the nearly 59,000 returning Chinook adults that is the program’s goal, according to a recent review by an independent panel of scientists.