Outlook improves for spring chinook

Salmon managers have bumped up their prediction for the 2015 return of spring chinook to the Columbia River and its tributaries, but it was not enough to save one of the four fishing sections on the Snake River in Washington.

Jeremy Trump, district fisheries biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife at Dayton, said the three-day-a-week fishing season near Ice Harbor Dam will not reopen following its normal hiatus that started today. Fishing near Little Goose Dam will open one more time, Thursday through Saturday, and seasons near Lower Granite Dam and Clarkston will continue on their same three-day-per-week schedule until further notice. The lower Granite area is open Sundays through Tuesdays, and the Clarkston area is open Thursdays through Saturdays.

Anglers fishing the Snake River have harvested an estimated 1,050 spring chinook, Trump said. Prior to the season, the state set a harvest quota of 1,083 chinook for the Snake. But on Tuesday, salmon managers increased their prediction of the spring chinook run bound for areas above Bonneville Dam from the preseason estimate of 232,500 to 241,000. The upgrade means anglers on the Snake River will now be able to harvest about 1,600 chinook.

"If we get a couple hundred more fish at Little Goose this weekend, that will put us up to 1,250 to 1,300," Trump said. "We will still have a couple hundred more fish (to catch)."

Anglers fishing near Clarkston last week harvested about 100 adult chinook, one of the higher tallies ever recorded there. Trump said the harvest rate for the Clarkston-area fishery last week was about 15 hours per fish. That compares to a harvest rate of about 36 hours on the lower Clearwater River in Idaho last week.

The harvest quota for the lower Columbia River also increased. Anglers there can now catch about 15,500 chinook, compared to the preseason harvest quota of about 10,300.

Oregon and Washington will reopen a portion of the lower Columbia River for one day of fishing Saturday, and then open the river on a daily basis starting May 16 and lasting until June 16.

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Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.