As per the report the anglers have caught a record number of spring chinook in the Columbia River sport salmon season that closed Sunday below Bonneville Dam. It is also informed that they have far exceeded the number of upriver fish they were allowed. About 29,100 spring chinook were caught and kept in the lower river sport fishery. Of those, 23,000 were on their way above Bonneville Dam — 5,500 more than the 17,500 anglers were expected to cull from the predicted run of 430,000 upriver spring chinook.
Oregon officials informed that even though lower-river sport anglers exceeded their guideline number, there are no plans to shut down sport-fishing above Bonneville Dam, which has been allocated an additional 4,500 spring chinook. Chris Kern, a biologist on the state’s Columbia River salmon management team, said that they are still within the terms of our agreement with the tribes under catch-balancing and the buffer.
Biologists remain buoyed, however, by an apparent surge of new fish into the lower Columbia. So many springers are in the lower river, gill-netters have exceeded their allowable catch of upriver fish straying into Select Area Fishery Enhancement zones, and all commercial fishing in those zones has been closed.
