The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

The early phase of recreational spring chinook season on the lower Columbia River ended April 8, one day earlier than the Saturday deadline set in January by the two-state Columbia River Compact.

The Compact agreed at its hearing April 7 to close the fishery based on projections that the catch of upriver chinook salmon will reach the initial 7,515-fish harvest guideline a day ahead of schedule. The closure also applies to steelhead and shad in the 145 mile stretch of river from Buoy 10 at the river’s mouth to Bonneville Dam to protect the migrating salmon.

Fisheries upriver of the dam remain open through May 6 or until anglers meet the more than 1,000 fish guideline. In addition, the lower Willamette River remains open to retention of adipose fin-clipped chinook salmon and adipose fin-clipped steelhead seven days a week.

“I am very disappointed that we have to close this season early,” said Tucker Jones, ODFW’s Ocean Fisheries and Columbia River program manager and Oregon’s lead representative with the Compact. “If there is a silver lining, it is that a lot of people got out early and caught a lot of fish, and that our upriver fisheries are tracking as expected.”

Commercial gillnetters fished one more day last week – Tuesday – making two days of fishing for them during the early season. However, the Compact set catch limits of just four fish per boat, as gillnetters approached their early allocation of the fish. The decision to place limits on a boat’s catch was due to the limited number of fish still available to the gillnetters after last week’s catch of nearly 900 upriver spring chinook (the allocation is 1,222).

However, with over 10,000 fish expected to be caught by recreational anglers by the end of April 8, and 99 percent of the pre-season allocation of upriver spring chinook reached (7,515) that day, spring chinook recreational fishing below Bonneville Dam ended.

The two-state Columbia River Compact made those decisions as spring chinook salmon were arriving at Bonneville Dam at slightly less than the 5-year average.

That doesn’t mean that spring chinook fishing is over for the year, according to Ron Roler, Columbia River policy coordinator for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Fisheries in the lower Columbia River could reopen later this spring if the number of spring chinook passing the dam in the coming weeks reaches or exceeds preseason expectations, he said. The decision will be based on an updated run-size projection, expected in late April or early May.

“For the next few weeks, all eyes will be on the number of spring chinook passing Bonneville Dam,” Roler said. “Fishing has been good so far this year, but the count of chinook salmon at the dam lagged until just a week or two ago. The next few weeks will tell the tale of whether we can reopen the fishery.”

Sportfishers were complimentary of the Compact staff for predicting so closely their angling success and for timing the season within a day of when anglers reached their lower river allocation.

Liz Hamilton, executive director of the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, reminded the Compact staff of the economic benefits the fishery brings to the Columbia River basin.

“Every day that fishing is open every (sportfishing) outlet adds an additional $15,000 in sales,” she said. “It’s important to recognize the importance of this fishery. There is a lot of unmet demand on this river.”

(Editor's note: On April 12, Skamokawa gillnetter Kent Martin estimated the April 5 catch brought $35,000 into Wahkiakum County based on the prices he and another buyer found for the fish they sold in Seattle and Eugene markets. There were other buyers at work, he said, so the actual total was probably higher.)

Compact staff did consider where more spring chinook could be gained for the sports anglers, but found that any more fish given to lower river anglers would reduce the number of upriver fish for anglers above Bonneville Dam (1,002 fish allocated) and in the Snake River (1,005 fish allocated).

“I don’t see a ton of space to find more fish,” concluded Jones, as he and Guy Norman, Compact lead for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, made the final decision.

In December, the U.S. vs Oregon Technical Advisory Committee predicted some 188,800 upriver spring chinook would arrive this year at the Columbia River mouth. That’s down from 232,500 expected last year, although the actual run of spring chinook in 2015 totaled 289,000 fish.

But so far this season, just 824 spring chinook had passed Bonneville Dam as of April 6. According to the Compact staff Fact Sheet #8, based on the pre-season forecast and five-year average timing, about 900 fish would be expected by that date. TAC expects half the fish to pass Bonneville by May 7.

Commercial gillnetters in the mainstem Columbia River caught 1,222 upriver spring chinook during this early season over two days of fishing. Some 69 upriver fish have been caught by commercial select area gillnetters in the lower river (198 allocated). They continued to fish in upper Youngs Bay.