Spring Chinook Salmon Sportfishing on Lower Columbia River Extended Through Mid-June

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Columbia River spring chinook salmon sportfishing below Bonneville Dam will continue through June 15 with just one break for a limited commercial fishery Monday.

Oregon and Washington biologists met Wednesday and increased both the predicted spring run and the time anglers will be allowed on the lower river.

Fishing is open now through Sunday and will continue Tuesday through June 15. Summer chinook season opens June 16.

Numbers at the dam continue to run well above expectations, with the 2022 run now forecast to be 180,000, up from a preseason number of 122,900.



More angling was also approved upriver from Bonneville to the Oregon/Washington border on May 26 and 28.

All rules remain the same, including a one-chinook daily limit for hatchery fish only. Hatchery steelhead, two per day, will also continue to be legal in the daily limit.

Despite objections from sport anglers, biologists also authorized a limited commercial tanglenet fishery for hatchery chinook on Monday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. between power lines over the west end of Hayden Island upriver to the Beacon Rock commercial deadline.