Chinook Fishing On Columbia River Comes To An End

By Joseph Friedrichs, 9-19-07

Oregon fishery officials have decided to close fishing for fall chinook salmon on the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam through at least the end of the year.

The reason for the shutdown is that the run of upriver chinook is about 40 percent below preseason predictions, and catching any more fish would leave too few fish to spawn the next generation.

A run of 185,200 upper Columbia “bright’’ fall chinook was forecast initially to enter the river headed for waters upstream of NcNary Dam near Umatilla, the Columbian reported.

Monday that prediction was downgraded to 105,000 fish.

An estimated 12,000 chinook will have been pulled this season when the season ends today.

Congrats to all those fish who survived. And best of luck with the whole spawing thing.