This says about 250,000 spring chinook expected. Mostly 4-year olds and 75% marked hatchery fish. Does anyone remember what the run size was this year?


Notebook: Columbia producing solid chinook runs

By Mark Yuasa
Seattle Times staff reporter


Spring and summer are a while away, but salmon anglers will be glad to know that another decent chinook-fishing season will likely occur on the Columbia River and off the Pacific coast.

"The Columbia River chinook stocks are good across the board, which includes spring, summer and fall runs," said Cindy LeFleur, a state Fish and Wildlife salmon manager.

Fall chinook-run sizes in the past four years have ranged from 544,000 to 885,000.

The Columbia upriver bright-chinook return of 370,000 this year was one of the largest on record since 1964, and next year's run should be healthy as well.

The Lower Columbia hatchery-fall-chinook stock is expected to be down from the past two years, although the wild run looks good.

Bonneville Pool hatchery chinook and mid-Columbia bright-chinook stocks should be good.

The upriver spring-chinook outlook for the Columbia is predicted to be about a quarter-million fish, and most will be larger 4-year-olds with a mark (hatchery fish with a missing adipose fin) rate of 75 percent.

In Oregon, the Lower Willamette spring-chinook outlook is also decent, and about 80 percent will be larger 5-year-olds. On the Washington side, the Cowlitz, Kalama and Lewis spring-chinook runs will mirror this past season in which all were open daily with a two-fish bag limit.

On the other hand, the Columbia River coho return this year was just over 400,000, and next year's return is expected to be down from recent years.

"What worries me the most are next year's (Columbia River) coho runs, and that will affect what happens to the ocean fisheries," said Doug Milward, a state Fish and Wildlife coastal-salmon manager. "While I have some concerns, it is not at all doom and gloom, and we'll just have to work around it."

State Fish and Wildlife will release final predictions on Washington salmon runs at a public meeting in late February. For more details on Columbia River salmon forecasts, go to http://www.seattletimes.com/fishing.