MG - If they're late, it won't matter since WDFW closed the season on springers in the Kalama. Regardless of the number of adult springers that ultimately show up at the Kalama Fall Hatchery WDFW never re-opens the season once they've closed it. The hatchery will probably make their escapement goal (~400 fish) but the season is still a huge disappointment.

The Alaska gillnetters didn't get them. In fact, nobody really knows where spring Chinook go after they are released. They move thru the lower Columbia estuary fairly quickly, head into the open ocean, and disappear. The return a couple years later as adults. Unlike fall Chinook, springers don't turn up in any fisheries along the Pacific Coast (according to the tagging data). Very rarely they've been seen in Japanese fish markets but other than that, the information on their ocean travels remains elusive. The migration patterns of fall Chinook and, to some degree, summer Chinook are well documented. But springers are a real mystery.