Does anyone have any ideas about what has happened to the Hanford Reach Fall Chinook? This years season is shaping up to be a disaster.

I talked to a one of the creel survey people today and this is what I was told:

270 chinook is all that creel survey has counted so far this year. Last year they had counted over 5000 by this time.

The hatchery at Priest Rapids has a total of zero fish. Last year at this time they had over 5000 and were getting 500 new ones a day.

This is horrible! Did the WDFW blow it (again) with their projections of the run size and allow too much harvest downstream? Are the fish going up the Yakima River instead? Does anyone have answers?

The dam counts don't indicate that many more fish are coming.