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.

NZ, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but if this past summers sport and commercial seasons in SE Ak are any indication of whats to come here, don't expect it to improve much. I fish the outside of Prince of Wales Is. which is the southern most part of the state, have been since 1990. This season was by far the worst I have seen, not just for kings but for silvers and pinks too. The state actually planned on closing the king season in mid-July due to low returns but after a number of guides and resorts threatened lawsuits, they mysteriously came up with new numbers that said there earlier predictions were low, so they not only left the season open, they increased the annual non-resident limit from 2 to 3.
You may be wondering what this has to do with Columbia river fish since I mention Alaska, but according to ADF&G, only about 4-5% of the kings caught in this area are Ak. fish, the rest are B.C., Wa. and Or. fish.
One bright spot though, although numbers were way down, there were more big fish than most years, alot of 50's and 60's, heard of a 72 and an 86.

NewZealand...I've only had my sled in at Vernita Bridge once, so I'm no expert on the run there by any means, but I was under the impression that this was a banner year numbers-wise for kings...as these fish passage numbers at the dams show the king count at Priest Rapids almost double the ten year average there. What's up with that?
http://www.cqs.washington.edu/dart/adult.html

Bonneville fish ladder passage:Chin 396463, Ch10yr 263376, JChin 85395, JCh10yr 35770, Sthd* 268936, Sthd10yr 219945, SthdW 75036, Sock 93152, Coho 60287, JCoh 9223, Shad 1223581

Priest Rapids passage: Chin 71676, Ch10yr 37105, JChin 6838, JCh10yr 2798, Sthd* 9828, Sthd10yr 7825, SthdW 0, Sock 89611, Coho 201, JCoh 11, Shad 2448

Are the other fisheries up and down the Columbia River poor as well? Here's some other web sites that might help you with your info search: http://www.cqs.washington.edu/webgrp.html

Hope you get into some fish still!

NZ,
Here are my observations from working a couple of days a week in the pool below PRD. The reason they have no fish at the hatcery is because WDFW installed a new weir just upstream of where the creek flows into the river. This is suppose to help fishers catch more fish because they can dictate how many and when the fish actually enter the hatchery. They did not open the weir to allow any fish up the creek until Oct. 2 (hence no fish till after that date). The water temperature has not cooled off quite as rapidly in the past. I talked to a couple of fish and wildlife officers on Fri and they marked a lot of fish on there fish finders as well as handed out a few tickets. As far as fish numbers, I think they are there, just not biting like they should.

DaveD

I live on the reach and this year is shaping up to be the same as last year,which was suppose to be record numbers that didn't amount to much at all.The "Tri-City Herald"
finally fessed up in a tiny article this week that the actual run was going to be less than half of earlier predictions.There are several different scources for run numbers and they all have different figures.These "record run" sizes are the political tools of the "save the dam"people.Don't be fooled by them!!I have been all over the reach this year and there are not that many fish getting caught.One day when I was taking out the fish counter dude said only three fish had been caught all day long.Meanwhile the Indians are selling Salmon,Steelhead and Walleye at Columbia Point near the start of the reach.lester

Hey Lester, have you tried the Yakima at all for the fall chinook? I'm thinking about exploring since the reach sucks so bad right now.
I've talked to a few people who have done pretty well (3 hook-ups in an hour) on the Yakima, but do not know where they are going.

Just wondering if you know something.

Thanks