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Ecology and salmon related articles

Washington Opening Chinook Fishing
in 3 Snake River Stretches

by Staff
Spokesman-Review, June 12, 2013

FISHING -- Three sections of the Snake River will reopen to fishing for hatchery spring chinook salmon, beginning with a stretch of the river near Clarkston later this week, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) announced today.

The Clarkston section of the river will be open Friday and Saturday each week beginning June 14-15.

The two other sections of the river that will reopen to spring chinook salmon fishing include a section below Ice Harbor Dam that will be open Monday of each week beginning June 17, and a section near Little Goose Dam that will be open Tuesday of each week beginning June 18.

All three sections will be open on their weekly schedule until further notice.

Read on for all the details.

Glen Mendel, district fish biologist for WDFW, said a recent updated run-size forecast indicates at least 115,000 upriver chinook are now expected to return to the Columbia River this year, up from the previous forecast of 107,500.

"That was enough of an increase to allow for additional fishing opportunities for hatchery spring chinook on the Snake River," Mendel said. "It's only a slight increase though, so these opportunities likely will only be available for a week or two."

WDFW will closely monitor the fishery, which will close when the Snake River harvest allocation is met or allowable impacts on wild stocks reach federal limits, said Mendel.

The daily catch limit for most of the open areas is one hatchery-reared adult chinook salmon - marked with a clipped adipose fin - and four hatchery jacks measuring less than 24 inches.

The exception is the area along the south shoreline of the Little Goose Dam (including "the wall") upstream to the juvenile-bypass return pipe, where anglers may retain only one adult hatchery chinook salmon and one hatchery jack chinook per day.

In all areas, anglers are required to use barbless hooks, and must stop fishing for the day when they reach their daily limit of adult chinook salmon. All chinook with the adipose fin intact, and all steelhead, must immediately be released unharmed. However, beginning June 16, anglers will be allowed to keep up to three adipose-clipped hatchery steelhead each day.

The three sections of the Snake River reopening for spring chinook fishing are:

Mendel strongly encourages anglers to review the fishing rule change, posted on WDFW's website.

General fishing regulations for the Snake River are available in the Fishing in Washington rule pamphlet ( wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/ ).


Staff
Washington Opening Chinook Fishing in 3 Snake River Stretches
Spokesman-Review, June 12, 2013

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