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Fall Adult Chinook Last Summer Set a Record Number of Spawning Beds in the Snake River Basin by Mark Yuasa Seattle Times, March 19, 2016

For the third year in a row, the adult Snake River fall chinook set a new record in 2015 by creating 9,345 redds or gravel nests in the Snake River Basin between Lower Granite and Hells Canyon dams, the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission reported.

The previous record was set in 2014 when 6,714 redds were counted. The 2015 record coincides with the third largest return of 59,300 Snake River fall chinook since the four lower Snake River dams were created in 1975.

A program was created in 1994 by tribal, state and federal fish managers to release 450,000 yearling fall chinook and 2.8-million sub-yearling fall chinook from tribal hatchery facilities to boost fish returns above Lower Granite Dam.

The news release went on to say that many of these fish spawn naturally and are key to increasing wild-origin fish returns.

Between 1975 and 1995 fewer than 1,000 adult fall chinook returned each year, but since then there have been record counts of 56,565 in 2013 and 60,868 in 2014.

A fall fishery in the Snake during 2009 was the first in 35 years, and each year since then the area has hosted a fishing season.