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Columbia River Reopens to Chinook Salmon Fishing by Bill Monroe The Oregonian, June 13, 2012

The Columbia River reopens Saturday to chinook sport salmon fishing and the summer steelhead zone expands upriver to the Oregon/Washington border.

A run of 91,200 summer chinook is expected to enter the river, peaking at Bonneville Dam through the end of June and tapering through July. Anglers will be allowed to keep up to two fin-clipped chinook salmon or steelhead.

NOTE: All sockeye salmon, regardless of size, are considered adult salmon within the two-daily bag limit; they need not be fin-clipped, however.

Chinook and sockeye fishing will close July 2 downriver from Bonneville Dam, but summer steelhead and chinook jacks can still be kept in that zone. The river above Bonneville Dam remains open to chinook, sockeye and steelhead fishing through the end of July. A five-jack limit (shorter than 24 inches) is in addition to the two salmon/steelhead daily bag.

Oregon and Washington fish managers met Wednesday and approved a commercial gill-net season on the lower river from 9 p.m. Sunday to 5 a.m. Monday. They also adopted tribal net seasons upriver from Bonneville of three and a half days each starting 6 a.m. Monday to 6 p.m. June 21 and the same June 25-28.

They'll meet again by telephone the morning of June 25 to consider additional commercial seasons.

After July 2, the Columbia will reopen salmon salmon fishing Aug. 1, from Buoy 10 to the Oregon/Washington border.

Sport anglers in the Pacific Ocean off the mouth of the Columbia reported excellent fishing for fin-clipped chinook salmon when the season opened Saturday.