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Out and About: Snake Salmon Season to be Open 24/7 by Staff Spokesman-Review, August 25, 2013

The focus on fishing in the Snake River will sharpen next Sunday when anglers in Washington and Idaho stretches will be able to key in on a strong run of fall chinook salmon as well as steelhead.

While fishing for chinooks is closed at night in other areas of Washington, state rules on the Snake River will allow anglers to fish for salmon 24 hours a day, said John Whalen, Washington Fish and Wildlife Department regional fisheries manager.

Because of the strong run, the daily catch limit will include three adult hatchery chinook, plus six hatchery jack chinook less than 24 inches long.

Of the 434,600 upriver bright chinook salmon projected to enter the Columbia River this year, 31,600 are protected wild fall chinook bound for the Snake River.

Anglers in Washington must release steelhead and salmon with intact adipose fins without taking them out of the water.

More than 11,100 steelhead had moved up the Snake and over Lower Granite Dam by Friday at a rate of 109-166 fish a day last week.

Fall chinook numbers picked up with counts of more than 160 a day and a season total of more than 400 with thousands more to come.