News - Columbia River fishery opens

I just got off the call for the Columbia River extension. We’re only at 10% of our Columbia quota (6,900 fish). I’ve attached the fact sheet for today’s call; it’s full of fun facts.

There’s no reason to have just a day’s per week fishery, especially given the high and cold water conditions that we’re currently experiencing. On behalf of the Steelheaders, I testified for a full week of fishing, with a review next Wednesday to see if we can have more concurrent fishing. The staff landed on adopting this season extension:

The fishery will open Thursday (tomorrow), April 13^th – Monday April 17^th and again Thursday, April 20^th – Sunday, April 23^rd, from Buoy 10 to Beacon Rock. Regulations for other aspects of the fishery are listed here.

Based on this statistic from the fact sheet (Fishing conditions and catch rates improved this past week (April 3-10) with 1,052 Chinook kept and 117 released from 11,549 angler trips, for a season total of 1,134 kept and 117 released Chinook from 22,127 angler trips) good luck, you’ll need it!

Happy fishing!

Bob Rees

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