[ODFW-News] Summer chinook season opens June 16 in Columbia River

[ODFW News]

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife 	
Contact: 	Anne Pressentin Young (503) 872-5264 x5356	
Internet: www.dfw.state.or.us  Fax: (503) 872-5700
	
For Immediate Release	Wednesday, May 28, 2003

Summer Chinook Season Opens June 16 in Columbia River 

PORTLAND - With a second year of good summer chinook returns, Oregon and Washington fishery managers decided today to open a summer chinook sport fishery in the Columbia River June 16.

Biologists estimated earlier this year that 87,600 adult summer chinook will enter the Columbia River this year, which would be the second largest run since 1969. In 2002, 129,000 summer chinook entered the Columbia in June and July. 

Last year was the first time the Columbia River was open to summer chinook fishing since 1973. Historically, summer chinook were known as "June hogs" because of their large size.

The season adopted today allows angling for adipose fin-clipped summer chinook and adipose fin-clipped steelhead June 16 - July 31, 2003, from the Tongue Point/Rocky Point line near Astoria upstream to the U.S. Highway 395 Bridge near Pasco, Wash. The daily bag limit is two adult adipose fin-clipped salmon or steelhead and five adipose fin-clipped jack salmon. All other permanent angling rules apply, as printed in the 2003 Oregon Sport Fishing Regulations. 

The fishery will be managed to allow 85,000 summer chinook to pass Bonneville Dam during the period of June 1 - July 31. In addition, mangers will monitor the catch to ensure that impacts to wild summer chinook are limited to less than 1.0 percent of the total run. Wild summer chinook destined for the Snake River are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.
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Information and Education Division
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
(503) 872-5264 ext 5528