State Limits Chinook Season

A record-low run of returning spring chinook salmon means no spring chinook sport fishing season for the Columbia River tributaries above Bonneville Dam this year, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

The 12,000 fish expected to return past the dam will not meet the spawning requirements for either wild or hatchery fish, the department said Monday in issuing an emergency closure order. It does not change steelhead seasons in those areas.

The action by Bob Turner, director of the department, closes salmon fishing this spring and summer on the Wind, White, Salmon, Klickitat, Yakima, Wenatchee and Icicle rivers, and in Drano Lake and the Ringold area of the Columbia.

The White Salmon River normally is open all year. This year the White Salmon will close from April 1 through July 31.

The spring chinook season for the other tributaries normally opens in early April or May. Drano Lake and the Klickitat and Wind rivers are expected to reopen to fall salmon fishing Aug. 1.