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  3. It's official: Columbia chinook run largest in 75 years

It’s official: Columbia chinook run largest in 75 years

Graph shows fall chinook salmon returns at Bonneville Dam through Sept. 12, 2013. By 1 p.m. on Sept. 13, the salmon run had eclipsed the record of 610,700 fish counted in 2003. (Fish Passage Center)
Graph shows fall chinook salmon returns at Bonneville Dam through Sept. 12, 2013. By 1 p.m. on Sept. 13, the salmon run had eclipsed the record of 610,700 fish counted in 2003. (Fish Passage Center)

SALMON FISHING -- The 2013 fall chinook salmon run heading up the Columbia has been setting daily records for the past 10 days, and today it surpassed the overall record for the biggest run of salmon or steelhead to head upstream since counting began at Bonneville Dam in 1938.

By 1 p.m. today the fall chinook run had eclipsed the record of 610,700 fish counted in 2003, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists say.

And more chinook are still coming, headed for the Hanford Reach, upper Columbia, Snake, Clearwater and Salmon rivers.

On Tuesday, regional fish managers predicted the run could go as high as 835,000 adult chinook.

Rich Landers
Rich Landers joined The Spokesman-Review in 1977. He is the Outdoors editor for the Sports Department writing and photographing stories about hiking, hunting, fishing, boating, conservation, nature and wildlife and related topics.

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