States approve Columbia River Chinook and Sturgeon Seasons
CLACKAMAS, Ore. – Fishery managers from Oregon and Washington added a day to the lower Columbia River spring Chinook season and approved several recreational white sturgeon fisheries, including a 10-day season from the Wauna power lines to Buoy 10 at the river mouth.
The additional recreational spring Chinook fishing day will take place this Saturday, April 14. The open area is the Columbia River from Buoy 10 upstream to Beacon Rock, for both boat and bank angling, plus bank angling only from Beacon Rock upstream to the Bonneville Dam deadline.
The bag limit is two adult salmonids (Chinook, coho or steelhead) per day but only one may be a Chinook. Only adipose fin-clipped fish may be kept.
The additional spring Chinook fishing day was approved after a review of harvest and effort data that indicated anglers had achieved about half of their upriver spring Chinook harvest guideline during the initial lower Columbia River spring Chinook season, which concluded April 7.
The approved lower Columbia River recreational white sturgeon season will take place Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays from May 14 through June 4 from the Wauna powerlines downstream to the river mouth at Buoy 10, including Youngs Bay and all adjacent Washington tributaries. On days open to white sturgeon retention, angling for sturgeon is prohibited after 2 p.m. The legal size slot for retained fish is 44-50 inches fork length. The bag limit is one legal-sized fish per day and the annual sturgeon limit is two per year. The retention of green sturgeon is prohibited.
Due to the decline of legal-size fish and other indicators during 2008-2012, retention fisheries downstream of Bonneville Dam were closed during 2014-2016. However, based on the increasing trend for legal-size white sturgeon in the lower Columbia River during that timeframe, both state fish and wildlife commissions approved limited sturgeon seasons in 2017, and again in 2018.