Oregon’s Fall Chinook Fishing on Snake River Begins Sept. 1
OutdoorHub 08.27.12
For the third year in a row, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will open the upper Snake River for fall chinook fishing. The season will open on Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012.
The river will be open from the Oregon-Washington border to the deadline below Hells Canyon Dam and will remain open until Oct. 31, or until a closure is announced. The daily bag limit is six adipose fin-clipped adult fall chinook salmon. Anglers can also keep jack chinook salmon with no daily, possession or season limits. Chinook jacks are salmon between 15 and 24 inches long.
Only barbless hooks may be used on this stretch of river. Anglers are reminded to consult the 2012 Oregon Sport Fishing Regulations for other applicable regulations.
More than 25,000 fall chinook salmon are predicted to pass the Lower Granite Dam this year, according to ODFW fishery managers.
“We recognize that a six-fish bag limit is unusual, but we are expecting enough surplus hatchery fish to give anglers a chance to keep that many,” said Jeff Yanke, ODFW district fish biologist in Enterprise. “We are also hoping to attract more anglers to experience this relatively new and under-utilized fishery.”
Snake River fall chinook will migrate over 800 miles and pass 8 mainstem dams to reach Hells Canyon Dam, the farthest they will travel in Oregon.
