Spring chinook are coming. See what the fishing season looks like

A better spring chinook season is forecast for anglers on the Columbia River this year.

The upriver forecast is 44 percent better than last year, according to Bill Tweit, a special assistant for Columbia River fisheries at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

While the increased return still is projected to be about 10 percent below the 10-year average, Tweit considers it “fairly normal.”

The early forecast is for 248,500 spring chinook returning to the Columbia River this year, including 166,700 fish bound for waters above Bonneville Dam.

The spring chinook season will be open March 16 through May 7 from the Tower Island power lines upriver to the Washington and Oregon border near Umatilla. The initial catch guideline will be for 900 upriver chinook.

The season has not been set elsewhere in Eastern Washington.

Public meetings will be scheduled and a decision made later in the spring.

Fish and Wildlife is taking a conservative approach to setting fishing seasons until it determines how many spring chinook are moving past the dam.

Officials will meet in May, when historically half the return has passed the Bonneville Dam, to consider whether the season can be extended.

The initial catch guideline includes a 30 percent buffer to make sure that the run is not overharvested.

The daily catch limit will be one adult hatchery chinook salmon, as part of a two-fish daily limit that can also include hatchery coho salmon and hatchery steelhead.

Barbless hooks are required.

Any salmon or steelhead without a clipped adipose fine that identifies it as a hatchery fish must be released.

This story was originally published February 22, 2018 at 12:11 PM with the headline "Spring chinook are coming. See what the fishing season looks like."