Fall Chinook season opened on the Snake River on Tuesday, August 18, and for the second year running the rules are tighter than the headline bag limit suggests. Anglers can keep three adult Chinook a day. Only one of them can be a wild fish, identified by an intact adipose fin.
Idaho, Washington and Oregon all landed on the same restriction independently, which tells you something about the forecast they are working from. Fisheries managers expect roughly 21,000 fall Chinook back to the Snake this year. Fewer than 5,000 of those are wild.
Kyle Bratcher, district fish biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, explained the reasoning behind Oregon's version of the rule.
"We're looking at a smaller return of wild fall Chinook this year, and that means we need to be cautious," Bratcher said. "By tightening the retention of wild adults, we stay within ESA impact limits and help ensure we have enough allowable take to keep our popular steelhead fisheries open."
That second clause is the one worth reading twice. The wild Chinook limit is not only about Chinook. Steelhead anglers hook fall Chinook incidentally whether they mean to or not, and every one of those encounters draws down the same federally mandated impact allowance. Spend it in August on salmon and there is nothing left for October.
"Anglers depend on these fisheries throughout the fall, and protecting wild Chinook now is key to keeping steelhead seasons viable," Bratcher said. "These steps allow us to maintain opportunity while upholding our conservation responsibilities."
Across the state line, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife reached the same number by a slightly different route, and its regional manager was noticeably more upbeat about the fishing itself. Chris Donley, WDFW's eastern region fish program manager, said the wild-fish restriction reflects a run short on unclipped fish rather than a poor run overall.
"It will probably be a decent run," Donley said.
Washington's two upper sections carry a three-adult daily bag and opened August 18, with different closing dates — October 31 between the Washington-Oregon border and the Washington-Idaho line, October 15 from the Idaho line down to West Evans Road below Clarkston. The Lyons Ferry bubble fishery, about 1.4 miles of river, runs Thursday to Sunday from September 3 to October 25 with a two-adult limit. There is no daily limit on jacks in any section above a 12-inch minimum, and an adult salmon means a fish of at least 24 inches. Idaho's season opened the same day under the same one-wild-fish rule.
Bratcher does not expect much to happen immediately. Catch rates, he said, should not pick up until further into the fall when more fish arrive.
Early dam counts back the optimists rather than the pessimists, at least on Chinook. The fall run is tracking ahead of the 10-year pace at both Bonneville and Lower Granite, though the run was barely a week old as of last Thursday by official counting metrics.
The steelhead picture is considerably worse, and it is the reason managers are being so careful with their impact budget. Just over 28,500 steelhead had passed Bonneville since July 1, against a 10-year average of a little over 50,000. Wild steelhead are running at roughly half the average. At Lower Granite the numbers are less grim but still short: 1,256 against an average of 1,931.
"We have the second lowest cumulative counts at Bonneville going back 20 years," Sullivan said. "That is certainly not encouraging."
Only 2021 was lower. The fish returning now are A-run steelhead bound for the Snake, Salmon, Grande Ronde and Imnaha. Oregon has already closed steelhead fishing on the Deschutes to protect wild fish there.
Sullivan is not writing off the season, though. The B-run fish headed for the Clearwater come back later, and the preseason forecast for those is around 40,000.
"It's still too early to say anything about the Clearwater Basin return," Sullivan said. "Typically, we are just starting to show up at Bonneville this time of year and that run will build into the early part of September."
He also flagged an unusual composition in what has arrived so far. The A-run is normally dominated by one-ocean fish, but this year fits a pattern seen in recent even years.
"Of the early returning fish we are seeing, about three-quarters of them have been two-ocean fish," Sullivan said.
Coho are the quieter good news. The Nez Perce Tribe is forecasting about 8,200 back to the Snake and its tributaries, near-identical to the 2025 forecast and just behind the actual return of roughly 9,000.
