CLACKAMAS, Ore. – Spring Chinook fishing on the Columbia River will continue for an additional three days under rules adopted today during a joint state hearing of fish and wildlife officials from Oregon and Washington.

The season will reopen on Friday, May 13 and continue through Sunday, May 15, both below and above Bonneville Dam.

The open area is from Tongue Point approximately 19 miles upstream from the river mouth, to Beacon Rock, located approximately four miles below Bonneville Dam, and from Bonneville Dam upstream to the Oregon/Washington border.

The joint state action is based on an updated estimate of salmon returns issued on Monday by the U.S. v. Oregon Technical Advisory Committee, which reaffirmed its pre-season estimate of 188,800 upriver spring Chinook entering the mouth of the Columbia in 2016. The estimate is based on Chinook passage at Bonneville to date. Chinook crossings are approximately 50 percent completed by May 7, based on the 10-year average.

“We know anglers were anxious to get back on the water, and we’re happy that the run update allowed us to be able to offer some additional Spring Chinook fishing,” said Tucker Jones, ODFW’s Columbia River Program manager.

The daily bag limit is two fin-clipped adult salmonids per day of which only one may be a Chinook. Sockeye salmon must be released.

To protect ESA-listed Lewis River spring Chinook salmon during the three-day season, the states agreed to establish a sanctuary around the mouth of the Lewis that will be closed to all fishing.

The closure area is described as a line from a marker on the lower end of Bachelor Island through USCG buoy Red #4 to the Oregon shore, downstream to a line from the lower (north) end of Sauvie Island across to the downstream range marker (0.7 miles downstream of the Lewis R.) and continuing along the wing jetty to the Washington Shore”.: from line extending from northern tip of Bachelor Island across the river through U.S. Coast Guard marker red #4 to the Oregon Shore downstream to the a line extending from the north end of Sauvie Island across through to the downstream range marker on the Washington shore where all fishing is prohibited.

Additionally, the Columbia will be open for retention of fin-clipped steelhead and shad during days and seasons open for Chinook retention. All other permanent regulations apply.

For more information, visit ODFW’s website at www.odfw.com.