SALMON FISHING -- Anglers in Washington will get another chance to catch spring chinook from the lower Snake River starting Saturday.

Eric Barker of the Lewiston Tribune delved into the details in the following story published today.

Read on.

Fisheries managers in Washington will reopen areas of the river near Clarkston and Little Goose Dam Saturday through next Thursday. Fishing could be extended beyond Thursday depending on harvest levels, said Glen Mendel, district fish biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife at Dayton.

Three areas of the lower Snake River had been open to spring chinook fishing, but closed abruptly after anglers reached and even exceeded harvest quotas. Most of that harvest occurred near Ice Harbor Dam and the Tri-Cities, while only a handful of chinook were caught near Clarkston.

Fisheries managers initially set a harvest quota of about 600 chinook for the lower Snake River. That was raised to 900, and then 1,200, as run sized estimates increased.

Anglers ended up catching a little more than 1,600 from the Snake River, including 1,178 chinook near Ice Harbor Dam, 421 near Little Goose Dam and five from the stretch between Steptoe Canyon and Clarkston.

To adjust for the overharvest, fisheries managers shifted some of the unused catch quota from the lower Columbia River to the Snake River.

After doing that, the quota in the lower Columbia had still not been met, so fisheries managers will reopen fishing below Bonneville Dam. Since the spring chinook run is nearly over there, anglers are expected to catch only about 1,000 of the 2,700 fish remaining on the quota. To make up the difference, fishing was also opened on sections of the Columbia River above Bonneville Dam and on the two sections of the Snake River.

Mendel said the department did not consider reopening only the Clarkston stretch as some anglers wanted. He said both harvest and effort have been modest there.

“Based on what we were seeing last year and this year, the catch at Clarkston has not been all that good,” said Mendel. “I don’t know if there isn’t that much interest or if they are still learning how to be successful there. I suspect it’s the latter.”

Bob Gilbertson of the Waters Edge Tackle Shop in Clarkston agreed anglers are still learning how to fish the slack water stretch of the Snake River, and he said many of them are more confident on the Clearwater, where seasons have been held consistently for more than a decade.

“The only thing I can say is they just have get out there and learn where the fish travel and what depths they are at,” Gilbertson said. “It’s kind of a trial-and-error type of thing. If you don’t go out, you will never learn.”

He said there are a lot more chinook that swim through that section than there are that swim up the Clearwater. Most of the spring chinook that come up the Snake River are destined for hatcheries on the Clearwater River and Rapid River, near Riggins. All of them swim past Clarkston, but only the Clearwater-bound fish enter the Clearwater.

The bag limit on the Snake is two hatchery adults per day and up to four jacks. Anglers must stop fishing for the day once they have reached their adult bag limit.

Barker may be contacted at ebarkerlmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273.