FISHING -- The 2015 fall chinook run of the Columbia River is on a pace to possibly top 2013 as the biggest stampede of upstream adult chinooks since fish counts began at the newly built Bonneville Dam in 1939.

If you're not one of the anglers out actually fishing for the bounty stacking up in the Hanford Reach, you might have time to ponder these factoids from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers:

• Through Oct. 14, a record 76,529 adult fall chinook have been counted at Bonneville Dam, beating the 50,073 fish counted from Oct. 1-14, 2013.  Except for three of the 14 days this October, daily counts have set records at the dam. 
• The Columbia River adult fall chinook run size to the mouth of the river has been updated to 1,224,300 fish.  The record is 1,268,400 fish at the mouth of the Columbia from August-December 2013.
• The 2015 fall chinook run needs to add 44,000 fish in 2.5 months to top the record run of 2013.  
• Fall chinook set a passage record at McNary Dam with 4,672 chinook scaling the dam near the Tri-Cities on Monday, Oct. 13, pushing the total number of fall chinook to 456,043 fish over McNary Dam so far this year. The previous record for the 61-year-old dam is 454,991 set in 2013.
• Snake River fall chinook, which were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1992, are rebounding with the help of restoration efforts by the Nez Perce Tribe along with state and federal agencies. So far this year, 55,610 fall chinook that have passed Lower Granite Dam, the second largest cumulative return to that dam to date.

The fall chinook that pass McNary Dam continue on to the Hanford Reach, the Snake River, and the Yakima Basin. Their success is the result of a variety of factors and human efforts. This year’s fall chinook enjoyed excellent ocean conditions and good migration conditions. They also benefited from the Vernita Bar Agreement—a long-standing effort to protect water flow in the Hanford Reach, tribal supplementation efforts that are restoring fall chinook populations in the Snake River Basin, harvest management actions on the Pacific Ocean and mainstem Columbia, and collaborative efforts to improve habitat.