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Last week included one of the signature events on the Pacific Northwest’s annual calendar: the setting of spring fishing seasons on the Columbia River.

The forecast for the important spring chinook run is about 300,000 to the river’s mouth, about 28 percent fewer than last year but more than the 10-year average of 285,000. Forecasts are one thing and reality quite another, but there is a good chance that fishermen and the businesses that rely on them will have a fun few weeks from March 1 to April 9.

The initial allocation is 7,515 fish for recreational fishermen below Bonneville Dam, 1,222 for the mainstream non-tribal commercial fishery and 198 for select area commercial fisheries. Gillnetters will get two days of fishing — tentatively March 29 and April 5.

Read the full story at the East Oregonian >>

Read more about Columbia River salmon >>

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