This 2006 harvest
monitoring summary is for the sixth consecutive year of spring chinook
fisheries in the Snake River in southeast Washington (first year was
2001). The Snake River recreational chinook fishery opened May 17
and ran through June 30, 2006. The Snake River was open from the Texas
Rapids boat launch upstream to the Corps of Engineers boat launch
(approximately one mile) upstream of Little Goose Dam on the south
bank of the river; referred to as the Little Goose (LGO) fishery in
this report. The fishery was open seven days per week, with daily
fishing hours set from one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset.
The daily limit consisted of one hatchery (adipose fin-clipped) chinook
salmon (adult or jack) per day, with a minimum size of 12 inches.
Anglers were required to use barbless hooks, with hooks of no more
that 5/8-inch from point to shank.
The pre-season
forecast for upriver spring chinook was estimated (entering the mouth
of the Columbia River) at 88,400 spring/summer Chinook. The Pre-season
plans for the Snake River recreational chinook fishery was to harvest
up to 876 hatchery adult spring chinook, with an allowable Endangered
Species Act (ESA) impact of 29 wild fish mortalities (0.2% ESA impact
on wild chinook estimated at Columbia River mouth). Assuming a 10%
mortality rate on released fish, this allowed for 292 wild adult encounters.
ESA impacts for this fishery are included as part of the non-Indian
rate of 2.0% allowable impact which also includes recreational and
commercial fisheries downstream. However, the run came in at a higher
rate than expected from pre-season estimates. An in-season estimate
on May 22nd updated the adult upriver spring chinook forecast to 125,000
fish based primarily on counts at Bonneville Dam. Another estimate
in the middle of June again increased the number to 130,000, with
67,864 of these fish entering the Snake River. This increased the
amount for a harvest (at 0.2% ESA impact on wild chinook estimated
at Columbia River mouth) to 1,287 hatchery chinook adults and increased
the number of encounters (or “handle”) of wild chinook
adults to 429. Total ESA impact for this fishery was expected to be
43 wild adult mortalities or an impact rate of approximately 0.20%.
The Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife monitored the fishery using a roving
creel survey which included: boat ramp and shore interviews to collect
catch rate, completed trip and biological information; and effort
counts of shore anglers, boat anglers, and the number of boats (angler
effort counts were conducted five times a day). Monitoring was conducted
at least one weekday and one weekend day per 7 day period, utilizing
a dawn to dusk survey format. Creel surveys were conducted on 15 days
(6 weekend days and 9 weekdays) of the season. The 45-day fishery
had 32 weekdays and 13 weekend days available. We included Monday
May 29th (Memorial Day) as a weekend since it was a holiday. We sampled
46.2% of weekend days and 28.1% of weekdays. Survey data were summarized
weekly to estimate number of fish harvested, released, and total encounters
(harvested and fish released), and to assure compliance with the ESA
impact level that had been set for the fishery.
