Anglers up and down the Columbia River are sharing the bounty as fall chinook salmon course their way upriver.
Sport and tribal and non-Indian fishers are hauling in chinook in numbers unprecedented in recent years. The fall chinook return to the river mouth was predicted to be 659,800 adult fish — the third highest since 1948 behind those of 1987 and 1988. That number is expected to include nearly 500,000 chinook from hatcheries and spawning grounds above Bonneville Dam.