Washington and Oregon fishery officials have rejected a request to allow retention of unmarked summer chinook in the season starting in mid-June in the lower Columbia River.
The states have announced the summer salmon season will be June 16 through July 6 for fin-clipped chinook, fin-clipped steelhead and any sockeye. The daily limit will be two fish.
State biologists will monitor the chinook catch and might modify the July portion of the season, which may mean an extension or allowing retention of any adult chinook.
A return of 73,000 summer chinook is forecast to enter the Columbia.
The Vancouver Wildlife League and some other sports groups pushed the states to allow retention of any summer chinook — fin-clipped or not — during the season, even if it reduced the number of days before the catch allocation is filled.
In 2014, only about 40 percent of the summer chinook were fin-clipped.
