5-24 SS Chinook

5-24 SS Chinook

 Although it may not quite  feel like it at least according to the calendar spring has sprung and I had a chance to catch up with Gabe Rostberg about Chinook in North West rivers.

 Gabe Rostberg  knows a ton about the outdoors  and that includes understanding the life cycle and the environment that surrounds Chinook salmon. In a recent talk he was highly educating. “As far as the Snake River goes, I think that’s just been better management of the fish and hatcheries that they actually put out, probably one of the biggest factors is water years. With snow melt, how much water we have going down the river because the fish will lay their eggs, the fry will hatch and you have little fingerlings and they turn into Smolts and those fish after they hatch will stay in the River for about one year and for spring run Chinook they will come up and spawn in about September and then those eggs will hatch in that time period and the next spring they will go down and they will be anywhere from 6 inches to 10 inches long and you need a good water year with lots of water to push those fish till they go down to the ocean. Historically before there were dams on the Columbia and Snake, the fish would make it down to the ocean from Idaho in 2 to 3 days. Now with all the dams in place it turns into what used to be two days into about 2 to 3 weeks.

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