The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current, April 16, 2022, WEEKEND EDITION, Page 7, Image 7

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    B1
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2022
CONTACT US
FOLLOW US
Lissa Brewer
lbrewer@dailyastorian.com
facebook.com/
DailyAstorian
Fishing for Chinook salmon
In search of a Columbia River icon
Photos by David Campiche
ABOVE: The Chinook salmon is the spring prize of the Columbia River.
BELOW: A ﬁ shing boat waits near Cathlamet, aiming to catch spring run Chinook salmon.
By DAVID CAMPICHE
For The Astorian
T
he Columbia River is a salmon river. Though
salmon numbers have declined dramatically
since Lewis and Clark traveled downriver by
canoe, salmon ﬁ shing here remains inspiring.
On an early spring afternoon, the skies
were crowded with cirrus clouds. The weather
remained cold on the stern of my brother’s
small ﬁ berglass boat. Wide and swift at its inter-
section at Cathlamet, Washington, the Colum-
bia River is home to the prized Chinook, or
king salmon. The spring run ﬁ sh bust their way
upstream, relying on their ﬂ at, wide tails to pro-
pel them over thousands of miles. The river
itself stretches over 250,000 square miles and
reaches 1,400 miles east and north to Canada.
See Chinook salmon, Page B5