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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2022
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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