CLACKAMAS, Ore. – The closed 2020 Columbia Spring Chinook season has been declared dumpster fire. The departments of fish and wildlife from Oregon and Washington declined to set additional spring Chinook salmon fishing on the main stem Columbia River. Of course there will be strong shouts of “we did our job!” Nobody said they didn’t do the job. They just did a shitty job of it.

In a public hearing on May 20, fisheries managers from the two states were presented information they already knew on the current status of upriver spring Chinook and fisheries to date. Although sufficient ESA impacts to wild spring Chinook were alleged to allow for the consideration of additional main stem recreational and commercial spring Chinook fishing opportunity, there were also concerns about hatcheries throughout the interior basin being able to meet brood stock collection targets.

This is either done to excuse disastrously incompetent job performance, or to allow enough rope to hang themselves. After being presented with this information, and hearing public testimony from people claiming to be recreational and commercial interests which overwhelming supported keeping fisheries closed, managers decided not to set additional fishing time.

Preseason, the 2020 upriver spring Chinook return was forecast to be very poor, and in-season information is showing that is the case. Which brings us back to allowing enough rope for a proper hanging. On May 18, the run was downgraded by 12 percent to 72,000 Chinook adults. While this forecast is within management buffers applied by managers, this would be the lowest return since 1999, and significant concerns about the overall return and brood stock collection efforts remain.

“With an already depressed run and brood stock concerns where they are, I’m ready to err on the side of the fish and not set additional spring Chinook season on the Columbia,” said Tucker Jones, manager of ODFW’s Columbia River and Ocean Salmon Program, adding, “sometimes the best action is no action.”

Oregon and Washington have a long well documented history of exercising the “do nothing” option with the spring Chinook season or any other endeavor they insinuate themselves into, which has led us to yet another incomplete season of fishing. There are no shortage of forum moderators so willing to drool over any hint of access they will defend these agencies failures to their last breath.

There is simply no defending this level of consistent failure on the Columbia. There will of course be the obligatory “It’s all evil orange man’s fault” That lame ass cop out might have worked if the spring Chinook seasons hadn’t been fucked for the better part of a decade and 2 different agency heads replaced because of it.

Recreational steel head and shad fishing remain open on minuscule portions of the Columbia under permanent rules, and the fishery managers again made a plea to anglers to stay close to home, to observe social-distancing, avoid crowding and maintain sanitary conditions. All the better to keep you from seeing two agencies backpedal at warp speed to cover their asses while counting your license fee money.

The Columbia spring Chinook season is near extinction while ODFW & WDFW pat themselves on the back for another season down. This year, perhaps you should register your complaint directly in the voting booth.