Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife plans to release the first fish Thursday

An angling opportunity that was absent for more than half a century in Baker City is becoming commonplace.

Salmon, to be specific.

For the fifth year in the past seven – but just the fifth since the

Great Depression – you’ll be able to fish for chinook salmon in the

upper Powder River, including the reach that runs through Baker City.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) will release

several hundred spring chinook in the river just below Mason Dam – more

than in any of the previous five years, said Tim Bailey, fish biologist

at ODFW’s regional office in La Grande.

Although the fishing season technically started Saturday, the

Powder’s share of salmon wasn’t available as planned, and the first

release of fish is scheduled for Thursday, Bailey said.

Which means that although you can pretend to fish for salmon now,

you’ll not likely hook anything bigger than a trout until Thursday.

The salmon season continues through Sept. 1. The open area is between the Hughes Lane bridge at the north end of Baker City, and Mason Dam.

Daily bag limit is two salmon. Anglers need an Oregon fishing license and a salmon tag.

ODFW will release salmon over about a three-week period.

All the fish will be put into the river near Mason Dam, Bailey said.

ODFW had in some previous years also released salmon in the Powder in Baker City, but Bailey said the water there can get so warm that the fish aren’t likely to bite.

The river is cooler right below the dam, and the fishing conditions are far better there, he said.

Some fish could move downstream, though.

Salmon, which once returned in the thousands each year to spawn in the Powder River and many of its tributaries, such as Salmon Creek, which flows east from the Elkhorns, were blocked from those spawning grounds after Thief Valley Dam, which lacks fish ladders, was built in 1932.

In 2004 ODFW had a surplus of hatchery chinook gathered from the trap below Hells Canyon Dam. The agency released 278 adult salmon in the Powder River, and anglers caught an estimated 80 to 90 of those fish.

ODFW repeated its salmon releases in the Powder River in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Although ODFW has no intention of creating a sustainable salmon run in the Powder (Thief Valley Dam is still in the way), it’s possible that some baby salmon have hatched in the river since 2004.

Bailey said anglers have found nests of salmon eggs in a few places.

What became of those is anybody’s guess.

Anglers are reminded to ask for permission before entering private property. More information is available by calling the ODFW Northeast Region Office in La Grande at (541) 963-2138.