Last week, Idaho anglers fishing on the Snake River caught 215 fall chinook. Only eight of those were adults and the rest were jacks.

Anglers fishing in the Confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers caught 85 fall chinook and kept eight adults and 26 jacks. They released 59 chinook. The released fish included eight hatchery adults, 14 hatchery jacks, 22 natural adults and 15 natural jacks.

No chinook were caught in the section of river between the Interstate Bridge and Couse Creek. Anglers fishing from Couse Creek to the Oregon/Washington state line caught 92 chinook. They kept 27 jacks and released 28 natural adults and 37 natural jacks.

The section of river from the Oregon/Washington state line to Sheep Creek produced 22 chinook including five jacks kept by anglers and 17 natural jacks that were released.

From Sheep Creek to Hells Canyon Dam, anglers caught 16 fall chinook which included 8 hatchery jacks that were kept and four hatchery jacks that were released and four natural jacks that were released.

Since Sept. 1 anglers have caught 788 fall chinook and kept 247.

According to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, anglers fishing the Snake River caught 258 fall chinook and kept 162 for the survey period between Sept. 14 and Sept. 21.

In the section of river that starts at the Idaho/Washington state line and ends at the Interstate Bridge anglers caught and kept two adult chinook and 29 jacks and they released 97 consisting of 13 adipose clipped adults, 24 adipose clipped jacks, 39 wild adults and 21 wild jacks.

In the section of the fishery that starts at Couse Creek Boat Ramp and goes to the Washington/Oregon state line, anglers caught and kept 65 jacks and caught and released 65 wild jacks.

In the section that starts at Sheep Creek and extends to Hells Canyon Dam, anglers caught and kept three hatchery jacks and caught and released 6 hatchery jacks.

For the week anglers caught and kept 99 fall chinook and released 162.

So far this season anglers have caught and kept 50 adults and 131 jacks and released 23 hatchery adultls, 92 hatchery jacks, 133 wild adults and 174 wild jacks.

The Jack fall chinook run is far outpacing adults at Lower Granite Dam.

Through Wednesday 18,329 jacks had been counted at the dam. That is a new record. The old record of 10,288 was set last year.

Just 8,698 adult chinook have been counted at the dam. That is behind last year’s run of 10,682  through Sept. 16.

The Technical Advisory Committee, a collection of state, federal and tribal fisheries managers, says the Columbia and Snake River fall chinook run and the Snake River B-run of steelhead are  likely to be smaller than originally forecast.

Known as TAC, the group had predicted 269,700 up river bright fall chinook would return at least as far as the mouth of the Columbia River. A new forecast issued Thursday now calls for the run to be in the 206,000 range.

The group says fall chinook numbers at Lower Granite Dam have now fallen below the numbers counted at this time last year but they are still above average. The fall chinook jack run is on record pace.

TAC also says the B-run of steelhead will be smaller than forecast. TAC called for the B-run to hit 59,900 at Bonneville Dam. The group now says it will be in the 40,000 to 50,000 fish range.

But the group says the overall steelhead run, measured at Bonneville, could still come close the record of 630,200 set in 2001. Through Tuesday 555,726 steelhead had been counted at the dam with daily counts bouncing between 3,000 and 4,000 fish.

Fishing has been hot at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers and it appears steelhead are not the only species being caught.

According to the latest numbers from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, 237 fall chinook were caught in the confluence of the two rivers between Sept. 7 and Sunday (Sept. 13.) That brings the total for the season that opened Sept. 1 to 306.

The majority of hatchery fall chinook returning to the Snake River have not had their adipose fins clipped and that is reflected in Fish and Game’s numbers. Of the 237 fall chinook caught last week, 55 were kept and 182 released. However, the 182 released included 9 ad-clipped adults and 26 ad-clipped jacks.

For the season, 82 fall chinook have been kept and 224 released. Of those kept, 48 have been adults and 34 jacks.

Last week anglers averaged 11 hours of fishing for each fall chinook caught and 47 for each fall chinook caught and kept. For the season, anglers have averaged 14 hours of fishing for each fall chinook caught and 51 hours for each fall chinook caught and kept.

The Fish and Game angler surveys also show good catch rates for steelhead. Anglers averaged six hours of fishing for each steelhead caught and 13 hours for each steelhead kept in the Snake River between the Idaho/Washington state line and the mouth of the Salmon River. That is a big area but most of the fishing likely occured at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers.

Anglers fishing the Clearwater from its Mouth to Memorial Bridge averaged seven hours per steelhead caught and 32 hours per steelhead kept.

Here’s a picture taken by Larry Barrett on Saturday. He notes that most of the boats are fishing in the Snake River portion of the confluence that is open to both salmon and steelhead. The Clearwater portion is closed to salmon harvest.