Spring Chinook season peaks on the Columbia amid heavy snowmelt

What's Biting

What's Next

Spring Chinook timing on the Columbia typically peaks between mid-April and late May for lower-river sections below Bonneville Dam, with fish trickling through June for runs headed to upstream tributaries. With water temperature holding at 58°F, we're tracking through the core of the springer migration window. If temperatures continue their seasonal climb toward the low 60s over the next week, fish movement and feeding aggression should increase — Chinook feed more actively as water warms, and anchor-trolling and back-bouncing presentations generally improve as flows moderate.

At 178,000 cfs the Columbia is running elevated and fast. If snowmelt begins to ease over the next five to seven days — typical for late May — dropping flows will concentrate migrating salmon in seam water and slower current lanes along channel edges. Anchor sets with spinners or bait fished directly behind current breaks tend to outperform straight trolling under high-flow conditions. Large eddies behind mid-river islands, channel edges near canyon walls, and tributary mouths where fish stage before moving upstream are the zones to focus on.

White sturgeon are worth targeting throughout this stretch of the season. High flows concentrate their prey — lamprey, smelt, and bottom invertebrates — in predictable scour pools. Anchored bottom presentations with shad or herring strips near deep holes tend to produce best around tide changes in the lower river, when current velocity shifts and scent drifts hang in holding water. Check current retention regulations before keeping any sturgeon, as size and slot limits apply and change seasonally.

Summer steelhead are beginning to enter the lower Columbia in small numbers during May, though the run typically doesn't build to productive volume until June and July. Early fish favor faster runs and can respond to drift gear or plugs. With water at 58°F and flows still elevated, banner steelhead numbers aren't expected just yet — but it's worth targeted drifts through faster chutes if you're already anchored up for Chinook.

Context

Mid-May on the Columbia traditionally represents the tail end of the spring Chinook 'springers' window — one of the premier migratory salmon fisheries in the Pacific Northwest. Spring Chinook, prized for their high fat content after months at sea, typically begin entering the river in force from late February through March, with peak lower-river volume through May and the last fish reaching upstream tributaries by June.

The current reading of 58°F aligns with typical mid-May Columbia temperatures following an average or above-average snowpack winter. In high-snowpack years, temperatures hold cooler into June, extending the spring Chinook bite window; in low-snowpack years, the river warms faster and the springer window closes earlier. At 178,000 cfs, the Columbia is running notably elevated compared to a more typical May baseline in the 120,000–150,000 cfs range, suggesting above-average snowmelt is still entering the system. Elevated flows are not necessarily detrimental — they can push fish through quickly and create concentrated bite windows — but they demand adjusted presentations and more careful access-point selection.

None of the angler-intel feeds consulted for this report published Columbia River-specific bite updates this week. Field & Stream recently covered a 160-pound lake sturgeon record from Minnesota's Rainy River — a useful reference point, since Columbia white sturgeon of comparable or greater size are regularly encountered on the Oregon stretch, which hosts some of the largest white sturgeon in North America. Without current comparative data from local charter operators or state agency reports in this data set, it is not possible to say definitively whether the 2026 spring Chinook run is tracking ahead of, behind, or on schedule relative to prior seasons.