Fall Chinook Begin Their Run Up the Willamette and Clackamas Rivers

Fall Chinook salmon have begun their annual push upstream through the Willamette and Clackamas rivers, part of a run that typically continues into November as the fish make their way to spawning grounds in the upper reaches of both watersheds. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife crews monitor the run each year at fish ladders and counting stations along the way, including at the Willamette Falls locks near West Linn and Oregon City, where the public can often watch salmon clear the falls during peak weeks.

The run coincides with cooler water temperatures and the first rises in river flow after a typically dry Oregon summer, conditions that trigger the fish to move from the ocean and the lower Columbia back toward the streams where they originally hatched. Chinook are the largest of the Pacific salmon species that return to Willamette Valley rivers, with adults commonly weighing fifteen to twenty-five pounds by the time they reach the falls, and a strong fall run has ripple effects well beyond anglers — it's also an important food source for resident wildlife, from ospreys and herons to, occasionally, sea lions that follow the fish upriver as far as Willamette Falls itself.

The falls have shaped how people interact with this run for generations. The Willamette Falls Locks, which opened in 1873 and let boat traffic bypass the falls, remained in continuous operation until they closed in 2011, and the falls today are also the site of a tribal fishery managed in coordination with several Willamette Valley treaty tribes, a practice with roots going back long before Oregon statehood. Modern fish counting at the falls uses underwater video and trained observers to estimate how many fish pass each day, data that state biologists use to track whether the run is meeting escapement goals for natural spawning and hatchery broodstock collection.

Fishing regulations vary by stretch of river and change through the season as biologists adjust for run strength, so anyone planning to fish is encouraged to check current ODFW rules before heading out — bag limits, gear restrictions, and open stretches can all shift from one week to the next during a strong run. Boat anglers tend to concentrate below the falls and at the mouths of tributary creeks, while bank anglers have a handful of well-known access points along both rivers.

For everyone else, several public viewpoints along the Willamette and Clackamas offer a good chance to watch the run without a rod in hand, particularly in the weeks ahead as more fish arrive and water clarity improves after the season's first rains settle the rivers. Early morning and late afternoon tend to be the best times to spot fish actually jumping at the falls, since lower light and less boat traffic make it easier to see the water's surface break. The run typically peaks sometime in October before tapering off into November, giving residents across the metro area several more weeks of prime viewing before winter rains raise river flows enough to make the fish harder to spot from shore.

Hatchery programs also play a significant role in sustaining the fall run, with facilities along both rivers raising and releasing juvenile Chinook each year to supplement natural spawning, a practice that's been part of Willamette Valley fisheries management for decades. Biologists collect broodstock from returning adults at several collection points, and the resulting eggs and juveniles are raised for roughly a year before release, timed so the young fish head to the ocean when survival odds are best. The balance between hatchery-origin and wild fish remains an ongoing management question for ODFW, since the two groups are tracked separately to help protect the genetic diversity of the river's naturally spawning population even as hatchery fish continue to support both the sport and tribal fisheries each fall.