The Willamette River Spring Chinook Sport Fishery, 1947

"The Willamette River has the largest runs of spring chinook salmon of any tributary of the Columbia River rising in Oregon. The run to the Willamette is most unique in that the migrating fish pass up the river through Portland, a city of several hundred thousand people, and support a large sport fishery in the metropolitan area. This river is the major tributary of the Columbia west of the Cascade Mountains and joins that river about 100 miles from the sea. Anadromous forms, other than spring chinook frequenting the Willamette, include fall chinook and silver salmon, steelhead, trout, and shad. Spring chinook populations of the Columbia have declined steadily since about 1890 and those of the Willamette have probably done likewise. An investigation is being conducted to assess the causes of the decline in Willamette spring chinook. A study of the spot fishery is part of the program." (From Introduction