Updated Jul 08, 2020; Posted Jul 08, 2020

Summer chinook salmon fishing has another weeklong extension, fish managers from Oregon and Washington decided Wednesday. File photo by Steven Nehl/The Oregonian

As fish counts continued to climb at Bonneville Dam, Oregon and Washington biologists met by telephone Wednesday and approved a weeklong extension of angling on the Columbia River for hatchery chinook salmon (adults and jacks), starting Thursday.

Sockeye and summer steelhead fishing will remain closed, although managers said they will meet again next Wednesday afternoon and may consider reopening summer steelhead at that time. They will also discuss additional chinook fishing.

Meanwhile, anglers can keep up to two adult hatchery chinook salmon through Wednesday, July 15, from Tongue Point upriver to Pasco, Washington (some of the area is within Washington, beyond the border). Hatchery jack salmon (12-inch minimum) limit is five per day.

Managers continue to protect sockeye salmon despite a sharp increase in the predicted run, now expected to top 340,000 fish. Endangered Snake River sockeye are mixed with the upper-Columbia numbers.

An additional sockeye protection, a temporary ban on shad fishing, was ordered for waters between Bonneville and The Dalles dams through July 15.

Note: Oregon has also announced fishing closures starting July 15 in thermal sanctuaries off the mouths of Herman and Eagle creeks and the mouth of the Deschutes River.

-- Bill Monroe for The Oregonian/OregonLive