Springers on Steroids – Legend of the June Hogs
In the history of Columbia River salmon the legend of the June Hogs may be the most fascinating story of all. It’s been estimated that the ancestral population of chinook salmon in the Columbia River was between 2 and 4 million fish. The largest of these chinook were the June Hogs, a strain of salmon so big they reportedly averaged between 70 and 80 pounds apiece with some specimens reaching upwards of 125 pounds.
This 85-pound Chinook salmon, a true June hog, was caught at Astoria by fisher Tony Canessa (pictured) in 1925. Photo: Columbia River Maritime Museum
82.5 lbs. Astoria 1936
These supersalmon traveled over 1,000 miles upstream to spawn in the headwaters of the Columbia River north of the Canadian border in southeastern British Columbia. Pictures of huge fish taken in the early part of the 20th century near the mouth of the river in Astoria, OR lend credence to the legend.
This picture was taken at the Union Fisherman’s Dock in Astoria, Oregon in about 1910. Left to right – Salmon weighs 116 and 121 lbs. They were salted down on 100 lb barrels and sent to Europe on sailing ships.
In 1933 the federal government started construction of the Grand Coulee Dam in northern Washington State. By 1938 the dam was high enough to block all fish passage upstream. Unfortunately the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers built Grand Coulee without fish ladders. According to some accounts, dam workers actually watched the giant June Hogs repeatedly smash headfirst into the massive concrete wall. The following year in 1939 Rock Island Dam downstream of Grand Coulee also blocked fish passage, and the June Hogs were effectively eliminated. Almost 600 miles of river above Rock Island and Grand Coulee were lost to the migrating salmon. The Grand Coulee’s 550 foot high wall was finished in 1941 and became the the largest concrete structure in the United States. At the time, thoughts of fish passage were very low on the priority list as hydropower and irrigation gains from the dams were considered most important.
Today there are more than 60 dams in the Columbia River watershed, but there is little debate that the Grand Coulee was the most destructive of all. To compensate for the loss in anadromous fish runs, Congress authorized construction of 4 fish hatcheries. Three were built in the early 1940’s but a long-term decline in escapement resultedvin fish managers permanently closing the lower river summer chinook commercial fishery in 1965. Recreational opportunity was eliminated shortly thereafter in the early 1970’s. Even with in-river impacts being minimized, Columbia River summers continued to be intercepted by ocean fisheries in Canadian and Alaskan waters without any regard to abundance until the adoption of the Pacific Salmon Treaty (PST) in 1985. While no dams on the mainstem Columbia have been removed, hatchery supplementation programs were improved and a Columbia River summer chinook season was finally reopened to anglers after a 29 year hiatus in 2002.
The obligation to construct a fourth hatchery was nearly forgotten until 2013 when the state-of-the-art $50 million Chief Joseph Fish Hatchery became operational. The hatchery was funded by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) through the Colville Tribe Fish Accords. The goal of hatchery operations is to maintain natural origin genetics. To accomplish this hatchery broodstock are collected in a 30’ purse seine net called “The Dreamcatcher”. Wild chinook not needed for hatchery brood are released unharmed. Chief Joseph Fish Hatchery is designed to produce up to 2.9 million chinook juveniles each year. These smolt releases provide critical salmon for tribal ceremonies, subsistence needs for tribal members, as well as maintaining and increasing recreational fishing opportunities for everyone. Today the June Hogs are still revered among Columbia River salmon anglers. The average size is just under 20 pounds with 30 pounders not uncommon and fish are destined for the spawning tributaries of the Wenatchee, Methow, and Okanogan rivers in northern Washington.
