The Tri-Cities Chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association once again held a successful broodstock collection effort that provides wild adult chinook salmon to the Priest Rapids hatchery. This helps to meet the Hatchery Genetic Management Plan requirements for the facility. Located on the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River, the hatchery produces over 7 million chinook smolt per year and supports fisheries in Oregon and Washington as well as the Gulf of Alaska and British Columbia. Nearly 100 CCA volunteer anglers in 24 boats fished the waters of the Reach over the weekend of October 25 and 26, collecting 375 adult kings where they were transferred to hatchery trucks and shuttle boats at Vernita Bridge and White Bluffs boat launch areas. That’s over 15 kings per boat average! This collection ensures that a large fraction of the hatchery’s production will have at least one wild parent, reducing the impact of hatchery fish spawning in the wild. The broodstock collection, operated as a derby called King of the Reach for the last dozen years, was changed to a non-derby format this year because of safety policy changes implemented by Washington State agencies. Planning for next year’s program is already starting.