Sockeye season opens on the upper Columbia River above Priest Rapids Dam on Tuesday July 1st and there will be lot of anglers out after them. The Columbia River remains closed to fishing for Chinook, so the focus will be on sockeye. The daily limit for sockeye is four per day, and bait is allowed when fishing the main stem Columbia. The sockeye appear to be showing up late this year. On Thursday the numbers of sockeye over Bonneville Dam took a nice jump, with over 10,000 fish passing over the dam. I expect that the area below Wanapum Dam will be crowded with boats trolling for them at the upper edge of the “bowl”. The boat ramp at Wanapum will be very busy spot and anglers should be patience and practice good boat launch etiquette. The next fishing area that I expect to see a significant crowd of boats is below Rocky Reach Dam. There will be a “circle” of boats trolling in a pretty tight area. Boat drivers will need to have their head on a swivel to keep a distance from the other boats and the gear that is being pulled behind the boats, and staying with the safety barriers.