I am a fisherman, so I am programmed to be an optimist. Every time I go fishing I expect to catch fish. It doesn’t always happen, but I still look forward to every fishing trip, thinking that it will be a great day. I still have trouble sleeping if I am going fishing in the morning! Okay, since I have admitted to be a hopeless optimist, I look at this year’s return of summer run salmon as encouraging. As of June 26th, the number of summer runs that passed over Bonneville Dam totaled just over 35,000. Fifty percent of the run is expected to have passed over Bonneville by the 28th of June. The forecast for the 2026 season is 41,000, and I am not saying that we should expect to double the number of fish that we are seeing right now, but it sure appears that the number of summer runs could pass the forecast by a good margin. I have been saying that we should see the same type of season this year that we did last year, meaning limited days and only bubble fisheries in certain areas of the upper Columbia. Maybe I am wrong about this.