NORTH BONNEVILLE –The sockeye run in the Columbia River topped the half-million mark on Tuesday.
The tally at Bonneville Dam through Tuesday is 500,355.
Sportsmen in the lower Columbia caught an additional 4,000 sockeye before the season closed July 2.
The old record for sockeye was 388,000 in 2010.
Sockeye will continue passing Bonneville Dam until early August, but daily counts are waning quickly. State biologists predict the run will number about 535,000 when complete.
