Spring chinook angling effort continues to build in the lower Columbia River although the catch remains small because it’s early.
Washington sampled 565 anglers with 21 spring chinook and three steelhead during the first four days of March. Nineteen of the chinook were fin-clipped and kept, with 11 being salmon destined for upstream of Bonneville Dam.
All the chinook sampled were between Woodland and Vancouver.
A flight on Saturday counted 351 boats and 300 bank rods.
Two spring chinook were counted at the Bradford Island fish ladder at Bonneville Dam on Sunday. Both were clipped. A jack chinook passed on the Washington side on Monday. A spring chinook also has returned to the hatchery on the Cowlitz River.
Walleye fishing is improving in the Bonneville, The Dalles and John Day pools, as is normal in March.
Horseshoe Lake in Woodland has been planted with more than 800 two-pound rainbow trout. Lacamas Lake got 4,000 chunky rainbow on Monday.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:
LOWER COLUMBIA — Estuary, six boats and one bank rod with no spring chinook or steelhead. (WDFW)
Cathlamet, three boaters and 14 bank rods with no spring chinook or steelhead; two boaters with one oversize sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Tongue Point to Wauna powerlines, 27 boaters with no spring chinook or steelhead. (ODFW)
Longview to Portland, 334 boaters with 10 spring chinook kept and four released; 231 Oregon bank rods with with two spring chinook kept, one steelhead kept and one steelhead released. (ODFW)
Longview, 48 boaters with no spring chinook or steelhead; 48 bank rods with one steelhead released; six bank rods and four boaters with no sturgeon. (WDFW)
Kalama, 14 boaters and 18 bank rods with no chinook or steelhead; three boaters and two bank rods with no sturgeon. (WDFW)
Woodland, 59 bank rods and 20 boaters with no spring chinook or steelhead; four bank rods with no sturgeon; three boaters with one legal sturgeon kept. (WDFW)
Vancouver, 45 bank rods with no spring chinook or steelhead; 213 boaters with 14 spring chinook and two steelhead kept; nine boaters with 12 sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Davis Bar to Portland airport, 58 boaters with five spring chinook kept and two released; two bank rods with no spring chinook; two bank rods with no sturgeon; 12 boaters with eight sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
Troutdale, 22 boaters with one spring chinook kept; 13 boaters with no sturgeon. (ODFW)
Camas-Washougal, eight boaters and two bank rods with no spring chinook or steelhead; five boaters with four legal sturgeon kept, one oversize sturgeon released and 46 sublegals released; six bank rods with no sturgeon. (WDFW)
North Bonneville, six bank rods with no spring chinook; three bank rods with no sturgeon. (WDFW)
MID-COLUMBIA — Bonneville pool, 17 boaters with nine walleye kept. (WDFW)
The Dalles pool, 34 boaters with 24 walleye kept and eight released; 11 bank rods with no steelhead; 28 bank rods with one sublegal sturgeon released; five boaters with eight sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)
John Day pool, 62 bank rods with one oversize and two sublegal sturgeon released; 95 boaters with five legal sturgeon kept and 15 sublegals released; 104 boaters with 47 walleye kept and six released. (WDFW)
Washougal — Thirty-nine bank rods with four wild steelhead released; 17 boaters with one hatchery steelhead kept, plus two hatchery and 15 wild steelhead released. March 15 is the final day to fish for steelhead. (WDFW)
