A big change in angling regulations kicks in Friday when only hatchery chinook can be retained in the lower Columbia River between Tongue Point-Rocky Point in the estuary and Warrior Rock on Sauvie Island near Woodland.
From Friday through Sept. 12, a hatchery chinook can be kept, then all chinook must be released downstream of Warrior Rock from Sept. 13 to 30.
Upstream of Warrior Rock, retention of hatchery and wild chinook continues.
Streamflows in the Columbia are down significantly. The water releases at Bonneville Dam are ranging from about 85,000 cubic feet per second to 110,000 cubic feet per second.
Also of note, the bag limit now through the end of the season on Nov. 30 at Swift Reservoir is 10 fish.
Landlocked salmon count as part of the 10-fish limit and salmon larger than 15 inches must be released.
Swift Reservoir is 16 feet below full pool. The boat ramp is usable to 25 feet below full pool.
Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of the Fish and Wildlife:
Lower Columbia — Buoy 10 to Tongue Point, 1,693 boaters with 555 adult chinook and 220 coho kept plus 545 chinook, 302 coho and five steelhead released. (ODFW)
Only fin-clipped coho and fin-clipped steelhead can be retained now at Buoy 10.
Estuary upstream of Tongue Point, 590 boaters with 448 adult fall chinook, 53 jack chinook, 17 adult coho, five coho jack and two steelhead kept plus 106 adult chinook and 11 wild coho released. (ODFW)
Westport, Ore., to Portland, 730 boaters with 100 adult chinook, three jack chinook and one steelhead kept plus three adult chinook and one jack chinook released. (ODFW)
Troutdale, 144 boaters with seven adult fall chinook and two jack chinook kept plus one steelhead released; 12 boaters with 13 walleye kept. (ODFW)
Columbia Gorge, downstream of Bonneville Dam, 36 boaters with two adult chinook and two jack chinook kept; 70 Oregon bank rods with three adult chinook, two jack chinook and two steelhead kept. (ODFW)
Mid-Columbia — The Dalles pool, four boaters with no walleye; one bank rod with no walleye; 70 boaters with 13 legal sturgeon kept plus one legal, 17 oversize and 212 sublegal sturgeon released; four bank rods with one oversize and one sublegal sturgeon released. (ODFW)
