Fishing report 9/19

Fall chinook fishing is improving again in the lower Columbia River, at a time when typically the bite starts to wane. In some cases, the bank rods did better than the boaters on Tuesday.

Bank sampling on Tuesday between Kelley Point and Warrior Rock tallied 41 rods with 31 fish kept. The bank numbers at Kalama were 32 rods with 12 kept and 25 released. At Longview, it was 28 anglers with two chinook kept and 10 released.

Among boaters, 35 rods downstream of Vancouver had six chinook, 24 rods at Woodland had 10 kept and 14 released, Kalama had 18 boaters with three kept and 15 released, the Cowlitz River mouth numbers were 46 boaters with 13 kept and 48 released and at Longview it was 79 rods with five kept and 12 released.

Oregon on Tuesday tallied 53 boaters with 17 chinook kept and 51 released at Rainier and 51 boaters with 42 adult chinook kept in the Gorge.

For the third week of September, that’s excellent.

Upstream of Warrior Rock, any chinook can be kept, while only fin-clipped chinook can be retained downstream.

Three more nights of gillnetting were adopted on Wednesday. The commercials will fish from Woodland to Beacon Rock tonight, Sunday night and Tuesday night.

They are projected to catch about 12,000 chinook and 200 sturgeon.

Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:

Lower Columbia — Estuary upstream of Tongue Point, 101 boaters with 30 adult fall chinook, 15 jack chinook, 14 adult coho and 14 jack coho kept plus 11 adult chinook, three jack chinook, seven coho and one steelhead released. (ODFW)

Cathlamet, 115 boaters with four chinook kept and 17 released. (WDFW)

Westport, Ore., to Portland, 323 boaters with 73 adult chinook, three jack chinook, one coho and one steelhead kept plus 45 adult chinook and six jack chinook released. (ODFW)

Longview, 240 boaters with 19 adult chinook kept and 44 released; 188 bank rods with five chinook kept and 14 released. (WDFW)

Cowlitz River mouth, 84 boaters with 14 adult chinook, one jack chinook and one adult coho kept plus 31 adult chinook and one adult coho released. (WDFW)

Kalama, 72 boaters with seven adult chinook kept plus 14 adult chinook and one jack chinook released; 105 bank rods with 13 adult chinook kept and 13 chinook released. (WDFW)

Woodland, 149 boaters with 40 adult chinook, one coho jack and three steelhead kept plus 49 adult chinook and one jack chinook released; 72 bank rods with five adult chinook kept and four released. (WDFW)

Warrior Rock to Kelley Point, 283 boaters with 61 adult chinook kept; 184 bank rods with 40 adult chinook kept. (WDFW)

Davis Bar to Portland airport tower, 38 boaters with two adult chinook kept. (WDFW)

Troutdale, 359 boaters with 82 adult chinook kept plus two adult chinook, one coho and one steelhead released; three boaters with three walleye kept. (ODFW)

Camas-Washougal, 96 boaters with nine adult chinook kept and one adult coho released; three boaters with four walleye kept.(WDFW)

North Bonneville, 53 boaters with 19 adult chinook kept and one steelhead released; 67 bank rods with 11 adult chinook and two jacks kept. (WDFW)

Columbia Gorge, downstream of Bonneville Dam, 169 boaters with 102 adult chinook and four jack chinook kept; 48 bank rods with 14 adult chinook. (ODFW)

Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 116 boaters with 85 adult chinook and five jacks kept. (WDFW)

Cowlitz — Three boaters with four adult chinook kept and two released; 32 bank rods with three adult chinook and one adult coho kept plus two adult chinook and one jack chinook released.(WDFW)

Kalama — Sixty-three bank rods with two adult chinook, one jack chinook and one adult coho kept plus 12 adult chinook released. (WDFW)

Lewis — Four boaters with one adult chinook kept. (WDFW)

North Fork Lewis — Seventy-seven bank rods with two adult chinook and four adult coho kept plus two adult chinook and one jack coho released; 31 boaters with 14 adult chinook, seven adult coho and three jack coho kept plus 27 adult chinook, four jack chinook, one adult coho and two jack coho released. (WDFW)

Washougal — Forty-three bank rods with 16 adult chinook kept and 10 released. (WDFW)

Drano Lake — Fourteen boaters with 10 adult chinook kept and two released. (WDFW)

Klickitat — Twenty-two bank rods with 20 chinook kept.